3 Keys Of NLP (neurolinguistic Programming) To Change Your Life

The keys to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) can be incredibly effective in changing the way we perceive and interpret reality.  We cannot forget that our thoughts and feelings shape everything that surrounds us, hence the techniques that accompany this approach are useful to us to become aware of it and apply appropriate changes.

In some way or another, we have all heard of neurolinguistic programming. More than a psychological theory, we should see it more as a set of personal development strategies. With them, what their creators, Richard Bandler and John Grinder were looking for back in the 70s, was to model the abilities of the human being to allow them to achieve their vital purposes by themselves.

On the other hand, it should be noted that there is no shortage of critical voices regarding this model, who distrust NLP, seeing it rather as a type of pseudoscience. Now, it must be said that their strategies turn out to be quite useful in many cases, as well as interesting from the psychological point of view. Thus, one of its main objectives is to establish a connection between neurological processes, our language and behavior patterns learned through experience.

Thus, by correcting our cognitive representations and disempowering those rigid mental maps that sometimes characterize us, we gradually shape much more adaptive behavior patterns. The keys to NLP are an interesting and useful way to change our reality, to shape our mind, our way of feeling what surrounds us to perceive life in a more free, positive, happy way.

These would be 3 strategies to achieve it.

1. Dissociation technique

NLP or neurolinguistic programming explains to us that our lack of confidence, as well as anxiety or stress are activities, they are processes, not permanent conditions. The key is therefore to control these processes, change them so that they flow in a more appropriate direction and of course, in our favor.

One way to do this is through dissociation. The steps would be the following:

• Identify that emotion that you want to stop, that you want to calm and dissolve from your mind, such as anger, rage, fear, disappointment …

• What we must do is focus on that particular emotion and on a situation that causes it on a regular basis. For example: I feel angry every time my coworker talks behind my back.
• We will visualize that scene as if it were a movie and what we will do with it is the following: we will give it a funny soundtrack to remove the drama. Later, we will reproduce it more times in our mind to reduce negative emotions, to perceive that everything is under our control and that this situation, far from affecting us, is no longer important; it can even be ironic to us. The rage has disappeared.

2. Reframing content

Another key to NLP may be obvious to any of us, but it is no less true that we tend to forget it or not know how to conjugate it properly. If we become obsessed with anticipating fatalities, in facing our day to day with fear and always thinking the worst, it is very possible that in the end we ourselves will generate our own fatality.

For example, there are those who do not stop thinking about what would become of him or her if his partner left him, if he betrayed him. Their anguish is such that they end up developing obsessive behaviors, jealousy, distrust, and a whole range of harmful processes that end up crystallizing into their worst fear: the couple ends up leaving them because they can no longer bear that situation.

• Thus, one way to control those fears is by making use of content reframing. It is based on a cognitive technique in which to shift attention focused on fear to frame it in other more constructive aspects.
• For example, I must stop focusing on the fear of losing my partner to focus on building good moments with him.
• I shift my fear of being alone to focus on an essential process: taking responsibility for myself. I must learn to love myself enough, learn to be strong instead of being trapped by fear.

3. Keys to NLP: the anchoring technique

The anchoring technique is undoubtedly one of the keys of NLP most representative of this psychotherapeutic strategy of personal growth.  It is based on something very concrete: an anchor is a connection between a stimulus and an emotional state. Our purpose in this case is to achieve a suitable state of mind as well as powerful with which to successfully carry out a specific task or face a certain situation.

For example, let’s think about those situations that are characterized by generating anxiety or insecurity: exams, speaking in public, getting close to that person who attracts us so much … If we are able to evoke, to put into operation a very specific mental state, we will find the right momentum and enough confidence to get out of these common moments with flying colors (and with success). These would be a few simple steps to achieve an anchor based on the keys of NLP:

• We will first identify what we want to feel: confidence, happiness, tranquility …
• Now we will try to remember a time in our life when we felt these positive emotions with great intensity.
• Focus on that memory and “cut out” that image, make it yours, keep it vividly present.
• Now we must choose a phrase that serves as an anchor, “I am at peace” or “serenity”, or “everything will be fine” ….
• The strategy is to repeat this sequence (desired emotion, memory, visualization, anchor word) on a daily basis until it is integrated into our mind. In this way, little by little the anchoring will be automated every time we need it.

To conclude, we are sure that these keys to NLP have aroused the curiosity of more than one person in that wide and always suggestive universe that is neurolinguistic programming. If so, it must be said that it is an approach that is within our reach, it is part of the movement that emphasizes our enormous potential as human beings, started in the 70s, and which has been consolidating over the years.

At our fingertips we have books like “Introduction to NLP” or “The power of the word”, both very complete works where we can go much deeper, and without a doubt, learn new strategies to transform our lives.