What is NLP?

NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP)

What is NLP?

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the practice of understanding how people organise their thinking, feeling, language and behavior to produce the results they do. NLP provides people with a methodology to model outstanding performances achieved by geniuses and leaders in their field.

A key element of NLP is that we form our unique internal mental ‘Maps of the World’ as a product of the way we filter and perceive information absorbed through our five senses from the world around us.

Neuro:  Each individual has established their own unique mental filtering system for processing data being absorbed through the senses. Our first mental map of the world is constituted of internal images, sounds, tactile awareness, internal sensations, tastes and smells that form as a result of the neurological filtering process.

Linguistic:  We then assign personal meaning to the information being received from the world outside. We form our second mental map by assigning language to the internal images, sounds, feeling, taste and smell, thus forming our everyday conscious awareness. The second mental map is called the Linguistic Map (sometimes known as Linguistic Representation)

Programming:  The behavioural response that occurs as a result of neurological filtering processes and the subsequent linguistic map.

After the external event comes in through our sensory input channels, and before we make an Internal Representation (IR) of the event, we filter the event. We run that event through our internal processing filters. Our internal processing filters are how we delete, distort and generalize the information that comes in through our five senses.

BELIEFS

If we believe we can, we probably will.

If we believe we can’t we are likely to not even try, or try with an attitude of apathy and reluctance.

What’s so important about beliefs?

Some beliefs are a mental habit, without any real-world evidence supporting them. This is natural, and even the most sceptical-minded among us have some beliefs like that. One of the really interesting qualities about beliefs is that we can hold them at a deep level. We assume that they are ‘true’ and don’t realise how they are affecting what we do. We can even hold them in such a way that we get really upset if someone dares to question them.

There are two aspects of a belief to be aware of:

• the belief itself, and
• the implications of that belief.

The belief itself is normally a generalisation about someone or something.

“I am always bad at job interviews.”

“Senior managers don’t listen to me.”

“No one from X Company will fit in here.”

The implication of a belief is the effect that belief has on what we do. I can believe all sorts of things, but if they don’t impact me or others they’re not really relevant in working with Belief Change.

We’re not necessarily worried for now whether things are true or not, what’s more important is the question:

If the things I believe are not demonstrably true and are damaging or hindering those around me, why do I hold onto them?