Transformational NLP and Healing with the Spirit

Transformational NLP

NLP- can it give you the keys to inner freedom?

• Would you like to live a life where you decide who you want to be and which behaviours you choose to have?
• Would you like to learn how to connect with your inner wisdom, which resides deep within your unconscious mind?
• Would you like to learn how you can tap into and strengthen your inner positive resources whenever you need to?

According to NLP we can all learn how to change our thoughts, behaviours and feelings and in this way take back the control in our lives so we can live the life we want to live and be the person we want to be.

But how is this possible and what is NLP?

Many people in Britain have never heard of NLP so I will here give a short description of what it is.

Background

NLP, neurolinguistic programming, is a collection of techniques, models and processes for personal development, effective communication, changing unwanted behaviours and let go of limiting decisions, destructive strategies and heal old negative emotions.

NLP was developed in the 1970’s by John Grinder (professor in linguistics), and Richard Bandler (mathematician and therapist) when they asked themselves the following question: "What is it that distinguishes people who do something with extraordinarily elegance and outstanding perfection to people who do notdo that?

Bandler and Grinder decided to seek the answer by studying three outstanding therapists who got amazing results with their patients and who all were masters of communication. They studied Milton Erickson (psychotherapist and hypno-therapist), Virginia Satir (family therapist) and Fritz Perls (founder of Gestalt Therapy). They wanted to see what it was that distinguished them from other therapists.

By studying how some of the world’s most successful therapists and communication experts got their outstanding results, they managed to extract what it was that they did. Bandler and Grinder wrote down exactly what it was that these three experts did, and by doing this they managed to find the strategies, linguistics, processes and techniques these amazing therapists used. Then Bandler and Grinder tried to see if they too could get the same outstanding results when they used the exact same strategies, linguistics, processes and techniques. After a short time period they had succeeded in this. The next step was to now teach this to others, so they too could reach the same outstanding elegance and results that Erickson, Satir and Fritz Perls enjoyed. Bandler and Grinder discovered this was possible in a relatively short time period, and this is how NLP was born.

NLP is about FREEDOM

NLP is about FREEDOM – freedom to be the best you can be, freedom to live your life to the full, freedom to be happy and content what ever life brings you, freedom to choose to be the person you want to be.
NLP has become very popular all over the world, and especially in Britain, the States, Australia and Canada, as well as in several countries in Europe. It has become an effective tool within the business world as it helps us have effective communication, as well as increases our ability to tune into others and understand them better. Virtually every coaching today contains some form of NLP. The world’s most famous life coach, Tony Robbins, did his NLP training with John Grinder. Tony Robbins has worked with presidents, world-class tennis players, Hollywood actors, as well as millions of people through his courses, CD programmes and books.

From NLP other techniques have developed such as Timeline Therapy (founded by Tad James), Timeline Re-patterning (founded by Michael Carroll), Timeline Empowerment, Higher-Self Healing, The Journey (founded by Brandon Bays) and many others. They are often taught alongside NLP, and most of the founders are certified NLP Trainers. These other techniques are effective methods for changing thought patterns, perceptions and attitudes to us, and others, as well as in relation to our previous experiences. They help us let go of negative emotions, unwanted behaviours, heal limiting beliefs, let go of emotional trauma held in the body, as well as help us forgive ourselves and others.

All these techniques help us connect with our inner wisdom and positive inner resources, which exists deep within us, in our unconscious mind. This helps to facilitate an inner healing process where we can start to let go of negative thoughts and instead start focusing on positive, loving and happy thoughts, which helps us change negative behaviours and thought patterns.

