NLP Submodalities - Change your Reality

Commonly, people will report that bringing the picture closer makes the feeling stronger, and pushing it away lessens the feeling, and that this works exactly the same whether the feeling is positive or negative.

If you discovered this, then well done.

If not, don’t worry, while this particular response is common, it is not compulsory.

What is important is your own particular results as this will be consistent whatever memory you are thinking of.

The aim of the next exercise is to work out which submodalities effect how you feel, and which ones don’t.

Exercise 1:

Using the image from the last trial, go through the following list, and for each of the submodalities, change the image in both directions, and make a note of what difference to your feeling the shifts make.

As before, once you have finished each shift, put the image back how it was before you started.

If you would like to print out the grids used in this Lesson then refer to the Submodality Worksheet.

One thing to notice is that the last three of these shifts work in a different way to the others. The first shifts are all analogue, in that there is a constant shift, i.e. when changing the distance of an image there are an infinite number of different possibilities, but with association (for example), you are either in the picture or not. There is no inbetween.

Now you have a list of visual submodality shifts and how they affect your feelings. Some of these shifts may have little or no effect, some may have some effect, and some may have a very dramatic effect. So put that list aside for now while we work with the auditory modality.

Exercise 2:

Go through your past with a fine tooth comb and find a memory that gives you a strong positive feeling, but also has a strong auditory element.

This could be the sound of a particular persons voice, or you could remember the sound of waves crashing on a beach, or maybe you have a thing about train-spotting, and can remember the sound of a particular train.

The key is that the memory must have an auditory element and create a strong positive emotional response.

As before, you’re going to go through a list of submodalities, auditory this time, and change each one in both directions, and note what the changes do to the feelings for each of the submodalities, and as before, make sure that after each shift, the memory is returned to it's original form.

So now you have a pair of lists, that show what submodality shifts have what effects on you.

So the obvious question is 'What do I do with this information?'