NLP is an abbreviation for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which is a personal development tool designed to assist individuals in various aspects of their lives. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a subfield of psychology that focuses on breaking through negativity and reprogramming the mind and body to achieve its objectives. NLP assists you in becoming aware of the subconscious patterns that you express through language and your senses, and changing these patterns for your own benefit.
Reframe Your Belief and Improve Self-Confidence
NLP teaches you how to reframe your current beliefs by applying different meaning to behaviours, life situations, and new beliefs that you wish to have. It can cause a significant shift in how you perceive the world and deal with life's challenges. NLP allows you to access resources from your past while also creating new resources for the present and future. This can boost your confidence in areas where you need it the most. I had the privilege coaching an individual, whom for the last 15 years believed that he can’t do anything well at all. In his mind he will always be mediocre and this belief simply destroyed his creativity, resourcefulness and happiness.
During coaching session, we discovered that there were several incidences which caused him to have those feelings. The first incident happened when he was just a young an impressionable intern. It was his first working experience but instead of leaving with a good impression and picking up good values, he was not given the proper guidance and direction. Instead, he was told that his performance was poor, lacked in confidence and not particularly suited for the role. His supervisor unconsciously repeats this and thus creating this limiting belief which he carried for 15 years.
Limiting Beliefs are real, as real as it can be and most times, we are unaware of it. In NLP, several techniques are employed to eradicate those destructive limiting beliefs and create a new empowering beliefs for him.
Problem Solving Skills
Neuro Linguistic Programming is a set of theories and techniques that equips us with strategies to tackle problems and challenges by changing how we think, feel, behave and interact with others. It can be used to reframe the way we think in a given situation. It allows us to structure our thoughts and turn challenges into opportunities. With this technique, people are more agile problem solvers who can handle any challenge that comes their way.
Take the case of two employees at the Botanical Gardens in a large city, tasked with the job mowing certain strips of lawn one afternoon. There were rain clouds looming in the distance. Groundsman A squinting his eyes towards the sky told his Supervisor that the rain clouds were near and that he might differ till tomorrow as he might did not want to get caught in the rain. Groundsman B took one look at the clouds and turned away from his Supervisor so he could get started right away before the rain clouds arrived. Needless to say which employee got a promotion at the end of the year.
The Advantages of NLP in Business
The benefits of NLP to business include the core elements of sales and management, this is because both sales and management involve forming relationships with others, having a good ability to is essential to the success. NLP can help people progress in their careers by guiding them to better communication, management, leadership, and coaching skills.
Furthermore, NLP can help you improve your negotiating skills by showing you how to integrate different components of NLP for the best possible successful outcome.
Some of the techniques employed are mirroring, chunking or para-phrasing, eliciting and fulfilling needs. Real Estate Agents and Car Salespersons are the best examples for expertly using these techniques. Ever wandered into a car showroom with a small budget and ending up being up-sold at least 30% more that you originally intended? That was NLP working its magic on you.
The Benefits of NLP for Health
The benefits of NLP for health are that many people want to improve their health but don't know where to start. The process of doing so can be extremely difficult. NLP techniques can help people cope more effectively with chronic illnesses or gain control over bad habits like smoking or emotional eating.
Take my own mother for example. She struggled with her weight all her life after having us three children. She loved her food and generally ate more calories than she needed to simply because of her childhood trauma. Barely a toddler when World War II began, her family was forced to flee the city to take refuge in an abandoned garage in a rural area when the Japanese troops occupied George Town. All they had to eat in those days were sweet potato leaves. Although we were born in a peaceful times decades later, my mother always made sure there were lots of food on table, kept a well-stocked pantry and generally always fed us like there was no tomorrow.
Then there are people who ate till they are obese and claimed that obesity was the cause of their low self-esteem when in fact it’s the reverse. Take the case of my student who didn’t care how she looked and kept on eating chips and drank coke knowing fully well that they made her fat. She kept on with this self-destructive habits because she believed that she was ugly and unpopular to begin with and getting fatter and uglier won’t matter anyway because no one notices her anyway.
Along came a nice young man who saw her for who she was underneath. Slowly his genuine love and attention restored her self-worth and she was able to stop her self-destructive behaviours. lose weight and transformed from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.
Do you recognise any of the abovementioned patterns in yourself or a loved one? Perhaps you may wish to explore how NLP can benefit you, and or the one you care for. Learn more about Certified NLP Practitioner / NLP training.