NLP is a series of techniques that can be used to make fundamental changes to your life in a very short space of time.
Bandler and Grinder
NLP was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the early 1970's as a tool for the rapid development of successful life strategies. Bandler and Grinder started by looking at the thinking processes of three very successful, ground-breaking psychotherapists of the time: Milton Erickson, Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir.
...one obvious conclusion is that you should always choose to expect the best possible outcome.
Erickson, Perls and Satir had overthrown the conventional model of psychotherapy as a long-term unfocused exercise in navel-gazing, in favour of a short-term exercise focussed on producing an outcome.
Bandler and Grinder were inspired by the incredible results produced by short-term therapy to model the thinking processes employed by Erickson, Perls and Satir, and NLP was born.
Definition of NLP
NLP is a model and a set of techniques that allow you to achieve specific and desired outcomes.
Stated simply, NLP allows you to "Get the Life You Want!"
Perception is Projection
If you think it says, "Paris in the Spring" (as most people do), you have experienced something called 'deletion'.
Your conscious mind can only handle a tiny proportion of the vast amount of information that your senses pick up. The information from your sense organs (eyes, ears, etc.) is very heavily processed in order to prevent overloading your conscious mind.
There are three general kinds of processing: deletion, distortion and generalisation. This processing is done in accordance with the expectation of the individual. In other words, you experience the world as you expect it to be rather than how it actually is.
The implications of this are enormous; one obvious conclusion is that you should always choose to expect the best possible outcome. If you expect less than the best, you are less likely to be able to sense the optimum solution and so reduce your chances of getting it!
Returning to the Eiffel Tower riddle, the words say, "Paris in the the Spring"; the word "the" is repeated. Because there were lots of clues suggesting that it would say, "Paris in the Spring", your subconscious mind read "Paris in the", recognised it as a well-known saying and didn't bother to read the rest.
If you are still convinced that it actually does say, "Paris in the Spring", count the number of words.
The Subconscious Mind
The human mind can be thought of as having two parts: the conscious and the subconscious. If you think of the conscious mind as where you work out what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, the subconscious is where you get things done.
When you drive a car, you use your conscious mind to decide where you are going to, how you are going to get there and when you will leave, and you use your subconscious mind to manipulate the controls of the car, assess the dangers and select an appropriate speed. The conscious mind directs the car and the subconscious controls the car.
The subconscious mind is where your skills, habits, beliefs, values, memories and emotions are stored and processed.
The subconscious takes everything personally; if you constantly criticise, your subconscious will feel criticised and this will have a detrimental effect your mental energy.
Strategies
Whatever we do, we use a subconscious sequence of experience to make sure we do it right. For example, say you are buying a coat.
One person's sequence might be to select a suitable shop, look around for something that grabs your attention, try it on and check the price.
Another person's sequence might be go in the first shop, look on the "Sale" rack, check the price and try it on.
Strategies are both universal and personal. Universal in the sense that we use them for everything that we do. Personal in the sense of someone else's strategy won't feel right to you.
