How Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) can help you overcome anxiety. It’s a powerful approach that focuses on understanding how your mind works and using that knowledge to create positive change. Here’s how NLP can assist you:
- Understanding Anxiety as a Learned Response: NLP views anxiety not as a flaw, but as something your mind has learned to do very well. It’s seen as a skill your mind developed to adapt quickly to situations, even if that skill is currently causing you distress. This understanding can be empowering, because if you learned it, you can also learn to change it. You can begin to see that you have allowed your mind to adapt to a stimulus and that you have some control over it.
- Identifying and Reframing Triggers: NLP helps you identify the specific triggers that cause your anxiety. Once you know what sets off your anxiety, you can use NLP techniques to reframe those triggers. Reframing involves changing how you perceive a situation, often by finding a more positive or empowering way to look at it. For example, if a job interview makes you anxious, you can reframe it as an opportunity to showcase your skills and gain new experience.
- Accessing Solutions and Resources: Instead of focusing on the problem, NLP encourages you to focus on what you want to achieve. By visualising your ideal outcome, you can begin to shift your attention away from fear and towards solutions. Consider what you would like to accomplish and visualise it clearly. NLP also helps you access your inner resources and strengths that can help you overcome challenges.
- Changing Submodalities: NLP suggests that your experiences have a specific structure, involving your senses. By understanding whether you are more visual, auditory, or kinesthetic you can use that knowledge to change the quality of your thoughts and feelings. For example, you can use the “swish” technique to alter the submodalities of a distressing memory and reduce its negative impact.
- Timeline Therapy: Using a timeline technique can be a quick way to alter your anxiety. This technique addresses the premise you have about yourself based on past memories and behaviours. Working on a subconscious level, this method works to change your experience of past memories and learned behaviours.
- Setting Relaxation Anchors: Anchoring involves associating a specific feeling with a touch or other trigger. In NLP, an anchor can be a touch, a word, or a visual cue. When you are in a positive state, you create an anchor, and then you can use that anchor to quickly access those positive feelings again. In treating anxiety, anchoring is particularly useful when you want to recall a positive part of a bad experience.
- Building Rapport: NLP emphasises building rapport which is getting along well with anyone. This technique involves making yourself comfortable with others and recognising that you are not alone in the way you act.
- Empowerment and Control: NLP is designed to empower you by helping you see that you are not a victim of anxiety. You can learn to take control of your state of mind by seeing your skills at producing anxiety behaviour can be developed towards a more positive skill-learning process. Instead of feeling taken over by anxiety, you can begin to see that there are more than just one choice available to you.
- Shifting from Problem to Solution: With NLP, you will learn to move away from focusing on why you are anxious to focusing on how you can create a solution. This involves a shift from asking why you have a problem, to asking how you can achieve a desired state. Instead of dwelling on the past, you learn to ask “how would I like things to be?”.
- Using Language Effectively: NLP also uses specific linguistic patterns to influence your thoughts and behaviours. This is because language doesn’t only include what you say but also your actions and body language. By using more positive language, you can help make changes at a subconscious level. For instance, you can affirm a new belief by using positive language, and repeat it frequently.
Key Considerations for Using NLP:
- Self-Help and Professional Guidance: You can start with basic NLP techniques on your own, but it can be more beneficial to seek guidance from a trained NLP practitioner. They can help you more effectively explore your inner mind and move you towards a more positive state of mind.
- Focus on Adaptive Techniques: NLP encourages you to approach your anxiety directly and work to understand it, rather than avoiding it. It’s about learning to handle your anxiety, rather than masking the symptoms.
- Consistency and Practice: Like any skill, it takes practice to get good at using NLP techniques. Be patient with yourself, and remember that consistent effort leads to positive change.
In summary, NLP provides a set of powerful tools and techniques to understand and manage anxiety by focusing on how your mind works, reframing your perception of problems, and using language patterns to create positive change. It’s about empowering you to take control of your mental state and move towards a more resourceful and confident way of living.