Four NLP Techniques Anyone Can Use for Self-Transformation

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When we think of Makeovers and transformations, automatically, we think of getting that much needed new haircut with a change of hair color maybe, or updating an out-of-fashion wardrobe. But, self-transformation goes beyond the outward physical change and should transcend from within. After all, beauty is not only about what is on the outside and must shine through skin deep. Wellness and meditation do indeed create that profound effect in making that change from within. But how about rediscovering your potential and project a confidence in yourself that you have never thought was in you with NLP.

Makeover Your Life with NLP

If you are unfamiliar with NLP, it actually stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. Now, it sounds kind of scientific and farfetched. But what NLP actually is that it can provide you with the transformational techniques that you need to help you understand and change the patterns that affect your thinking and behavior.  Basically, it helps you to rewire your negative behavior and thought patterns and replace them with new and positive ones, which can influence the outcomes in your life, from the personal aspect, relationships and career. Now, that is taking makeover to a much higher level.   

It merges the thinking process (Neuro), language you use (Linguistics) and model behaviors, habit and attitudes (Programming) into a powerful tool for holistic change. It works by taking successful thought and communication patterns of others and incorporating it into your own. It leaves out the complication of figuring out how you can change and simply teach yourself with what makes others successful in all aspects of their life.

Primarily, it helps you to effectively communicate with others, shatter inhibitions, anxieties and destructive habits and even curb procrastination. Essentially, it can help you achieve an overall balanced life. But of course, learning the many influential techniques in NLP requires in-depth study and learning. There are a number of NLP techniques that you can use now to start creating that change in your life.

NLP Anchoring

One of the NLP techniques, and probably the simplest, that you can easily and immediately use to start your transformation. Anchoring refers to a process of associating a stimulus, whether it is a sound, image, touch, taste or smell, to trigger a response in you. It allows you to tap into these stimuli anytime that you want to activate creativity, concentration, learning and even a sense of happiness.

All it takes is a simple meditation. Find a quiet spot where you can comfortably stay relaxed and remember a time when you experienced the very emotion that you want to tap. Completely immerse yourself into this memory and recall what you saw, heard or felt as if you are reliving it once again. Once you have done this, connect a word or an action that you can easily associate with or anchor the feeling or experience, like a simple and subtle rubbing of your fingers. You should tap into this anchor whenever you want to experience a desired state. Unknowingly, you are transferring positive resources from your past to influence your present.

Changing Feelings by Dissociation

On the flipside, there is Dissociation. While Anchoring allows you to connect past powerful experience with a pleasant present experience to achieve a desirable outcome, Dissociation, on the other hand, allows you to free yourself from a past pain or a present stress. It can help shatter phobias or traumatic experiences to achieve a relaxed state.

It works by detaching yourself from the very negative emotion that you want to dispel. Identify the emotion that you want to get rid of and put yourself experiencing it in an observer point of view. One of the best ways to disconnect with this negative emotion is to play this mental scenario over and over again with a funny music played along with it. This works because the emotional response to this negative experience changes as the stimulus has also been changed. This is one of the many fun NLP techniques that can create a great impact in transforming your life.

Rapport

One of the many techniques that NLP can teach you is harnessing your communication skills and intensifying your ability to establish Rapport. NLP teaching inculcates that communication should be about the response you get from the person you are relating to, more than just the words or message you relay. It is actually one of the four pillars of NLP that will help you achieve any possible success there is.

NLP employs several techniques to establish a fruitful and creative rapport. This involves being highly observant not just on the words being uttered, but also the body language and vocal characteristics of the other person you are talking to.

The simplest and most obvious technique in establishing rapport is to genuinely take interest in what the person is telling you. But this can be amplified with NLP techniques such as Mirroring and Modeling. One of the easiest Rapport techniques is Mirroring. It literally involves subtly “mirroring” or matching another person’s gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice to demonstrate understanding or sympathy with the other person.

Also, because majority of communication is based on non-verbal expressions, NLP Rapport techniques emphasizes that you listen to the ideas being relayed by the other person, rather than the choice of words used. So again, rapport highly involves reading and listening to people’s body gestures and facial expressions.

Reframing

Have you ever encountered a situation in your life that has made you feel sad or powerless, say getting fired from a job or being criticized for a hard work? Reframing is an NLP technique that lets you see things in a different and positive perspective. If you look at it, Reframing is not something new and you probably have been doing this for quite a few times when you experience road blocks in life.

