Objective: to create a higher level of resourcefulness and confidence

Step 1: Stand Up. Close your eyes and think of a time when you experienced confidence.

Step 2: Scale up the intensity of your feeling from 1 (not very intense) to 10 (very intense). Increase the intensity of the colors, brightness and size of [...]]]> photo credit: clevercupcakes

Objective: to create a higher level of resourcefulness and confidence

Step 1: Stand Up. Close your eyes and think of a time when you experienced confidence.

Step 2: Scale up the intensity of your feeling from 1 (not very intense) to 10 (very intense). Increase the intensity of the colors, brightness and size of the mental image.

Step 3: Imagine yourself transferring the feeling into an empty spot in front of you, and notice this empty spot taking on the energy patterns of your confident state.

Step 4: Break state.

Step 5: Now, think of a problem that you have that you would like to have more confidence in, anchor this problem using a kinesthetic anchor.

Step 6: While holding the kinesthetic anchor, step into this Circle of Confidence and notice the difference. Allow the intensity of the feeling of confidence to flow back into you while you face your problematic situation.

Usually by this time, the feeling of confidence would be more powerful and allow you to be more empowered in the face of problems.

In testing this, of course, the effectiveness of NLP methods will vary from person to person. If the technique doesn’t work, it’s likely that it’s due to the fact that you are a unique individual who needs unique solutions. To find out how you can get customized coaching for confidence, click here.

What do I use submodalities for?

Generally, submodalities are used to change the way we represent or perceive information in the mind. While this [...]]]> Submodalities are like mind codes. The way it is explained is that it is a “sub” element of a modality, comprising visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities of perception.
photo credit: h.koppdelaney

What do I use submodalities for?

Generally, submodalities are used to change the way we represent or perceive information in the mind. While this can be quite heavy to understand, think of it as a new software that you want to install into a computer.

Your mind carries a “template” of thought. This “template” is filled with your experiences based on certain codes in your mental template. This template of codes can be found in this submodality checklist.

What parts of experience are coded by submodalities?

Situations represent the context of your experience. Submodalities are the structure of our experience. Submodality Techniques are the process you use to change your experience.

I’ll give a variety of examples to illustrate this.

Do you realize that there are movies that give you a different feeling, simply based on the lighting they use in the movie? For instance, a dark movie that brings out more mystery would be “Batman: The Dark Knight”. notice the visual effects bring out a much darker, ominous feeling.

However, looking at a much more lively and vibrant scene in a show like “Sex In The City”, you’ll discover the colors are much different. The mood and rhythm of the entire movie is different, bringing out a different flavor in the movie.

How do I use submodalities?

Since we know that submodalities are like the elements that movie directors use in order to shift the way we experience the movie, then it is clear that by creating these changes in our mind, we literally become our own movie directors.

Using The Submodalities Checklist I have on this site, you can easily compare and contrast the effect within the submodalities in your mind. So I’m warning you ahead of time, until you have received proper NLP Practitioner training, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to fully grasp the way submodalities can work, even though I’m giving a detailed description here. You’ll need supervised practice most of the time in order to gain the maximum benefit out of using the submodalities.

Submodality Comparisons

First of all, submodalities are a way to understand the way we think, and how we construct our reality. For instance, taking two different emotional states, you can discover their differences through contrastive analysis.

Contrastive analysis is the process in linguistics to compare sentences and to identify the difference it makes to our mental representations.

• Statement #1: Happy young boys play enthusiastically.
• Statement #2: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Notice both statements follow the exact same sequence grammatically, but one makes sense and the other does not, thereby enabling a linguist to determine the effect of syntax (structure of the sentence) versus the semantics (meaning).

In the case of linguistics, we use contrastive analysis with sentences. In submodalities, however, you use situations and contexts. Think of the time you are working at your office and compare the time when you were stressed and the time you were energized. You will be able to detect the difference between two experiences quite easily, and therefore know how they were coded.

“So what?”

By understanding the way they are coded, you can:

• change the way you perceive and therefore experience a context.
• shift a negative experience in that context and adjust it so that it appears more positive.
• shift a positive experience in that context and adjust it to become even more positive and powerful.
• utilize processes that make change more habitual and natural

Example: Submodality shifts

I had a client once who had a build up of panic just prior to doing a presentation. In his mind, the audience was bright, loud and big. All I did was to get him to adjust the audience in his mind so that they were of the appropriate size and volume that made him comfortable to speak to them. He reported that he could not change the size of the audience, but said he could make himself turn into a giant in his mind so that the audience was in awe of him. This shifted his emotional state when speaking on a stage.

Example: Submodality utilization

A client once asked me how to be more motivated. So I asked what kind of pictures and sounds she made when she feels motivated. Generally, it seemed that she made brighter and closer pictures (compared with less motivated ones) and said “yeah!” in her mind whenever she was motivated.

The client has just accessed a resource state, which I can now utilize.

In this case, I got her to think of the context in which she was not motivated, or in a place where she had to be more motivated. She said it was her work. As a result, all she had to do was to perceive the workplace as brighter and closer in her mind, and as she was about to get things done, say to herself “yeah!”. This created a very obvious change in her physiological state: face flushing, smiling, and posture shifted to become more upright.

