NLP intro and presuppositions

Music by James Horner Album; Apocolypto track 12

10 NLP Presuppositions

1. The map is not the territory. Our mental maps of the world are not the world. We respond to our maps, rather than directly to the world. Mental maps, especially feelings and interpretations, can be updated more easily than the world can be changed.

2. Experience has a structure. Our thoughts and memories have a pattern to them. When we challenge that pattern or structure, our experience will automatically change. We can nuetralize unpleasant memories and enrich memories that will serve us.

3. If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it. We can learn the acheiver's mental map and make it our own. Too many people think certain things are impossible without ever going out and trying them. Pretend that everything is possible. When there is a physical or environmental limit, the world of experience will let you know about it.

4. The mind and body are parts of the same system. Our thoughts instantly affect our muscle tension, breathing, feelings and more, and these in turn affect our thoughts. When we learn to change either one, we have learned to change the other.

5. People already have all the rescources they need. Mental images, inner voices, sensations, and feelings are the basic building blocks of all our mental and physical rescources. We can use them to build up any thought, feeling, or skill we want, and them place them in our lives where we want them or need them most.

6. You cannot NOT communicate.
We are always communicating, at least non-verbally, and words are often the least important part. A sigh, a smile, and a look are all communications. Even our thoughts are communications with ourselves, and they are revealed to others through our eyes, voice tones, postures, and body movements.

7. The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
Others receive what we say and do through their mental map of the world. When someone hears something different from what you meant, it's a chance for us to notice that communication means what is received. Noticing HOW our communication is received allows us to adjust it, so that next time it can be clearer.

8. Underlying every behavior is a positive intention.
Every hurtful, harmful, and even thoughtless behavior had a positive purpose in its original situation. Yelling in order to be acknowledged. Hitting to fend off danger. Hiding to feel safe. Rather than condoning or condemning these actions, we can separate them from the person's positive intent, so that new, updated, and more positive choices can be added that meet the same intent.

9. People are always making the best choice(s) available to them.
Every one of us has his or her own unique personal history. Within it, we learned what to do and how to do it, what to want and how to want it, what to value and how to value it, what to learn and how to learn it. This is our experience. From it, we must make all our choices; that is, until new and better ones are added.

10. If what you are doing isn't working, do something else. Do anything else.
If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. If you want something new, do something new, especially when there are so many alternatives.