Principles for Using NLP with Emotional Intelligence

© Andy Smith 2002
1. Mind and body are one system.
Physiology affects emotion, and vice versa. Neuropeptides, the 'messenger' chemicals of the body, link the brain, immune system, and endocrine system in a multidirectional flow of information. Emotions strongly influence health.
(Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion, 1997)

2. Emotion influences perception and learning, and vice versa.
The brain filters our perceptions to create our 'reality'. The decisions about what we perceive, remember, and learn are regulated by emotion - the interaction of peptides and receptors in the brain. At the same time, emotions are a response to this filtered reality, memories, and learning.
(Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion, 1997)

3. Emotions have a structure - change the structure and you change the emotion.
We can look at emotions as having these components:
• Time Frame
• Comparison
• Modality
• Tempo
• Involvement
• Criteria
• Intensity
• Chunk Size

(Leslie Cameron-Bandler and Michael Lebeau, The Emotional Hostage, 1986)

4. Emotions are valuable information.
Even 'negative' emotions can be valuable warning signs that something needs attention now (Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear, 1998) or that some past event, issue or pattern needs to be resolved. The more attuned we are to our emotions, the more information we have to make the right choices. If we just suppress or obliterate these emotions - through denying them, through drink, food or drugs, or even through an NLP technique such as anchoring - we miss out on valuable information and are liable to repeat our mistakes.

5. Learning and change happen at the unconscious level.
Learning takes place at the unconscious level. The immune system, for example, can learn (Pert, op.cit.) A vital part of letting go of 'negative' emotions is learning what we need to learn from them (Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, 1986).

6. Quality of attention transforms emotions.
Giving attention to our emotions and exploring them from a starting point of serenity, in other ways than how we habitually experience them, allows them to transform into valuable resources and learnings.


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© Andy Smith 2002