Ever wonder how you build your inner world?
Your thought processes—conscious and unconscious—activate your nervous system, which influences your physiology (how you feel, and what you do and say).
WHAT IS NLP?
NEURO (mind): relates to your neurological system and how you use your five senses (see, hear, feel, smell, and taste) to experience the external world AND to create your internal world.
LINGUISTIC (language): refers to how you use language to describe your unique experiences, to talk to yourself, and to relate with others. Everyone has unique ways in how they use language (verbally or nonverbally). These patterns provide valuable insights.
PROGRAMMING (patterns/behaviors): refers to ways you choose (consciously and unconsciously) to organize your ideas and actions to produce results (how you’re doing what you’re doing—or not doing).
You may have noticed I’ve mentioned “how” a lot. NLP is more about “how you think” (process) than “what you think” (content).
It’s said that NLP is the art and science of personal excellence. “Art” because, just as no two fingerprints are alike, everyone’s subjective experience is unique. “Science” because there are specific “how-to’s” and approaches for discovering an individual’s thinking and emotional patterns and then helping to motivate them to achieve exceptional results.
EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS
Here’s a favorite story of mine from the book “NLP Workbook” (recommended) by Joseph O’Connor:
A wise man road into a desert village one evening as the sun was setting. Dismounting from his camel, he asked a villager for a drink of water: ‘Of course,’ said the villager and gave him a cup of water. The traveler drank the whole cupful. ‘Thank you,’ the wise man said. ‘Can I help you at all before I travel on?’
‘Yes,’ said the young man. ‘We have a dispute in our family. I am the youngest of three brothers. Our father died recently, God rest his soul, and all he possessed was a small herd of camels. Seventeen, to be exact. He decreed in his will that one half of the herd was to go to my oldest brother, one third to the middle brother and one ninth to me. But how can we divide a herd of 17? We do not want to chop up any camels, they are worth far more alive.’
‘Take me to your house,’ said the sage.
When he entered the house, he saw the other two brothers and the father’s widow sitting around the fire arguing. The youngest brother interrupted them and introduced the traveler.
‘Wait,’ said the wise man. ‘I think I can help you. Here, I give you my camel as a gift. Now you have 18 camels. One half goes to the eldest, that’s 9 camels. One third goes to the middle son, that’s 6 camels. And one ninth goes to my friend here, the youngest son. That’s 2.’
‘That’s only 17 altogether,’ said the youngest son. ‘Yes. By a happy coincidence, the camel left over is the one I gave to you. If you could give it back to me, I will continue on my journey.’ And he did.
How is NLP like the eighteenth camel? It could be that NLP is brought into a problematic situation by a resourceful person who helps solve the problem quickly—and that problem then disappears as if it had never been there.
That’s the reason we call it Effective Coaching or Solution-Based Coaching.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXCEPTIONAL AND MEDIOCRE
NLP has wide applications in the fields of education, counseling, business, therapy and personal development.
- Are you in search of surefire ways to maximize your personal performance and potential?
- Are you a healing professional, feeling the need to broaden your offerings and overall effectiveness?
- Are you a business professional in search of mastering the skill of sales and negotiation?
- Are you a life coach looking to expand your toolbox with some advanced, life-changing interventions?
- Are you a mental health professional interested in fast, results-oriented methods?
Learning how to use NLP effectively will be valuable if any of the above applies to you. And the best way to learn NLP is to experience it!
Those who learn NLP have a better understanding of their thinking patterns. They can pay attention to—and adjust—their inner focus and present state. Plus, they learn how to communicate with their innermost self and use their imagination healthily.
And being more consciously aware, they recognize more choices, which leads to better results.
©2020 Evelyn Wang
