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Ken Ward's Mind Mastery Course

Your owner's manual for your brain - that you never received or never read.

Submodalities

You represent your thoughts using the five senses, or modalities. However, you need to more precise to determine exactly how a person represents their world. A man dealing with a problem expertly, might say that he says something to himself and then forms a picture of something in the mind. You determine more about the pictures, feelings or sounds you use to produce behaviour by discovering the submodalities. You can change submodalities. and create changes in the effect that the picture has.

We can strengthen or weaken representations by changing the subject of the representation - thinking that everything will be fine instead of thinking the worse - or by changing the way we sense the representation. We change the way we represent the mental event by changing its submodalities.

Contents of this Page

Visual Submodalities
Auditory Submodalities
Feeling Submodalities
Action Submodalities
Pain Submodalities
Think of a pleasant experience
Reframing a negative experience
Changing the Power of Representations
Changing Visual Submodalities
Changing Auditory Submodalities
Changing the Kinaesthetic
Crossing Modalities
Tools to change your life

Visual Submodalities

We can explain submodalities. better by giving examples. If you picture something in your mind then you might:

• See a movie or a still shot
• See a panorama or a framed picture
• Colour or black and white
• Brightness
• Size of picture
• Exteriorised or interiorised
• Where the picture is - up or down, left or right
• Distance of picture from self
• Angle or direction of the picture
• Clear or Fuzzy

You view an image from an interiorised perspective when you view it as if it were happening to you. You view an image from an exteriorised perspective when you view it as if it were happening to someone else.

Auditory Submodalities

If you hear a sound in your mind it may be:

• Loud or quiet
• Soft or rasping
• Frequency - high or low pitch
• Source of sound
• Timbre (characteristic sound, such as a voice like Donald Duck)
• Movement of the source
• Duration
• Tempo

Kinesthetic Submodalities

These includes the feeling and the action aspects. A feeling is often a sensation or an emotion. However this representation contains physical actions which concern touch.

Feeling Submodalities

If you have a feeling it may be:

• Hot or cold
• Texture - rough or smooth
• Vibration
• Pressure
• Weight
• Location
• Rhythm
• Steady or intermittent
• Facial expression
• Body position
• Eye positions
• Gestures

Body position is not really a submodality because there are many specific options such as sitting, standing, etc. And these have other submodialities, such as hand positions, straight back, slumping, etc. However, body position and other items in this list alert you to look for more submodalities.

Action (touch) Submodalities

• Reaching and withdrawing
• Grasping
• Holding and letting go
• Grappling
• Hugging
• Feeling

Pain Submodalities

Pains which are feelings can be:

• Tingling
• Hot or cold
• Tension
• Sharp dull
• High or low pressure
• Duration
• Throbbing
• Location

Think of a pleasant experience

Remember a pleasant experience.

• Bring the picture closer.
• Make it brighter.
• Make it bigger.

How does the picture change? For many, the picture of made more enjoyable (although you can test for yourself to find out what works for you).

Imagine yourself there in that pleasant picture. See what you saw then. Hear what you heard then. Feel what you felt then.

Now move out of the picture and see yourself in that picture. Sense what you saw, said, felt, etc. For most people the picture is more intense when you are inside the picture rather than being outside. But, as usual, what is true for you is true. Experiment and find your own submodalities.

Changing an internal voice

If you are bothered by an internal voice that limits you in some way, then:

• Turn down the volume
• Make it softer
• Make it appear to come from farther away

If you wish to make a voice more motivating, make it sound sexy and seductive.

Reframing a negative experience

Find a mildly unpleasant experience. Just something slightly unpleasant.

1. View the scene as if you weren't in the picture - that is see yourself in the picture (externalised).
2. Put a frame round the picture
3. Make it a still picture, not a movie.
4. Move the picture away from you
5. Make it black and white or even a cartoon
6. Have the other person speak like Donald Duck (a funny voice, so you laugh)
7. Hang the picture on the wall.

By using these simple techniques most people find the experience funny rather than slightly upsetting (as it was before you changed the representations).

Changing the Power of Representations

The power to influence of a mental image, feeling, sound, etc, depends on the submodalities. The exact way submodalities. influence the feelings, etc engendered by mental representations depends on the individual.

However, the examples given below apply to many individuals. Usually, if they work differently for you, then you would do the opposite of what is suggested below. If an image is more influential when it is dull, then you would use this information to strengthen or weaken it.

Changing Visual Modalities

Visual submodalities. are more powerful for many people when they are brighter, bigger and nearer. They are less powerful when they are dimmer, more distant and smaller. They may change in power if they are moved from one position (location) to another.

Take a mildly unwanted image:

• make it smaller.
• De-focus it so that it is more blurry.
• And move it away from you.

Notice any changes in its emotional effect on you (feeling modality). You can also experiment with other submodalities.

By changing visual images in this way you can change the effect they have on you - unwanted ones can be made less influential and wanted ones can be more powerful.

Changing Auditory Modalities

If your self talk, for example is negative, then try turning down the volume of the voice. Make it dull and lethargic - make it boring. Change its apparent source, moving it to different places and noticing where it is best for you (in this case less effective).

To make an inner voice more motivating try turning up the volume and making it full of pep. Make it vary in a motivating way. Try different locations for the origin to see how this affects the power of the voice to influence you.

You can do the same thing to make any sounds more effective or less effective in the way they influence you.

Changing the Kinaesthetic Modality

Use the submodalities. above to change a feeling. Making a feeling more wispy often makes it less intense. If it is a hot feeling, try cooling it down to sense the effect. If it is rough try making it smooth or vice versa. If it is heavy, make it lighter.

Crossing Modalities

You can sense the effect of changing other submodalities. For example, if someone had a feeling of depression, you might check out its

• weight,
• location and
• texture.
• etc.

However, you might also check out the colour and size, etc. You could also experiment with any sounds.

Tools to change your life

The above tools can be used to make unpleasant images powerless to affect you and make slightly pleasing events extremely enjoyable. Using submodalities. you can change your mind and the minds of others.