What is NLP? How NLP Can Help You Live Your Best Life

“N.L.P. provides a way to look past the behavioural content of what people do to the more invisible forces behind those behaviours; to the structures of thought that allow people to perform effectively.”   

Robert Dilts’ Modeling with N.L.P.’

If you have heard the term ‘N.L.P.’ used and have always wondered what N.L.P. is, this Blog is for you. I will explain straightforwardly what the letters N.L.P. stand for and how N.L.P. can help you in life.

I am also going to give you a  top tip as to how you can immediately use a very simple N.L.P. technique to help you distance yourself from bad memories of your past or from thoughts of not getting the results you want in life in your future, and instead build your self-belief and ability to achieve your biggest dreams and visions and get exactly what you want.

As a Master Practitioner of N.L.P. (trained by the charismatic  Dr Richard Bandler who cofounded N.L.P. in the 1970’s with John Grinder), I incorporate the use of N.L.P. in all my coaching programmes, with all of my clients – and on a daily basis in every aspect of my own life.

N.L.P. What is it? What does N.L.P. mean?

N.L.P. is short for ‘Neuro-Linguistic Programming’ and explores the relationships between the three most influential components that create a human experience:  how we think (Neuro), how we communicate (Linguistic), our patterns ( Programming) of behaviour, feelings and emotions  – and how they all interact with one another to bring about the positive or negative results we get in life.

By studying and learning from these relationships, we can effectively choose to make positive choices to change and transform how we traditionally think and act. We can adopt new, more successful models of human excellence (known as modelling) to bring about the results we want.

In effect, N.L.P. is an extremely powerful change management tool that allows us to think, communicate and manage ourselves and others more effectively.

**Often referred to as the ‘study of human excellence’ N.L.P. enables us to use the language of the mind to consistently achieve the results we want.**

In simple terms:

Imagine your brain as a massive friendly computer and N.L.P. as the software you choose to run. If you can learn to communicate with your mind in its own language (i.e. run the programme of ‘successful strategy’ for the particular task at hand), your mind will work with you and for you, and help you achieve just about anything you want.

Note, the strategies that you run not only involve your thoughts,  behaviour and subsequent actions, but the pictures you make in your head (and how and where you make them), the self talk you give yourself (not only what you say but how you say it), your feelings and emotions (where and how you feel them) and how you choose to react and respond.

How can Using N.L.P. help you in life?

Here are some examples of the very many ways  effective use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (N.L.P.) can help you be the awesome YOU you were born to be:

N.L.P. can help you:

• Overcome your fears and phobias
• Eradicate your limiting thoughts and beliefs
• Reduce your stress levels and anxiety
• Eliminate stage fright and nerves
• Change how you think and feel about past mistakes, challenging events or failures
• Feel motivated and inspired about your life
• Increase your confidence, self-belief and self-esteem
• Communicate with yourself and others more effectively
• Form and enjoy happy, lasting  and rewarding relationships
• Improve your physical and mental health and emotional well-being
• Get that dream job, career or promotion
• Feel an inner peace,  calm and sense of ‘knowing.’
• Achieve your biggest goals, visions and aspirations
• Change your perception of what is truly possible for you
• Achieve exceptional performance in life, sports and business
• Be ‘you’ and fully express you
• Achieve the happiness, success, and life fulfilment you both want and deserve

Can I give you an example of an N.L.P. technique?

Here’s an N.L.P. technique to help you make your mental pictures work for you and not against you!

Knowing what goes on in your head is important; what goes on in your head shapes what goes on in your life.

For things you DON’T want to happen in your life (or past events that keep replaying in your mind that you would rather be able to leave behind in the past or forget):

Make the picture in your mind still and static, visualise putting a frame or border around it, push your mental image of that event or happening further away from you into the distance,  start taking the colour out of it, changing the colour to black and white. Shrink the mental picture down push it further into the distance. Disassociate yourself from the image. Push it far away, far off into the distance. At the same time, make the picture smaller and smaller. Finally, white it out. Let the image disappear…..

For things that you do want to happen in life or for goals you want to achieve and visions you want to bring to reality:

Make your mental picture of you achieving that goal big, bold, a moving image (like a movie) and in full colour. Make the mental movie even bigger, more vibrant and bring it even closer to you- and finally, when the picture is perfect, ‘step’ or float in. Associate with your mental picture with all your five senses wide open. See what you see going around you as if through your own eyes; hear what you hear going on around you as if through your own ears. Allow yourself to taste, touch, smell, experience what you see, hear, and most importantly, feel. Connecting and associating with your desired outcome in this way will fire your hunger to achieve that outcome and motivate you to take action.

**Your mind is a powerful thing. By disassociating/distancing yourself from the negative pictures of what you don’t want in your life and associating/connecting  and stepping into the mental images you do want to happen, you will  be building your self-belief and confidence in your ability to achieve your desired  outcome  – and setting the blueprint in your mind for success! **

To Sum Up:

N.L.P. is about understanding the way the mind works to run the correct ‘programme’ to bring you the results you want.

Running a successful strategy will bring you successful results in life.

Thinking happy thoughts will make you feel happier.

Making positive pictures in your head will lead you to take more positive action.

Feeding yourself powerful self-talk will build your self-belief and confidence and lead to more positive outcomes.

Being your own cheerleader and champion will encourage you to keep going when faced with difficult times and challenges.

Seeing a successful outcome (keeping your eye on the prize!) will build your motivation and self-belief.