NLP Course Tips | Managing State

One of the key benefits of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is that it that it enables you to improve how you manage your emotional and physical state. Rather than waiting for events to affect how you feel, you can, to a greater extent, choose how you feel. This can both help you enjoy life more and improve your ability to influence others.

When influencing others it is worth considering the likely impact of your state on your audience.  If you’re curious, honest, tenacious and passionate you will have a very different impact than you would by being arrogant, uncertain, bored and disinterested. It is often worth first considering what you want your audience to do and to feel and then consider the most important states and flow of states to achieve this. The main ways of managing your state are through:

1) Memories and imagination

2) Physiology and breathing

3) Questions

4) Belief Change

5) Meditation and letting go

The best NLP Courses will enable you to explore for yourself how to improve how you manage and change your own states and the states of others. The following gives you an introduction to some of the best approaches.

Memories and Imagination

When you think back to a time when you were in a particular state, and remember the specific components of your memory. Particularly what you saw, what you heard, what you felt and maybe what you could taste and smell. This process will normally strengthen the memory and enable you to bring back that state to the present. When you’re unable to remember a memory relating to a particular state, you can use your imagination to create a similar effect.

Physiology and Breathing

Your state is often related to your posture and your breathing. Develop an awareness of how you sit, or stand when you’re in particular state. Develop an awareness of how your breathing changes in particular states, whether you’re breathing from chest or abdomen and the speed or slowness of you breath.

If you’re in a bad state for any reason be aware that some deep breaths and a gentle stretch may be all that’s needed to move you into a more useful state

Questions

The questions we ask ourselves and others will tend to lead us into different states. The questions What am I going to do to achieve something useful today? And What’s the most useful thing that I can do next? are likely lead to useful states. The questions Why did I fail? And Why am I unsuccessful? are likely to lead to negative states.

In addition, the tone of voice that we use with ourselves and others when we ask questions may impact state more profoundly than the question itself. Awareness and the ability to change our tone of voice when we speak to ourselves and others is a key element in communication and influence. 

Belief Change 

Sometimes life is difficult. However, if we can find a positive meaning in our experiences and situations it can make a significant difference to our state. It may not change the external situation but it will change how we feel about it, and in turn what we learn from it. So if we’re going through something we can’t change it’s worth asking the questions - What can we learn from it? And How can it help us in some way?

Meditation and Letting Go

Traditional meditation is a way of accepting and letting go of what in the past would have led us into negative states. Meditation can be as simple as sitting for ten minutes with a straight back, and simply focusing on breathing. While we focus on our breathing we accept any thought and distraction that naturally occurs, and simply have to gently focus back on our breathing when we realise we’ve been distracted. Meditation builds up an inner strength that can protect us from negative states.

Whichever way we develop our ability to lead our own state we are learning how to have a more enjoyable life, and developing the ability to positively influence ourselves and those around us.

Michael Beale is one of the UK's leading NLP Trainers and Business Coaches. For further details see Michael's website on NLP Courses. In Addition Michael is Co-Host to the On Line NLP Conference