How to Practice NLP By Yourself
Author
Damon Cart
Date
Oct 12, 2015
Tags
General tips
Content
Author
By Logan Christopher
If you want to good at anything you need to practice it. This is true for NLP and it's the idea on which this website was founded. Thus we'll be exploring this subject in depth, and using NLP to help us get better results with it.
Here's the problem, at least it has been for me, and for a number of people I talked to.
NLP is hard to practice on your own.
For some this isn't a problem. They interact with others all day long. But I don't. I work from home and on some days I don't interact with anyone besides my girlfriend. (Yes I do practice on her in case you're wondering.)
Since NLP is mostly used as a way to improve communication of various forms, using it with others is essential, but that is not necessarily the place we need to start. Therefore, in this article we're going to look at what you can do in order to practice on your own.
The Difference Between Studying and Practicing
You can read books. That's great for acquiring new information. My shelves are filled with NLP books and I'm always collecting more.
But even if a person read every single NLP book, that wouldn't necessarily mean they could "do" NLP. Yet, this is what those with a digital mindset tend to do.
A cognitive understanding is different from skills "being in the muscle".
So while "studying" is good, realize that this is different from "practice". I've fallen into the trap of studying more and more, but never really improving what I could do because it was just information and not action.
A majority of your time is better spend practicing, rather than studying. In fact, you probably already "know" enough things with which you'd like to get good. Then stop studying new things and instead put them into action in the form of regular and consistent practice.
Sometimes this can be done by yourself, but it'll often times require other people. Since this article is focused on doing things yourself let's look at that.
Doing NLP Techniques On Yourself
Have you ever tried a six step reframe on yourself? What about the swish pattern?
And how did they work out?
Running NLP techniques on yourself is often less successful than when other people run you through them. Why is this?
I would say the biggest thing is the amount of time typically spent and the depth to which you go in information gathering. As an example of this think about the Meta Model.
If you're coaching someone through a drill you're going to get as much information as you need, often done by asking questions like "How specifically?"
But when you're doing drills yourself you tend not to meta model yourself. After all you're already in your head and you know what is going on (even though its all deletions, distortions and generalizations).
Someone in the 2nd person perspective will take the time to get the actual information that is required to change, while often times you gloss over it.
I'm not saying you can't do drills on yourself. This is a valuable way to "practice".
What I like to do to create my own 2nd position is to write down information at each step in as much detail as is essential. While this requires moving positions and shifting states, back and forth more it allows me to go deeper into the drills. On the plus side you also get better at changing states and positions!
Part of the difficulty in doing NLP techniques on yourself is in shifting perceptual positions. But there's also lots of value in doing so.
This practice will give you some experience and perspective with any drill. Then if you can begin to practice on others it will fill in more detail for you. Self drilling is a useful first step that can be done with any technique by yourself (some are easier than others and there are some best left for a competent coach, like re-imprinting traumas).
Take any NLP drill and do it by yourself. Just one drill a day. You can do the same drill day after day picking different content to run on it or a new one each day.
In one year you'll have run 365 processes…or more. You might find it hard to just stop at one. And as you become better at running your brain and controlling your states you're likely to find many areas of your life improve.
In my next article we'll discuss other processes for studying and practicing NLP by yourself.
Damon Cart
Author
Damon Cart is considered to be a natural talent by some of the best NLP trainers in the world. His approach to guiding and teaching students brings to their awareness that they've been doing NLP all of their lives without realizing it and he empowers them with skills and resources to thrive and reach their full potential. With the understanding of how Neuro Linguistic Programs create oneβs experience a person can then take charge of those programs and create the experience and the life they want. By taking this approach into his own rigorous, daily NLP practice Damon has been able to rapidly accelerate his progress in learning, coaching clients and teaching workshops.
