Neuro Linguistic Programming

NLP was created by Richard Bandler & John Grinder at the University of Palo Alto in California in the early 70s. It gained recognition through the publication of their first book, The Structure of Magic in 1975.

One helpful way to explore a definition is to separate out its three core elements:

Neuro This refers to our neurology and more specifically to our five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) through which we take in information from the environment around us

Linguistic Our language, verbal and non-verbal, and how we code, organize and give meaning to our experiences.

Programming The strategies and approaches we use to achieve consistent results or outcomes

In other words, NLP is how to use the minds own language to consistently achieve our specific and desired outcomes.

NLP has often been described as the study of subjective experience.

How does that work? Imagine your brain is like a computer! It runs programs of thinking all the time. It can have a software upgrade too, in order to run faster and more effectively!

What Can NLP Do?

You can upgrade your mindset, intelligence, memory, senses, appearance, and your communication skills. You can gain the ability to improve, enhance or modify ANY aspect of yourself or someone else.

NLP can be an extremely powerful tool, when used correctly.

Example

The most basic example to illustrate this, is if I said to you: “Don’t think of a black cat!”

What’s the first picture that came to your head? A black cat, of course, before you have a chance to not think of a black cat, your unconscious brain has already put a picture of a black cat up and stuck a DON’T label on it saying “this is the thing to not think about.”

So, how could that possibly be used to help me communicate?

Okay, how about we use that same lesson, and apply it to another example, slightly more useful.

Imagine you’ve got a 5-year-old son, and he starts trotting towards a busy road. We’ve established that if we yell to him “Don’t walk on the road!” - there is every chance he might take a split second longer than usual to process the full command.

Instead, you’d say to him “Come here right now!” which might make a massive difference if a speeding car is just seconds away.

The NLP Eye Accessing Cues :

The NLP Eye movements indicate how a person is thinking - whether they are imagining a future or past event, internally re-hearing a sound or making up a sound, talking to themselves, or attending to their feelings.

Often even the person themselves will not be aware of how they are thinking yet it is available for the sharp-eyed and skilled observer.

So, let's say, you are explaining to a colleague how to do something and they say they do not understand - while looking UP to either the left or the right (indicating

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