The Map is not the Territory

One of the presuppositions in NLP (a thought you act upon as if it is true, although you know it is not always true. It just helps you find more resources within yourself) is that the map is not the territory. This means that everyone have their own inner screening systems, which they screen their experiences through. Our inner screening systems affect how we experience our personal inner map of our reality. Every day we move through similar territories and experiences, but because we all have different inner screening systems and different inner maps we all seem to be having different experiences from each other. You and your neighbour will experience the area you life in differently and you and your colleague will have different perceptions about your work environment. We even change our own perception of a certain area or situation depending upon whether we change our inner screening systems and inner map. For example, I was unhappy for a while when I lived in the UK and I was very home sick for Sweden. Everything I experienced in Britain I viewed through a negative screening system, and I constantly found proof for why Sweden was better than Britain. Did it help me to feel happy? Hardly. When my husband one day said jokingly: “Yeah, even the trees are better in Sweden” and I agreed with him (!!!), I finally realized I was viewing Britain through distorted filters. I then decided to change my inner screening system and suddenly I started to notice everything that was great with this unique, original, inspiring, quirky, cultural and intelligent country. Britain had not changed, but my experience of it had, and it allowed me to start falling in love with the country I was then living in. As humans we can never experience reality as it is, since we have to experience it through our five senses, and our senses are limited in how much information they can receive. So first of all the information streaming in from the outside world is already limited by our senses. Despite this around 2 million bits of information - some say it is even up to 400 billion (it does not matter which figure it correct – it is a huge amount of information streaming in!) stream through our senses into our nervous system. To make sure we do not get overwhelmed by this stream of information the unconscious mind screens out most of this information, and only around 5-9 chunks of information reaches the conscious mind.

The inner screening system

This inner screening system consists of our inner map of reality. This is why we never react to reality but our perception of it. We communicate our outer experience to ourselves by interpreting it to an inner experience through the physiological reaction we have to an experience, the inner pictures we have, the sounds we hear, as well as the emotions the experience stimulates within us. All of this is a neurological interpretation of the experience. We also interpret the experience linguistically through the words we choose when we talk to ourselves.

These interpretations form our inner map of our reality.
We all have our own reality of the world around us, and this is based upon which type of neuro-linguistic inner map we have formed. This inner neuro-linguistic map decides how we interpret an outer experience, how we react to what is happening around us, and which meaning we attach to our behaviours and experiences. We never experience reality as it is, but how we are. This is why it usually never is the outer reality that limits us and causes us problem, but our inner reality, our inner maps and screening systems, which either helps us be happy in life or causes us to feel pain and unhappiness.

This inner map, this inner screening system, consists of our values, decisions about ourselves and others, as well as our earlier experiences, especially those which in NLP are called imprints. An imprint is a memory, which was formed at an early age, and it forms a root thought, which is either limiting or resourceful and empowering. To put it simply it is either negative or positive. Some of our limiting thoughts and decisions can be very unhealthy and can damage our ability to live an authentic and happy life. What happens when we have a negative imprint is that we at an unconscious level start to draw negative experiences to us. Imprints affect how we view our reality and when some of our imprints are negative we have a tendency to view ourselves, others and our reality through negative inner screening systems. This causes us to experience our reality even more negatively, which affect our ability to deal with different situations in our lives.

By using NLP you can change your inner screening systems and the inner map you have. This can help a client to let go of inner blocks and negative thought patterns, which previously have stopped them from healing their body, mind, relationships and lives. One of the greatest obstacles to healing is the individual’s own inability to believe in their own inner healing power. If you do not believe you are going to get better, then you will not take the necessary steps and actions needed for you to get better.

How NLP works

Within NLP you first work with identifying negative though patterns and limiting beliefs that exist within the unconscious mind. Then NLP uses a variety of processes and techniques to change these negative thought patterns and limiting beliefs to positive thought patterns and resourceful and empowering beliefs instead. This causes the client’s inner screening system and inner map to change and in this way the client’s own perception of their reality changes too.

We all have different inner maps and inner screening systems for different areas of our lives, such as relationships, family, work, personal development, spiritual development and health. As a simple guide you can say that those areas that are working well for you in your life – in those areas you will have positive inner screening systems and positive inner maps, whilst those areas which are not working so well will contain negative inner screening systems and a negative inner map, weakening our ability to have positive experiences in these areas. Fortunately our inner screening systems can be changed easily, quickly and effectively, as long as you yourself are willing to take responsibility for your own thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

NLP is not a cult, religion or demands you have a certain belief system. The only thing NLP requires is that you are willing to want to get to know yourself better and that you have the ability and willingness to think outside your usual way of thinking. I have never met anyone who could not allow NLP to help them find more freedom and inner positive resources. Even my children (5 and 10 years) use NLP naturally, especially in their communication with others (their Daddy does not stand a chance!). It is very strange to hear your five-year old use an exquisite Milton Erickson Linguistic back on yourself: “So Mummy, can we read a book now or maybe even quicker than that?”