Using submodalities we can quickly and easily make changes to our experience by
using specific techniques that alter the perception of the perceived event. Here, I will outline a few basic patterns you can use for each representational system in order to change your experience. In much the same way putting on sunglasses,
headphones or a swimsuit changes your response to sunlight, outer noises or
water temperature, submodality patterns change your response to thought. For
example, I might think of a time when I was last with my wife… “We are at the beach and I can see [visual] the sun glowing on her face, and I can feel
[kinesthetic] my heart beating lovingly in my chest, as I hear [auditory] her soft voice whispering in my ear…” And as I see [visual example] that movie playing in my mind, I turn the brightness up, and I notice I feel stronger about the experience. This is just one example of how by using NLP adjustment patterns, I
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can subsequently change my experience when I think of that particular time (in
this case, for the better). I’m now going to give you a series of patterns to
complete, and once you’ve done them, I want you to revert back to the original
thought, and continue reading.
For Visual People: Think of a recent experience that was pleasurable for you. It could be a time when you were out with friends, with someone special, had just achieved something significant, or maybe you were enjoying time on your own.
Whatever the experience, I want you to clearly focus on it in your mind, and as you do, I want you to experience what it’s like to…
[1] Change the color: Shift the color from intense bright colors to black and white.
[2] Change the transparency: Make it transparent so you can see through it.
[3] Change the distance: Move it from very close to very far away.
For Kinesthetic People: Think of a recent experience that was pleasurable for you.
It could be a time when you were out with friends, with someone special, had just achieved something significant, or maybe you were enjoying time on your own.
Whatever the experience, I want you to clearly focus on it in your mind, and as you do, I want you to experience what it’s like to…
[1] Change the location: Move the location from chest to stomach, high/low.
[2] Change the temperature: Shift the temperature from hot to cold.
[3] Change the pressure: Make it tighter or looser.
For Auditory People: Think of a recent experience that was pleasurable for you. It could be a time when you were out with friends, with someone special, had just achieved something significant, or maybe you were enjoying time on your own.
Whatever the experience, I want you to clearly focus on it in your mind, and as you do, I want you to experience what it’s like to…
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[1] Change the volume: Make it louder and then quieter.
[2] Change the clarity: Alter it from clear to distorted.
[3] Change the tempo: Shift the tempo from fast to slow.
This is an example of how changing your thoughts, changes your response. After
this exercise it should become extremely apparent to you that it is the way you
think about and process your experiences, that is both the source of your
happiness and your frustrations, rather than anything outside of you. When we
experience something outside of ourselves, our representational systems kick in
and give that experience an instant meaning. If we change the way our
representational systems respond, we change our internal response, and thus,
our experience. There are many examples of experiences that have occurred in
our lives that we have perceived completely differently than how they actually
happened, because of the distortions we created through our internal filters.
The same applies when we see an image of someone on a billboard with writing
next to it that says, “This means beautiful”, or when your friend comments on
how “gorgeous” the girl walking across the street is. It’s not the writing or your friend’s comment that causes the problem, it’s your response to it. If you change the way you look at body-image and beauty, you change your response. This is all
done using NLP to re-program parts of the way you think so you can perceive
other people’s ideals around beauty without feeling as though it’s some kind of
personal attack or contrast against the way you already look.
We change the world around us, by changing the way we perceive it, and
subsequently respond to it. This is a much faster and more effective way to build a happier world (from within), than trying to change the way the media, society or our culture portrays beauty.
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