This NLP technique is actually one of the easiest that you can do to perform that holistic makeover in your life. It involves taking your focus out of negative aspects of a certain situation and channeling it to more productive and positive benefits of it. It is important that you remember that there is good or bad side to everything and it is best to always concentrate on the good ones.

NLP holds a plethora of techniques that you can use to make that immense impact in your life. More than the change in your physical beauty, transforming your life beginning with what is inside you and your potential will be a more dramatic makeover. 

NLP Books for Beginners - A Best Way to Start

1.  Get the Life You Want by Richard Bandler

2. NLP: The New Technology of Achievement, edited by Steve Andreas and Charles Faulkner

3. Introducing NLP by Joseph O'Connor and John Seymour

NLP, Love and Relationship (Guest Post)

Love and relationships, a topic that most people yearn to understand deeper but are too daunted to take that dive to learn how to thread it. The thought of having that healthy and effortless relationship is certainly as enticing as the wonders one might see beneath the ocean waves. But of course, we all know that it will take work and skill to reach that deeper level of love that is flowing and uncomplicated.

Pay Attention to Details

We have always heard that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. But this notion can be challenged that gender really does not matter when you are working towards developing that healthy relationship. It is all about taking the time and moment to really understand your partner and pay attention to the littlest of detail that he or she is communicating to you verbally or with body language. The twitches in the face when you talk with your partner, the change in the voice and even the changes in the skin color. These are minute indications that you can really use to understand your better half and develop a relationship that flows naturally.

You must have probably heard about NLP being able to reach that desired outcome in the most natural and effortless ways using its many techniques. This is because NLP anchors on four important pillars that allow you to realize a desired outcome. One of which is Sensory Acuity.

Heighten Your Senses

Sensory Acuity is really what the term suggests. It is having the heightened keenness and sharpness to notice and distinguish changes using your visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses to pick up on a number of new information about how your partner react when you communicate with him or her.

If your sensory acuity is not turned on or you do not know how to use it as of the moment, but in actuality, your subconscious mind already knows it. That is why you must have felt a number times that you have a feeling that something is wrong with your partner because what their saying is not consistence with their body language or tone of voice that they are unconsciously signaling to you. Developing your Sensory Acuity can certainly be of an advantage to you to be able to look and identify these subtle changes and understand and use it.

This really works with relationships, especially when you are discussing over certain issues or problems. If you fail to heighten your senses, you may not be able to pick up how your partner is responding or reacting to what you are trying to say. One way of doing this is to get out of yourself and be aware and conscious of the idiosyncrasies of your partner. It is about noticing without judgments and do not immediately jump into conclusions.

You probably know that altercations usually happen because you do not give your mind to process what you are saying and how your partnering is reacting to it. So, it is best to stop, understand and let all your senses to process all the information that are conveyed to you. This way you can rightfully adjust how you will communicate with your partner on the road towards that healthy and effortless relationship.

Interestingly, a study by Robert Birdwhistle, a communication researcher in the 1970s, said that only 7 percent of communication is conveyed verbally and that the remaining 93% are expressed unconsciously and not through words. And if you incorporate NLP’s interpretation of communication that it is the response that you get and not the message you send out, then it is really that much important to hone your ability to notice and pay attention to details of your partner.

It Takes Practice

Developing your Sensory Acuity does take practice. But, here are some simple, yet effective, exercises that you can do to sharpen your senses.

1.     During your relaxing time, for instance while you are drinking your afternoon coffee or tea, pick an object. It could be anything – your watch, your phone or your coffee mug. Take notice of its details. In the case of the watch, look at how the hands are shaped, the color of watch’s face, the ridges of the watch frame or the color of the strap. Turn it sideways or look at the reverse side, you will be surprised at the many details of your watch that you may not have been able to spot before even if you have been wearing it everyday.

2.     You can also pick a color or a shape and find how many objects you will be able to see with that specific attribute. And do not just go for the obvious; find them in the corners of a table or the details of an item of clothing. Again, you will be amazed at the interesting things that you will find.

3.   One specific technique or exercise that NLP uses to enhance your Sensory Acuity with another person is through Calibration. This is a process of becoming aware of a person’s physiology and be able to accurately interpret what these represent. You “read” your partner’s body posture, eye focus, breathing and voice.

NLP’s Sensory Acuity is actually a pretty exciting and fun technique to learn to enhance your existing relationship with your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. It will allow you to develop your self-awareness and consciousness of others and how well they respond to you.

Bio

Jacky is a certified NLP Trainer and Life Coach. Helps people create postive change & achieve their desired breakthroughs in life. Head over to his NLP Training website (www.jackylim.com) to unlock and unleashed personal transformation! 

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