Health + wellbeing

How NLP helps filter fear

- September 30, 2009 2 MIN READ

In the current climate there is a lot of fear in the air that is easy to absorb, however with NLP techniques we can choose to avoid this and only absorb the positive and beneficial elements around us.

NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. ‘Neurology’ relates to how we process information that comes into our mind. There are an astounding two million bits of information per second that we encounter, however our brain can only process 134 bits per second.

What’s more, everyone around us is filtering information differently as all of us have our own personal filters. If you think back to a significant family event, you may well have a very different memory of it than another family member. At a crime scene, each witness will have a different account of what happened, based on their own filters.

All soloists need to avoid filtering any negativity about the economic doom and gloom. You can do this by consciously choosing what information you filter and what you do not. It is simply a matter of training your mind – when you see or hear something negative, choose how you filter it. The majority of times we filter information unconsciously, but with NLP you can learn to filter it consciously and be purposeful with what you do with it in your mind.

A good tip is to turn thoughts that may generate fear into a positive and something you can learn from. This empowers your mind to only filter information that is going to be of benefit to you and helps to unclutter your mind and increase your focus. Do your best to transform the thought into a positive internal representation. Our internal representations are vital in determining what state we are in and this is reflected externally by the way we behave.

Want more articles like this? Check out the stress-management section.

In simplistic terms, if you filter something and make a negative internal representation of it, it will impact your state (you will feel negativity in some form) and this will come across in your behaviour (your body language will be negative in one way or another.)

Whereas if you filter something and consciously make a positive internal representation out of it, your state will be more positive and again your behaviour will reflect this – your body language for example will be upbeat and motivated.

I recommend thinking of your mind like you do your body. We all control (or attempt to control!) what we put into our bodies, why not our minds as well? After all, the two are connected, aren’t they?

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  • Andrew Caska

    Caska IP Patent Attorneys

    'Flying Solo opened up so many doors for us - I honestly don't know where I'd be without it"