Meta Programs are habits or “programs” of attention – what we pay attention to and what we filter out – the awareness of perception in various contexts.
The conscious mind, it is said, can only attend to a maximum of 7 +/- 2 representations at once. Yet our sensory receptors are actively perceiving uncounted millions of perceptions every second of our lives, and our brains are processing the vast majority of that unconsciously.
Our conscious minds are designed for focus. How, then, is that focus to be selected? The conscious mind can manage the selection within 7 +/- 2 (seven, plus or minus two) representations. It would be overwhelmed, however, at the full infinitude of sensory choices on a moment by moment basis.
It’s a good thing, then, not a bad thing, that our unconscious can handle millions of sensory representations at once. The question is, how is it doing that, and is it serving us in the best way?
What if the unconscious is habitually selecting things to present to awareness that our conscious mind would prefer not to be aware of at that time or place? And what if we want to change the selection criteria or update it to adapt to new circumstances?
Meta programs can be changed with NLP. However, it is often more useful to keep them as they are but increase our choice in their use more appropriate to certain contexts.