In Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), we’re interested in neuroscience and the brain because that knowledge steers the way we deliver interventions. Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. It combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, mathematical modelling, and psychology to understand the properties of neurons and neural circuits.
Neuroscientists focus on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive functions, or how people think. The ancient Greeks were the first on record to study the brain. They attempted to understand the role of the brain and how it worked and to explain neural disorders. The brain isn’t merely another organ in our body, indeed every operation in our body starts in the brain.
There are many different branches of neuroscience. However, within NLP we’re most interested in cognitive and behavioural neuroscience, and epigenetics.
Cognitive neuroscience concerns itself with the scientific study of biological materials driving cognition and mental processes. Actually, it involves understanding how psychological/cognitive functions are reflected by neural activity in the brain.
In contrast, behavioural neuroscience (also known as biopsychology), addresses the impact of the nervous system on attention, perception, motivation, performance, learning, and memory and their manifestations in our behaviour.
Epigenetics studies heritable phenotype changes that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. In NLP, what interests us is what Dr Bruce Lipton calls ‘the biology of belief’. That is to say, if our ancestors experienced physical or emotional trauma, can this manifest in our DNA today?
In summary, if you want to be an excellent practitioner of NLP and Time Line Therapy®, it’s useful to understand certain elements of neuroscience and the brain.
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The Power of Cross Crawling To Balance Your Body & Mind What Is Cross Crawling? Cross crawling is when we use the two sides of our bodies in opposition or mirroring movement. The automatic sequencing of upright muscle movement (walking and running) is supposed to be coordinated the same way. You’ll have experienced this, as … Read more
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If Your Laptop Behaved Like Your Brain You Could Be In Trouble! When I first met my husband and I asked him if he’d heard about NLP, he merely shrugged his shoulders and said “I’m not very good at computers”. I couldn’t help but giggle. More fool me. I use that trigger point to remind … Read more
