What is NLP?
The abbreviation “NLP” stands for ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’. Neuron refers to our nervous system made up of neuron cells.
The word ‘Linguistic’ means the language of our mind through which we can communicate with it.
“Programming” is the process of implementing logic to carry out an activity. In the context of NLP, it is the process of programming our subconscious mind so that it can operate according to what we desire to happen in our life!!
All our activities are constantly being guided by the programs stored in our subconscious mind based on the experiences of our life since childhood days. Any limiting belief or negative emotions derived out of past events in our life gets stored in our subconscious mind and that unknowingly inhibits us in the process of growth or success in our life.
NLP tells us the ways and means to replace such negative programming with positive programs in our subconscious mind helping us to achieve our desired goal and abundance. Let us understand some background facts to understand about NLP further.
Evolution of Human Beings
We the humans are made of about 50 trillion cells. In the beginning of life in our planet the cells were unicellular. They were living beings as individual cells. Every cell had a life which had all the functions of a living being. About 750 million years ago the individual cells started living as a community of cells for their survival need. Thus the multicellular organisms started developing. We the humans are multicellular. The difference between the unicellular and multicellular organisms is that in unicellular organisms every function was done by the single cell, whereas in a multicellular organism the functions of the body are divided among group of specialized cells. Accordingly, within human beings the lever, the heart, the nervous system are different group of cells carrying out specific functions.
Our Cells are Guided by Environmental Signals
The cells are constantly reacting to the environmental signals and reproducing the appropriate response to that to maintain their survival. The science of epigenetic has discovered that the cells are generating new behaviours according to the environmental signals received by them.
A child is conceived in mother’s womb. Although it has inherited genes, his future behavior would largely depend upon what he learns from the environment. In the early childhood days the child gathers information from the environment and those are stored in the brain creating neural pathways. The accumulated information in the brain later on helps him to take decisions in his life.
The Consequence of Stored Information
The consequence of this process is easily understandable. Whatever information is gathered by a human being in the earlier days become the reference points for decision making in their later life. Those accumulated thoughts and information become the signal for the cells to act upon and to reproduce a particular behavior. It would not be wrong to say that “GIGO (Garbage in Garbage out)” principle of computer is applicable here. As a child is nurtured in his childhood days and the environmental signals received by him from the parents and society become the foundation of how he perceives the world and how he reacts to the world. This is good information as well as bad information. It is good because, if he nurtured well and gets good environment he becomes a responsible and successful human being. On the other hand a negative environment breeds negativity within him which he continues to have throughout his life producing unsuccessful life.
Negative Beliefs in Subconscious Mind
Most of the people are failure because of the negative signals received by them from the events of their earlier life. Those signals of different situations as perceived by a human being are stored within the subconscious mind of human beings as a belief. Whenever the same situation appears in life, he acts instinctively as stored in the subconscious mind. This is a dangerous situation because if there is a negative perception about something stored as belief in the subconscious he is bound to act negatively.
The data received from the environment is perceived at the conscious mind and then stored in the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is a depository of information which does not change on its own. The conscious mind is creative and can decide about what data is to be stored inside. Once a program or belief is stored within the subconscious it is difficult to be changed. Moreover conscious mind is about 10% of our mind whereas subconscious mind is about 90% of mind. The subconscious mind is very powerful and can easily overtake the conscious mind on the basis of what is stored inside.
Causes of Our Failure
Let us see the effects of these facts. If somebody has some limited beliefs in his mind as received from his environment, that he cannot achieve success in life, this fact is stored in subconscious. Accordingly, the cells of his body receive those signals constantly producing the behavior of an unsuccessful man. For him, achieving success in life is difficult. Here comes the role of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
If the same person wants to achieve success in life, he has to remove the program of self limiting beliefs from his subconscious mind and has to replace with the program of successful life. NLP has methods by which one can reprogram his subconscious mind with positivity thereby enabling him to achieve success in life. This is the tip of the iceberg. There are various derivatives of this aspect.
Role of NLP
The concept of NLP starts right from the beginning when we receive the signals from the environmental events so that the right perception is programmed and stored in subconscious. NLP looks for the old negative patterns of behavior stored in the subconscious mind of a person and prescribes the ways and means by which it can be reprogrammed and replaced with positive behavior. NLP also tells about how one can model the behavior of a successful person and can bring success in his own life.
The negative aspects of behavior like fear and phobia can be removed from the mind through the NLP methods. Another very important aspect of NLP is that it can help removing psychosomatic diseases which are developed in human body as a result of some negative thought accumulated within subconscious mind because the mind and physical body is intimately connected. Although NLP is not a substitute of modern medical system, it can help removing the root cause of illness or disease thereby helping the recovery process faster.
