My Day At The NLP Conference

On Sunday I went up to London to attend the annual NLP Conference at Regent's Park. It was my first time and I wasn't sure what to expect.

For those of you who may wonder what NLP is it's an acronym - Neuro Linguistic Programming. In layman's terms I would describe it as the 'Creation of habits through thinking, words and being'. This is my definition, so for any seasoned NLPers reading this blog, if you have a better way of describing it then please let me know.


Michael Breen's session on Sunday morning was my introduction to the NLP community - it was particularly entertaining and thought provoking. One comment in particular struck a chord with me:

"Being wrong is one of the best ways to learn. Being wrong is how you discover stuff"

Think back to your childhood and what your learning experience was like. How were you taught at school. My experience of school as a child was that being right, passing tests and getting the tick in the box was emphasised. Dum questions were not encouraged. Finding out and discovery were almost a happy coincidence rather than a desired activity!

Michael went on to discover with us the language we use to access different aspects of our 'other than conscious mind' (I feel obliged to use this term, I'd normally call it the subconscious but know that this isn't a p.c. way of describing it). Our minds were given the freedom to make mistakes and learn and it was a very mind opening session which set me up for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon Susi Strang explored a different room in our brain when we worked on our legacy. Meditative being and thinking started our journey and I shared with the person sitting next to me and found that we had similar work experiences and reasons for being interested in NLP. I liked the definition of NLP that Susi offered to us:

"Practical philosophy of being"

The previous Sunday I had been talking with someone else about NLP and know that this would not have been their definition of NLP! You're probably picking up a pattern here - there are many flavours of NLP and many different paths that you can walk. I guess that was really the flavour of the conference - you could attend any session and each one would give you a different window on the fascinating world of NLP.

The final session of the day was by John Seymour on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective NLPers. The take away from this for me was one practice that highly effective NLPers adopt:

"Do nothing until you've found a way of enjoying it"

You don't have to be an NLPer to practise this one. Doing something with other than a happy attitude will not encourage you to do it more. Finding a way of enjoying even the most menial task like washing the dishes creates a different space. Maybe renaming it 'meditation with washing up' will create a different energy and lead you to enjoy the task for itself.

All in all the day was illuminating and bright and leaving the conference in the darkness of the evening the church tower opposite Regent's Park shone like a beacon in the sky symoblising the higher thinking and being we had experienced during the day.