Third Position in NLP relates to a Perceptual Positions. Third Position, or Meta Position, is the point of view of a dissociated observer, an over view.
This position is very powerful for gaining insights and learning from the situation.
When you are in the third position, you are detached from the emotion and can expand your thinking and how you neurologically experience the situation.
When we are associated and inside an experience, it can sometimes limit the angles it can be viewed from. Using the third position you can discover more effective ways to improve interactions and communication.
It’s useful to go to this position if you start to feel overwhelmed with emotion. Going to this position gives you the space you need from the emotion to regain conscious control and increase your awareness of how you would like to respond to the situation.
It is often the most powerful position in the process of Perceptual Positions where the greatest learnings can be found.
If you have a conflict in your life at the moment, consider floating up outside your body and being a fly on the wall looking down on the scene.
See that in your mind now and look down on the scene and what’s happening in the interaction.
From that position, what do you see, hear and feel?
What is there to learn from this position, what can you notice about what’s happening?
Once you have completed that process and considered these questions looking down on the scene, you have been in the third position.