NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming
Before talking about the basics of NLP it is important to understand why and how NLP was created. NLP is still a very young science and has only been around for a few decades. It's two creators, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, essentially created it to see if people could do the amazing things they did while under hypnosis while they were completely conscious. The question they asked was if we have all this hidden power within our minds, for what reason is it that we can't access it while we are awake? A fairly reasonable question, which lead to an entirely new form of therapy on its own. So essentially neuro linguistic programming is conscious hypnosis.
Most people don't notice exactly what their minds are doing all the time, when in reality the average brain has around 70,000 thoughts during an 18 hour day, and thats not even counting sleep where even more thoughts rush through your mind. So why does this matter? Well, out of those 70,000 thoughts in your head everyday, how many of those thoughts do you realize? A good estimate would be between 3000 and 5000, if we're being honest here. So that would mean you subconsciously have another 65,000 to 67,000 thoughts which you have no control over. The basis behind NLP is that me program ourselves to think on purpose. It's simply the idea of becoming aware of what you do within your mind at all times, because as it was said before, we only use 7% of our brains, this is another technique you can practice to begin raising that percentage even more. It has been said that wisdom is being able to make decisions about your decisions.
Every word you speak is labeled as programming in your brain, and that is what your brain will focus on. A great way to start noticing the way you are programming yourself is by starting to only say things in the positive. So an example of that would be "I would really love to be rich," instead of saying "I really don't want to be poor." You see the difference is that in the second statement you may be saying that you don't want to be poor, but the overall view of the statement is poverty, therefore what your mind focuses on is the sense of poverty. Your mind will then begin drawing you towards that goal. Living your life doing things to try and avoid bad consequences is like banging your head against the wall because it feels good when you stop.
Just realizing how much your brain does is simply an expedition on it's own. For example, it's an astounding thing to realize that we all don't see the world in the same way. We don't even actually look at the world, what happens is photons hit our eyes and turn into chemicals which are transferred to our brains, and then our brain translates that into what we "see." So everyone around you could be looking at the screen in front of you and their brains could think it looks like something completely different. Just keep that in mind.
Not only is NLP a science and therapy, but it is an attitude in which you are able to look at life and everything it involves from a different point of view, because you know that there are many ways to see things, not just one..
