What Is Neuro Linguistic Programming?

Neuro linguistic programming has been described as 'an owner’s manual' for your brain. The name neuro linguistic programming (usually shortened to NLP) refers to;

Neuro – the way our minds and bodies interact with each other.

Linguistic - the insights we can gain into the way a person thinks by paying careful attention to the words they use.

Programming - the study of the thinking and behavioural patterns or ‘programmes’ which we all use in our daily lives.

Put simply, NLP is the practice of understanding how people use their thoughts, feelings, language and behaviour to produce the results they do. With NLP you can ‘model’ others who are successful in whatever field you wish to work. You can also ‘modify’ your own behaviour patterns to help eliminate unwanted habits or achieve significant changes within your life and work.

The idea is that we each form unique internal mental maps of the way the world works for us because of the way we’re programmed to perceive the information we take in through our senses.

For instance, if I smell freshly mown grass, it might signify the coming of spring and be a good experience for me. If you’ve had a negative experience while smelling the same thing, your thoughts about it and how you react to it, would be different.

NLP involves using all of our senses and learning about which of our senses is the most dominant (we’re all different in this) and how we can use that sense to make the changes we wish to make in our lives.

How Did NLP Start?
The co-founders of NLP were Richard Bandler (a mathematician) and John Grinder (a linguistic professor). They met and worked together at the University of California at Santa Cruz circa 1975.

Both were students of Gregory Bateson, a British born psychologist and anthropologist, and Milton H. Erickson, an American psychiatrist specialising in medical hypnosis and family therapy. These two figures were the biggest influence on the birth of NLP.

Richard Bandler was, at that time, deeply involved in Gestalt Therapy, and modelled Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt. NLP came into being when Grinder and Bandler published their first book entitled ‘The Structure of Magic, I’ in which they presented a set of explicit tools that showed others how to achieve the level of excellence of such people as Perls and Milton Erickson.

NLP was originally promoted by Bandler and Grinder as a quick and effective form of psychological therapy which could address a wide range of problems such as fears and phobias, depression, learning disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, and more.

Later, it was promoted as a ‘science of excellence’, derived from the practice of ‘modelling’ how successful people achieved and maintained their success. It was claimed that modelling a successful person would enable anyone to achieve that same level of success.

Uses For NLP
NLP then, is a growing collection of techniques that can enable you to take control of your mind and emotions and enable you to have more control over your life and how you react to what happens in your life.

NLP Can Help You:
Improve skills you already have and acquire new skills you would like to have.

Control your thoughts - encourages positive thinking.

Control your moods and behaviour - can help you free yourself of fears and phobias.

Communicate your needs and wants to others more successfully - get your point across more easily and effectively.

Understand others’ communications to you - build empathy and understanding of others’ needs and wants.

Study and model the success of others – duplicate others’ successes.

Gain more focus, understanding and direction in your life – make better and more informed choices and decisions.

Raise your self-confidence and esteem – feel good about yourself.

Eliminate negative thinking and habits such as smoking and weight gain.

Improve your performance at work and at home – raise your standards and achieve more.

Reduce stress levels – relax more easily.

All this and more is attributed to the use of NLP regularly.

To learn NLP for yourself, or for more information, click the links on this page or go to Amazon for books on the subject.

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