Getting started with NLP

No updates for a week, what is the world coming to! Well I don’t actually have any specific subject matter that I want to talk about right now so I’ll just reference a few links to some interesting articles that I have read about Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

I heard about NLP about 10 or 11 months ago when I was browsing Amazon for psychology related books. I started reading psychology based material about 13-14 months ago, and I’m still reading material now so you could say it’s one of my topics of interest I suppose.

Wikipedia describes NLP as follows:

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a set of techniques, axioms and beliefs that adherents use primarily as an approach to personal development.

That describes it better than I ever could so I think I’ll leave it at that! I feel reading NLP related material has helped me to better understand my emotions and feelings, and has been useful for me in helping to overcome some ‘fears’ that I had previously.

One particular concept which has been useful to me is visualisation. I won’t touch on it too much in this post, but it’s basically the process of imagining a situation in your mind going exactly how you want it to with reference to your own actions. I find this really useful for preparing for situations where I have to speak in front of a group of people – I previously found this a petrifying experience.

The book ‘Introducing NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming’ by Joseph O’Connor was my first reading material on the topic, and I think it serves as an excellent first read. I found everything explained in terms that I could easily understand. I also bought the workbook that goes alongside this book earlier this year but have yet to read that. No doubt I will report back on its usefulness when I do get the opportunity.

Finally, if you don’t feel like splashing out on a book, there are loads of free resources available on the internet. The best I have found so far is a free course run on NLPWeekly.com. I haven’t completed it yet but the material I’ve read so far seems to take a more practical approach than I have witnessed before so I think this could be an excellent resource.