There is much talk and debate about remapping the brain using NLP. But what exactly does this mean? Remapping the brain is a way of changing the paths your thoughts take to control your reactions to a given situation. Your brain is a complex system of pathways facilitated by electrical impulses sent between neurons. It has taken scientists and therapists many years to figure out exactly how the brain works and how these pathways affect us. Fortunately, you don’t have to know all the medical explanations to understand the importance that NLP can play in helping you achieve what you want in life.
To understand how NLP remapping can help, you must first understand the essentials of how pathways work in the mind in a general sense. When shown an image of, say, a snake, your brain immediately assesses what your reactions should be. If you are afraid of snakes, you will recoil in fear. However, if you like snakes, you will see the image in a completely different way. What happens is that your subconscious mind decides which school of thought to follow. In the most general terms, this is known as the “fight or flight” syndrome. Would it make sense for you to fight in a given situation or run from it? All of this is determined by the paths that your thought patterns travel.
The science of NLP has shown that your thoughts can travel in one direction, causing you to fear whatever is shown to you, or whatever you like. And after that first fork in the brain’s roadmap, there are countless others. These bifurcations and branches form the complete network or road map of the brain. They are shaped by your life experiences. Every emotion you experience is another paving stone in the path of your brain. However, as in the road system of any city in the country, you can change the layout of the roads by changing the course of where the cobblestones are located. NLP can do this for the brain map.
Since we know the basic pathway of the brain from NLP, we know how to go in and resurface the pathway system to form a completely different map. This is accomplished by instilling a new set of perceived experiences. As you have already read, each cobblestone is formed by the emotions that we experience throughout life. Through the use of hypnosis, a therapist can reach into the subconscious mind and change the way these experiences are perceived, thus changing the layout of the cobblestones. This in turn will change the entire map of your mind. If the suggestion is implanted that, in a very basic way, when you see a snake, you are not afraid, then the first fork in the path will be changed, meaning that every fork that would have been navigated after is no longer in question. That is the power of NLP.
This is a very simple example of how using NLP to remap the brain works. Obviously, many sessions are needed to navigate all the available paths for your thoughts to travel and change them all. This example is simplistic to say the least, however the basic principle remains the same. When a therapist can change the pathways of the brain, they change the end result of the reaction your body takes to the pathways your thoughts take. That is how NLP it can remap the brain and bring about a more desired outcome in any situation in life.
