What Are NLP Submodalities?
Author
Damon Cart
Date
Mar 30, 2018
Tags
General tips
Content
Author
Even though submodalities are taught in beginner level NLP trainings, I'm always surprised by how even advanced NLP practitioners don't fully understand the importance of submodalities.
For those who don't know what submodalities are, they are the sub-qualities or finer details of the modalities of the five senses.
It may sound complicated but it's really not.
In NLP the terms representational systems, modalities, and the 5 senses are used interchangeably.
Think of modalities as your senses; taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing. NLP tends to focus on Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic often referred to as VAK.
Submodalities are the qualities of each modality when we represent modalities internally. For Visual the submodalities are, but not limited to, the size, location, richness of colors, brightness, etc.
For Auditory it's the volume, location, pitch, tone, etc.
For Kinesthetic... Most people confuse Kinesthetic.
When it comes to emotional and evaluative feelings as in how you feel about something, we're all kinesthetic. We take in information from what we see and hear (and sometimes taste or smell) and then we have a feeling about it. Do I like it or do I not like it? Do I want to do whatever is being proposed or don't I?
Many people mistakenly believe because they have feelings that they must be primarily kinesthetic. This is not true because like I mentioned we depend on how we feel about something to make every decision we make.
Aside from the evaluative/emotional kinesthetic there is tactile kinesthetic and proprioceptive kinesthetic and all of these have submodalities as well.
Feelings have a location. Where in or on your body do you feel it? They often have a temperature as well and weight, texture, and movement.
Why are submodalities important?
First off, not all submodalities are important. Sometimes when you change a submodality it has no effect on the experience you're internally representing.
If you change a hair on the Mona Lisa, most likely no one would notice. But you paint her eyes blue and not only will everyone notice, you will experience the Mona Lisa differently because her eyes are the driver of the painting.
What you're looking for with submodalities is the driver submodality that affects the meaning or the evaluation you make of your experience.
Remember that you don't experience the world directly. All of the information you receive from your five senses is represented internally in your mind into what we call in NLP your internal map of reality.
You can't possibly focus on all of the information you take in every moment to make any sense or use out of it so you create a map that leaves out certain parts and creates a condensed version of reality.
Think about it like a GPS. What you're looking at on your GPS is a condensed version of the terrain coded with lines and colors that indicate roads, land, and water. This makes it much easier to navigate the terrain.
Submodalities are one way you code your map of reality. A submodality or the reason your unconscious chose to make a picture in your mind bright or dim, for example, is usually an indication of the meaning you give that experience. Change the submodality and it often changes the experience.
How might this work?
Ever notice that when you're really down or even depressed, it doesn't matter how much someone tries to tell you every reason why you should be happy, it just doesn't work? Or maybe you try to talk yourself into being happier by using logic and rationality and if anything it makes it worse.
That's because your feeling is the result of how you've coded and structured the experience internally and this structure is stronger than reason and logic.
Reasoning and logic is what you do after you've created the internal representation, not before.
Learn to change the structure of your experiences with submodalities and you can change the meaning of your experiences.
If you work at this consistently you can completely overhaul your experience of life and create happier, more fulfilling experiences.
No such thing as failure, only feedback. Your feedback is welcome. Reply to this email, message me on Facebook, or comment on Youtube.
Damon Cart
Author
Damon Cart is considered to be a natural talent by some of the best NLP trainers in the world. His approach to guiding and teaching students brings to their awareness that they've been doing NLP all of their lives without realizing it and he empowers them with skills and resources to thrive and reach their full potential. With the understanding of how Neuro Linguistic Programs create oneβs experience a person can then take charge of those programs and create the experience and the life they want. By taking this approach into his own rigorous, daily NLP practice Damon has been able to rapidly accelerate his progress in learning, coaching clients and teaching workshops.
