30 Seconds to Motivation

It is amazing isn’t it how we can each describe the details of an event differently.  A way that is unique to each of us as individuals.

If we were to change the way that we describe an experience to ourselves would that change the experience?

Submodalities is a word used in NLP and they are how we describe these experiences to ourselves. The fine distinctions by which we know how it is that we code, order and give meaning to our experience.

Inside we bring about emotions by creating pictures, sounds and feelings.  We make pictures inside based on the information that we take in from the outside. Are those pictures bright or are they dark? Are they moving or are they still? Are they big or are they small? Are they near of are they far way? Are they in black and white or in colour in our heads?

So, lets have a play.  Think of someone that you really like. Do that for me now, think of someone that you really like.   As you think of that person, do you have a picture?  If you don’t then, can you think about what that picture might be like?

Now, do you have a picture?

As you think of that person, where is the picture in terms of location on your mind screen? Is it in the centre, left or right, up or down? Is it moving or still? Is it black and white or colour?  Is it fuzzy or focussed? Are you seeing your body in the picture or are you looking through your own eyes? Is it near or far?

Now I would like you to clear the screen.  Come out of that experience.

Now I’d like you to think about someone that you dislike, or at least like less. Do you have a picture?  As you think about not liking them, do you have a picture?  Where is that picture on your mind screen? Is it moving or still? Is it black and white or colour?  Is it fuzzy or focussed? Are you seeing your body in the picture or are you looking through your own eyes? Is it near or far? Is their a frame around it or is it panoramic?

Now come back into the room. So, what was the difference between the two experiences?  Did you notice any differences? I’ll bet there was a difference.

Ok. Think again about the person that you dislike.  Have you got the picture?  Now what happens when you bring the picture closer to you? Make it big and bright and bring it closer to you. How is that?  Not nice? Ok, take the picture and move it away, put it back where it came from.  Come back in the room.

From what we just did you can notice the impact of just making slight adjustments to the submodalities of the pictures that we make in our heads?  That is how easy it is to change your internal experience.

So, we make slight changes to our sumbodalities and our whole internal representation changes.

How do you think that this might be useful to us?  Suppose that there is someone in your life who is giving you problems, one of the ways that you can improve your projections towards this person is to change the way that you hold your thoughts about them in your head, change your submodalities and you change the way that you feel about them.

What about if we believe that we can or that we cannot do something?  Can we change the way that we feel about that.  We certainly can.

How’s about we think of something that we are really motivated to do.  Think of something that you really know that you want to do.  It could be anything, something really trivial. Like a film that you are going to watch tonight, or a trip that you are about to take. Think about that event.  Do you have a picture of that event?  Do you have a feeling about it, a picture of that feeling?  How does it look?

As you think of that picture of something that you are really motivated to do, where about’s is the picture? Is it moving or still? Is it black and white or colour?  Is it fuzzy or focussed? Are you seeing your body in the picture or are you looking through your own eyes? Is it near or far?

Ok, come back into the room. Now, think of something that you know that you should do but that you have been putting off.  As you think of that thing do you have a picture?  so where is the location of that picture, left, right, centre, up or down?  Is it moving or still? Is it black and white or colour?  Is it fuzzy or focussed? Are you seeing your body in the picture or are you looking through your own eyes? Is it near or far?

Come back to now.  What were the differences between the two pictures?  Was one further away? Were they in different locations?  Was one focussed and one defocussed, one bright, the other dim?

Now get back the picture of the thing that you are putting off.  Do you have a feeling about that thing?  What is the feeling like? Are there any sounds involved in it?

Now what happens if you take the picture and give it the same code as the picture of the thing that you are motivated to do? Put it in the same location, give it that same brightness, the same focus, the same code as the other picture.

Have you done that?  Now, how do you feel about doing it now?  Has that changed the feeling?  I’ll bet that you feel more motivated to do it now don’t you?

This is simple isn’t it.  Come back into the room.  So, simply by changing the way that we code our thoughts we can change the way that we feel about doing certain things.  Can you see now how useful this could be?

So, when we say focus on what you want, can you get how we can do that now?

You can learn much more about Submodalities and how you can change how you feel in an instant in our NLP Training series. Either join us in the UK on one of our NLP Training Courses or train in NLP Online at our NLP online training centre.