Discover a collection of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques designed to augment personal flexibility and unconscious decision-making within challenging contexts. These methods are straightforward, generally effective, and can be particularly beneficial for children, though they are equally applicable to adults. Developed through extensive work in NLP strategy domains, these patterns can transform learned thinking patterns that often lead to repetitive and unproductive outcomes.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a psychological approach that involves analyzing strategies people use to communicate, think, and behave to model and change their patterns of mental and emotional behavior. Strategies, in NLP terms, refer to the sequence of internal representations—such as sounds, words, feelings, smells, and tastes—that culminate in a particular outcome. These are essentially the thinking patterns we've learned and internalized over time.
Our brains are wired to repeat familiar sensory sequences in our thinking patterns, leading to consistent behaviors and results. This concept aligns with the NLP presupposition that if we continue to do what we've always done, we'll keep getting the same results. When we're "stuck" and not being resourceful, it's often because we're repeating non-resourceful patterns in the same way each time. Observing a person's eye accessing cues and listening to their language can reveal these repetitive patterns.
Eye accessing cues are movements of the eyes in specific directions that are believed to correspond with the accessing of certain types of cognitive processes. For example, looking upwards is often associated with visual thinking. When we're "stuck" in a problem, we may lock our internal representations into a single, confusing synesthesia, where multiple senses are combined into one representation, making it difficult to separate them and think clearly.
The NLP techniques described in this article aim to introduce new sensory representations to situations where we've been stuck, thereby increasing our flexibility and creating new choices. By adding more sensory inputs, we can break down limiting synesthesias and reorganize our internal representations into more resourceful ways of thinking.
Choice Building is a collaborative NLP process involving an "explorer" who undergoes the process and a "guide" who facilitates it. The goals are to add behavioral choices to "stuck" contexts, increase personal flexibility, and quickly and easily add basic resources by incorporating various neurological traits into existing synesthesias.
After these steps, the Explorer should experience a significant change in their response to the problem situation. Testing the change and future pacing through rehearsal can help solidify the new patterns.
These NLP techniques can lead to profound changes in how individuals approach and resolve problems. By reorganizing internal representations and adding new sensory inputs, people can develop more flexible and resourceful ways of thinking, which can be applied to various contexts in their lives.
For further reading on NLP and Choice Building, you can explore resources such as "Heart of the Mind" by Steve and Connirae Andreas and "Beliefs: Pathways to Health and Well-Being" by Tim Hallbom and others.
Read more about NLP and Choice Building at NLP Comprehensive.
Originally published in Anchor Point Magazine, July 1994; reprinted with permission. Tim Hallbom, MSW, is a Certified NLP trainer, author, therapist, and co-director of NLP California. He has been involved with NLP since 1980 and maintains a private consulting practice.
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