When I tell someone I am a Certified NLP Practitioner (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) most get that #WTF look on their face. Others ask, “What is NLP?”

My definition is: NLP is the study and improved understanding of communication, both internally within oneself and externally with the world. It’s the science, maybe even a technology of sorts, of understanding how the brain (and body) works, and how to influence your thinking and the thinking of others, through the use of language (verbal and body).

NLP goes one step further and offers methodologies, or “tools,” to recode the way the brain responds to virtually any type of stimuli. It’s a way to create new and better behaviors that ultimately lead to better outcomes.

I took my training with MindBridge Training, with Marilou and Jerry Seavy (https://www.mindbridgetraining.com/). My intention was 100% for self-improvement, and not to go into practice as an NLP Practitioner or NLP Coach (which MindBridge training leads to).

I also wanted to be happier.

Most of what I do requires influencing others, but to do that I have to simultaneously manage and better communicate with myself. Sometimes managing myself is the harder of the two, as many might relate!

The 5 biggest take-aways from my NLP training with MindBridge Training:

(1) You will definitely come away with a better understanding of yourself as well as others. It’s all about communication. The quality of your communication is directly tied to the quality of your life. Put another way, the better you manage your communications the better your life.

(2) This was one of the best investments I’ve made in my entire life. While I’ve dabbled with NLP and its principles in the past, I sure wish I took this in-depth training 20 years ago! I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in self-improvement and being happier.

(3) There are some pretty cool and smart people in the NLP world. Spending 8 full weekends with like-minded people, to say the least, was an incredible experience.

(4) Everybody does what they do for a reason.Everyone makes the choices they do for a reason that they think is right. For a reason they believe is in their best interest.

(5) How I perceive things, and have believed things have been for years, can and often is totally different than what is reality. In one training session Marilou completely and immediately changed how I was looking at something (and I had been for years), that historically created a lot of anxiety and stress for me. The situation hasn’t gone away, that’s not how life always works. But when the situation comes up now, I experience it completely different with no more stress or anxiety. Thanks Marilou!

I know it’s an old cliche, and I think one most often attributed to Dr. Wayne Dyer, but make no mistake – it’s 100% true. “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.”

To me, this is one of the key tools you learn when you study NLP- reframing. NLP helped me (a) understand this, (b) practice this to my benefit, and (c) helped me stop, think, evaluate, and understand myself and others.

For more information about MindBridge Training, and NLP Certification and NLP Coaching Certification from MindBridge Training, visit: https://www.mindbridgetraining.com/

p.s. They also offer NLP Training in Dubai.

– Chris Jaeger