Have fun with NLP – freedom from fears, phobias and limiting beliefs
Some people believe change has to be difficult. Some people believe change is easy and fun. I am one of the latter, having experienced this personally.
What is NLP
I first came into contact with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) when I attended a Chris Howard Seminar – it blew my socks off, so to speak! And therein is an aspect of NLP – the language we use and how it affects our results. Neuro refers to our senses, Linguistic is the language we use and Programming is how we put it all together. I knew immediately that I wanted to learn more about NLP.
The approach of NLP is to get you from where you are now to where you want to be – it is very forward-looking. Regardless of where problems may have originated from, the focus is on how the person wants to behave now.
People tend to respond to how they think about certain aspects in their lives, rather than the issue itself.
- For example, imagine you are sitting in the front seat of a roller coaster, you are gripping hold of the bar in front of you, the wind is rushing through your hair, you can hear other people on the ride screaming behind you - how are you feeling? Are you scared and your knuckles are white? Are you excited and exhilarated?
- Now think about being on a beautiful beach, notice the colour of the sky and how the air and sunshine feels on your skin. What sounds can you hear, and how does the sand feel between your toes?
When you think about certain experiences, it changes how you feel and can affect your mood. When you hear a love song on the radio, watch a sad film, watch a funny film, listen to a song which makes you feel really good and you dance around your home, all that is happening is that you are responding to what you are seeing, hearing and feeling. In this way, when you change the images, sounds and feelings into positive ones, you feel better and respond better in future situations. You get to feel good more and more.
NLP History
In a nutshell, NLP is the study and learning of effective behavior so that you can communicate effectively with yourself and others. In the 1970s Richard Bandler was a psychology student at the University of California, Santa Cruz and John Grinder was an assistant professor of linguistics. They began to work together and study excellent communicators, initially Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and Fritz Perls. They wanted to observe how they got excellent results with their clients so that they could model and teach the techniques to others to increase success rates for clients. Richard Bandler and John Grinder observed that when they broke down how these people worked, although their approaches were different, they had excellent results. NLP is a continuing process of refining techniques to get results even more quickly. The sooner you can work with a client to move them forward, the better it is for them.
Phobias
I read an article that said four out of five people have at least one phobia. Phobias are usually a one-time learning. The person will see/think about what they have a phobia of and react to it. The brain learns very quickly, which is why regardless of how long a person has had a phobia, it can be got rid of very quickly. From personal experience, I had had a life-long spider phobia – half an hour before the photo below was taken I had a spider phobia! I was so awed to hold this amazing creature and have never since had any problems with spiders. Once I knew that I could hold a tarantula, spiders are no longer a problem!
Fears
Humans are born with only two fears – loud noises and falling; all other fears are learned. For someone to have a fear, the process in the brain tends to be one of building up to it. If someone was going to be speaking in front of a crowd of people or hosting a meeting, they may find they do not feel confident. Probably they are picturing themselves stumbling over words, the people in the audience not paying attention. When they change their focus to what they can offer their audience, being prepared and enjoying the process, the focus is outward and gets different results.
Beliefs
Ultimately, what you believe will affect your results. When you can change any limiting beliefs around and make them work for you, the sky’s the limit…
NLP gives you more choice in the way you respond to people and situations. This article is just a brief introduction to NLP and some of its many applications. To find out more, there are many excellent books including Richard Bandler’s Get The Life You Want, which contains many NLP techniques.
About the author
Sarah Pond is a qualified life coach and Licensed NLP Practitioner. She trained with Richard Bandler (NLP Life Training) and has a practitioner certificate and is a member of the Society of Neuro Linguistic Programming. She has a Life Coaching Handbook Diploma from Achievement Specialists which is accredited by the International Institute of Coaching. She also has a Holistic Therapy Diploma and is a member of the FHT.
Tel: 0777 553 5501
Email: sarahpondcoaching@gmail.com
Web: www.choicelifecoaching.co.uk
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