THE LIFE OF NLP

A FEW YEARS BACK I PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE CALLED THE DEATH OF NLP (See Blog archives) where I wrote how the skills of NLP helped me to help my beloved uncle, pass on, when his death was eminent.  I wrote about how NLP was useful to making sure the nursing staff, and physician’s were  supportive, rather than using language that would create, or further any fear of dying. If you missed that article, I recommend you find it, and read it. 

HERE I WANT TO TURN THAT TOPIC OVER to the other side, and talk about some of the many ways that mastering the skills of NLP can save a life.  Imagine being lost in the woods, unprepared, and nightfall is closing in. The temperatures are falling, and circling back again on the same path has only proven that you are lost. Many begin to panic.  The ability to mange your state, to stay relaxed so you can *THINK*,  and use your internal resources that are below the surface of ordinary thinking, and feeling, will be the first lifesaving NLP skill you could use. Then imagine really being in control of your neurology, in such masterful ways, that you begin to recall that the ocean is only about 20 miles from where you parked. By relaxing, you recalled that thought from seeing the road signs on your way to the woods that day. Then, concluding that the ocean is to the west, you begin to relax more and more, and tune into the scents of the woods, with such fine discernment, and even finer distinctions as you being to calibrate the scents that you can smell in different directions, until you can quite literally smell the difference in the winds. The ocean air, and woodland air smell different to you. And voilà, once you know where west is, you get a better read on which direction to head back to safety before nightfall!

LET’S TAKE ANOTHER TRUE EXAMPLE.  Imagine telling your physician about a set of symptoms you’ve been experiencing in order to seek a proper treatment to restore your health.  Imagine too that your symptoms, A, B, and C quickly lead the physician to the definitive conclusion you have ailment X, and that you need an invasive test that carries with it a substantial risk, to prove the physicians conclusion. What might turn out to be lifesaving at best, and at least minimizing the risk of invasive tests, can be found in the skills of NLP.  Notably again, state control, and management to STAY CALM, and *THINK*, rather than letting fear, or other emotions dictate your decisions, or worse, abdicating your decision making. By using the meta model to uncover the deeper structure of what your physician is leading you towards, and other NLP skills, you can come to other possible avenues to explore, and treat.  Many physicians are procedural, and by-the-book with their own beliefs, shaped in medical school.  And while symptoms A, B, and C could indicate ailment X, they ALSO can indicate another cause, or causes, outside the physicians specialty, and when treated differently, could restore your health. False cause and effects happen often in the medical field. Beware. By avoiding unnecessary risk of procedures and medications, saving time lost by treating the wrong problem, or treating the problem ineffectively, and finding truth by using mastery in your NLP skillset, just might save your life.

AS AN EXAMPLE OF USING NLP SKILLFULLY TO SAVE THE LIVES OF OTHERS, imagine the army veteran with severe PTSD, that comes to you, an NLP Changework Specialist, as his last resort. He tells you that he can not go on. And imagine once again, being so focused on *HOW* he is telling his story, that you are in total control of your own emotions, so that you can calibrate exquisitely *WHAT* is needed to eliminate the post traumatic stress disorder, he’s been living with for years, with no help from the medical, or psychiatric system. Imagine being able to, in essence, time travel, so you can check all the resources from your past (and his), while staying present enough to pick up the finer distinctions he’s showing and telling you, and by going into the future, to try on a remedy/intervention to see if it’s likely to work, or if you need a different one.  The past, the present, and the future inform you, and in a matter of an hour and a half, PTSD has been eliminated from this soldiers life. And when he calls you months laters, and says “Mam, you saved my life”, and his wife then thanks you on behalf of her and their children, you *KNOW* NLP saves lives.

WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS ARTICLE I paused to make a second Pamaccino coffee, and spilled the milk. I said “gee, I spill stuff”, and laughed out loud.  But then, I realized, that’s funny-not-funny!  I do n0t need to continue running that program, and in a blink of an eye’s time, I changed that program to a better one. That’s not life saving, just useful, maybe silly.  Or, who knows, by having ran  an “I spill stuff” mental program, could have one day resulted in a set of circumstances that might have endangered my life, or someone else’s.  Therefore, by changing that program now, maybe…..just maybe, saving a life can be traced back to this NLP technique, this day.

SO WHAT DOES IT TAKE to use NLP in such potentially life saving ways? It takes *PRACTICING* the NLP skills, MASTERING them, and living fully in the NLP presuppositions.  It’s takes using NLP on yourself, with others, everyday, in every way possible.  And then, when you get really good at the NLP skills, say to yourself: “NEEDS WORK”, so you get better, and better at using the skills and tools of NLP,  so they bubble up for you when you need them most, seamlessly, nearly effortlessly, and most importantly,  EFFECTIVELY.  I can tell you that getting good at using NLP takes practice. Continual practice. Those that have good quality training in NLP and then leave it all in the seminar room, until they return a few years later to take another course, another technology, and believe things like: “there’s no one to practice with” or, “I don’t remember how to collapse an anchor”, or, “I mostly use NLP technique X because I like that one”, or, “It didn’t work for me once I got home”,  or, “I’m afraid I won’t know what to do, so I don’t work with others”,  are missing the very life force of NLP.  NLP is generative. NLP will NOT fail you, it just takes practice, practice, practice. “Because NLP works so fast on certain issues, many people think they can learn to be proficient in the technology in one pass or program, or by reading one book.  What it takes is practice, or better, yet, using the skills on a regular basis.  This is how the great ones have gotten to be great!” ~John La Valle.
“The degree of your continued success begins and ends with continued practice.” Practice everyday. Practice so much, that NLP is inseparable from you, not outside of you. Practice on yourself, and out in the real world. Change things for the better. Get more of what you want. Just practice. Practice as if life can be saved with NLP.  It might. There are so many skills in NLP,  and any one of them could be life saving.  In the faith that I practice, It’s said that he who saves one life, saves the world.

Pam Castillo is the author of 52 NLP Skill Builder’s,

Links:
Clarity Institute: https://nlpclarity.com

Private Changework: https://nlpclarity.com/nlp-quickl-transform-problems/private-changework/

52 NLP Skill Builders: https://nlpclarity.com/products/52-nlp-skill-builders/ 

© Pam Castillo 2020