What Is - NLP?
Why do some people get results and other people don’t?
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This question is basically what carved the road to the art and science of NLP. NLP was developed in the 1970’s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, they studied people through a concept called “Modeling.” They based their findings also from the brilliant work of therapists Milton Erickson, Gregory Bateson, Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir.
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NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP is based upon the concept that we form our unique internal mental map of the world by the way we filter and perceive information given to us. Any information we receive (Neuro) comes to us as internal images, sounds, tactile awareness, internal sensations, taste and smells that are a result of our neurological filtering process. Once that happens, we assign personal meaning to that information in the form language (linguistic). We then create a behavioral response (programming) by joining the neurological filtering process and the linguistic language.
In other words, NLP is the practice of understanding how people organize their thinking, feeling, language, and behavior to produce the results they do. It gives us strategies for observing human behavior.
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It is the study of what’s actually going on when we think. NLP is the understanding of how the mind using the brain, expresses itself in our life and creates what we call experiences. Let’s say you have a thought about someone, it creates a response or feeling, say love, you feel warm, then you add a comment in your brain like “I love that guy”, and your brain programs that when you remember that person you feel good inside. Could be the other way, a person you don’t like, or a situation you don’t like. The idea here it that we live inside our self-created minds. Two people can be in the same place at the same night, but how they process that experience is unique to each of them, given to them by their internal map. When we create an internal map of a particular experience, we program ourselves to that repeated reality. For example, if you hate taking exams, and each time the word exam shows up in your life, you will have the same reaction. You will first process (neuro) that information with your five senses, you might get anxious, have sweaty palms, then you will immediately say (linguistic) “I hate exams, I do bad in them”. You will then program your brain that you cannot do exams. This is self-defeating and you might even avoid, any type of higher education because of it. One of the functions of NLP is to address these limiting beliefs. NLP has also been used in business, by using techniques of observation. For example, an NLP practitioner can bring to his court a great sale or finalize a contract just by observing his client, reading him and practicing NLP techniques to make the client feel safe in the contract outcome. It has become very popular in the coaching, business, and athletic fields.