Nuero-Linguistic Programming  (NLP)

What is NLP
We're all born with the same basic neurology. Our ability to do anything in life, wether its swimming the length of a pool, cooking a meal, or reading a book, depends on how we control our nervous system. So much of NLP is devoted to learning how to think and communicate more effectively.

Neuro is about your neurological system. NLP is based on the idea that we experience the world through our senses and translate sensory information into thought processes, both conscious and unconscious. Thought processes activate the neurological system, which affects physiology, emotions, and behaviour.

Linguistic refers to the way human beings use language to make sense of the world, capture and conceptualise experience, and communicate that experience to others. In NLP, linguistics is the study of how the words you speak influence your experience.

Programming draws heavily from learning theory and addresses how we code or mentally represent experience. Your personal programming consists of your internal processes and strategies (thinking patterns) that you use to make decisions, solve problems, learn, evaluate, and get results. NLP shows people how to recede their experiences and organise their internal programming so they can get the outcomes they want.

Where it all started
NLP began in California in the early 1970s at the University of Santa Cruz. There, Richard Handler, a master's level student of information sciences and mathematics, enlisted the help of Dr John Grinder, a professor of linguistics, to study people they considered to be excellent communicators and agents of change. They were fascinated by how some people defied the odds to get through to 'difficult' or very ill people where others failed miserably to connect.

NLP has proved very effective in helping nervous drivers build their confidence, overcome stress and nerves, and reach the goal of becoming safe confident drivers, and passing the driving test.

Complete the following three exercises as and when required, and you will soon start to feel great about driving, approaching all your lessons with a new found confidence, and yes! even looking forward to your driving test.

To diminish unpleasant or stressful experiences:
This could be a bad experience whilst driving or on a driving lesson, a failed driving test or even an accident.

1. Relax and think of a stressful or uncomfortable memory.
   
2. As you notice what image or images come to mind, step back out of yourself and continue to move back from the image, mentally move as far away from the image as you can, now step all the way out of the picture so you are now seeing the image with yourself in it as you would on a cinema screen.
   (This process of disassociating reduces the intensity of the feelings the image was creating)
   
3. Now freeze the image, slowly drain all the colour from the image until it appears black and white, and lower the volume until all sound has become muted.
   
4. Now make the image smaller and move it further away until it disappears altogether.

You can repeat this process as often as necessary, but from now on if you think about the incident, you should only ever do so dissociated from the image.

To intensify positive or resourceful experiences:
This could be a previous positive enjoyable experience or imagine and see yourself driving perfectly with minimum effort and passing your driving test.

1. Relax and imagine the image, remember how great it feels.
   
2. Bring the image closer and step into the image, now make the image into a movie, making the image larger and closer.
   
3. Intensify and make the colours vivid, increase the brightness and clarity, make the sounds closer, louder and clearer.
   
4. Continue to imagine the image and step into yourself intensifying the good positive feelings associated with the image. See the image through your own eyes. Hear it through your own ears. Feel it through your own senses.

From now on if you think about the situation always associate yourself with the image seeing and feeling it positively through your own senses.

The confidence switch
Before you begin this technique read through it first so you know each step.

1. Remember a time when you felt really really confident. Full return to it now – see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel how good you felt. (If you can’t remember a time, imagine how much better your life would be if you were totally confident – if you had all the power, strength and self-belief you could ever need!)
   
2. As you keep going through this memory, make the colours brighter and richer, the sounds louder and the feelings stronger.
   
3. As you feel these good feelings, squeeze the thumb and middle finger of either hand together.
   
4. Now, squeeze the thumb and middle finger together and relive that good feeling.
   
5. Repeat the previous steps 1 - 4 several times with different positive memories until just squeezing your thumb and finger together begins to bring back those good feelings.
   
6. Still holding your thumb and finger together, think about a situation in wich you want to feel more confident. Imagine things going perfectly, going exactly the way you want them to go. See what you’ll see, hear what you’ll hear and feel how good it feels.

Practice this every day, and you will begin to feel more confident. Whenever you feel challenged, simply turn on your confidence switch by squeezing your thumb and middle finger together, concentrate for a few moments, and access your inner state of confidence.

What we are about to do involves tapping on certain acupuncture points on your body The code for any stressful feeling is stored like a computer programme in your brain. By thinking about what is worrying you while tapping on each point in exactly the sequence I am going to describe, you will be able to quickly reduce your levels of anxiety, stress or overwhelm and get on with your life.

This process may seem a bit strange at first, but it works. In a moment I want you to think of a stressful experience (Driving Test). By the time you finish following my instructions, your stress will disappear. It will seem like magic, but in fact its hard science.

You will need to be able to really concentrate for a few minutes, as it is important that you continue thinking about the emotion you have chosen as you go through this process and reduce the feeling ...

(Before you do this technique, read through each step so that you know what to do.)

1. Focus on whatever it is that you are feeling over whelmed about. Now, rate the stress on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. This is important, because in a moment we will see how far you’ve reduced it. You must continue to think about whatever it is that was bothering you throughout the sequence that follows.
   
   
2. Take two fingers of either hand and tap about ten times just above one of your eyebrows.
   
   
3. Now, tap under the same eye.
   
4. Tap under your collarbone.   
   
   
   
5. Keep thinking about what was bothering you and tap under your armpit.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Next, tap on the 'karate chop' point on the side of your hand.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Place that hand in front of you and tap on the back of it at the point between the knuckles of your ring finger and your little finger. (Continue tapping that point and thinking about the stressful situation throughout steps 8-13.)
   
   
8. Close your eyes, then open them, Look down to the right, back to centre, and the down to the left.
   
   
9. Rotate your eyes round 360 degrees clockwise, then 360 degrees anti-clockwise.
   
   
10. Still thinking about what was stressful to you and tapping, hum the first few lines of 'Happy Birthday' out loud.
    
    
11. Now count out loud from 1 to 5. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)
    
    
12. Now once again hum the first few lines of 'Happy Birthday' out loud.
    

Repeat steps 2 to 6. Still thinking about what was over-whelming to you, tap above the eyebrow, under the eye, under your collarbone, under your armpit and on the karate chop point.

OK, let's stop and check - on a scale from 1 to 10, what number is the feeling at now?

If the feeling of overwhelm hasn't completely gone yet, simply go back through the entire sequence again until it does. It may take as many as two or even three times before you have completely eliminated the feeling, although most people report getting the feeling down to a manageable level on their first or second try.

Remember, if you have run through this process several times and the feeling hasn't gone away completely, tune in to the message it is bringing you from your unconscious mind. In addition, you can repeat this process as often as you like.

Good Luck, and remember, millions of people have passed the driving test.

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