Example: Submodality Process

Another client had a phobia of snakes. Taking the image of a snake, she freaks out and goes into a phobic state, tearing and screaming. After the image is taken from her, she regained her composure. We first shifted the representation of snakes by thinking of a way to represent the data in a more comfortable way. She changed the snake to feel smooth to the touch (instead of slimy) and her favorite color. We even got her to imagine that the snake was like a baby she could cuddle. We brought in a real snake and she embraced it like a baby with little effort, because now the perception of snakes (domesticated pythons) was much different than before.

Conclusion

There are many other ways to utilize submodalities, and even in this post, I’ve barely scratched the surface. To be able to become masterful at submodalities, the processes and strategies you learn to shift a person’s emotional state must be learnt. In NLP, many people have invented dozens of useful and powerful strategies that can be applied in different situations. I’d advise you to learn how to model.

There are two ways to do this, but the easiest way is to utilize [...]]]> A lot of people tell me that in the spur of the moment they aren’t able to deal with emotions that are overwhelming. I thought about it and figured that I’d been in that position myself several times but managed to cope.

There are two ways to do this, but the easiest way is to utilize a verbal trigger to get you into a dissociated mode, something like a personal code. A phrase like “What’s going on” can help. This forces you to get some awareness. If another person responds to you in a negative way, saying “where is this person coming from” or “what is this person’s highest positive intent” can also dissociate you from just purely reacting and assuming negative things about your interactions.

This, however, requires you to assume that people have a positive intent behind any behavior. This is a basic presumption that to hold in order to make this works.

Emotional Management Technique

Step 1: Use your internal verbal trigger.

Step 2: See yourself floating out of your body and above the situation like a “helicopter view”.

Step 3: Ask for the highest possible purpose or intention for this situation or event. Step into the shoes of that person and go out into the future considering what outcome they want, or what possible good can come out of the situation.

Step 4: Consider new possible responses in light of the positive intention and re-associate into your body.

However in most cases, [...]]]> It’s been obvious that there are resources in our life that we need to control. So far, “knowledge” seems to be a resource that people can control with the use of appropriate learning skills. “Money” is a resource that people can control with the appropriate sets of skills an dbeliefs as well.

However in most cases, “time” is a resource that a lot of people don’t really know how to handle. It may seem that there’s no “skill” that you can learn to control time, unlike knowledge or wealth. Well, by now, you probably know that’s bogus.

Let’s take a look at the factors that allow you to handle time effectively.

#1 – Focus on what drives you.

In NLP, we understand the concepts of values: our inner motivational driving forces. If you have not really explored your own personal values, you should. It is the way in which you define these values that enables you to handle time properly. After all, clarity of hierarchy is the thing that gives you clarity of priorities.

#2 – Audit your values regularly

It’s no use if you’ve brought your values to consciousness but don’t review them. Review and audit them regularly to remind yourself of why you do what you do.

#3 – Establish the right beliefs about time.

If you are unaware of limiting beliefs about learning or money, you’ll find that you end up not being able to learn and probably not having enough money. Likewise, if you are not aware of your limiting beliefs about things you do, you might end up losing time. For example, when do you say you “don’t have time”? What are the common elements that are associated with those things that you don’t have time for?  No time for:

• Handling details (schedules, receipts, etc)?
• Meeting new people?
• Household chores?
• Quality time with your spouse?

Conversely, what do you have time for instead, where there is no resistance?

• Watching re-runs?
• Drinking alcohol?
• Habitual smoking?
• Window shopping?

This will uncover things about yourself you need to explore.

#4 – Control your internal representations.

Did you know that when you are rushed for time and when time disappears, it’s pretty much when you don’t keep track of it? Well, technically, even if you were handling your tasks well, time also seems to fly – but you have evidence that you’ve got your work done and you know you’ve used time well.

• Go back in your mind and ask yourself what is the difference between (a) the times when you had lots of time and did not produce results compared with (b) the times when you got things done.
• Notice what submodalities are different. Look especially in terms of the types of mental images. You might find that in (a) you had many fleeting images of different things in disarray in your mind, whereas for (b), they appear to be more structured and organized.
• Whenever you encounter situations like (a), convert the submodalities into those of (b) using the Mapping Across technique in NLP.

Which reminds me… I have to get some things done now. =D

I’ve met a number of writers who are exceptionally good in their art, but fall short on their time requirements. Not only do they find that time catches up on them rapidly, they end up with [...]]]> If you are a writer in need of speeding up your writing tasks, you probably want to read this article!

I’ve met a number of writers who are exceptionally good in their art, but fall short on their time requirements. Not only do they find that time catches up on them rapidly, they end up with a bad backlog of projects that cause them more stress. The downward spiral is excacerbated.

In order to ensure you are productive in your writing, I’d like to suggest what I call the NLP “writing stances”.

Writing Stance #1: Confrontational

This approach to writing definitely creates a burst of energy for anyone wanting to come out with content quickly. It basically is a shift of your emotional and physiological stance to confront a problem by first acting as if it were a personal issue. For instance, this article was written because I kept seeing so many people who face the productivity problem that I had to write it to “vent” and deal with the frustration as though I was the one with the productivity problem. This emotional state can get you to shift any mental block rather quickly. However, it may need a bit of censoring and editing in case your audience is not used to the expletives that may come out as a result of this stance!

Writing Stance #2 – Curiosity

This is a great stance to take up. When you place yourself in absolute curiosity for your article, you pose questions to yourself as if you were absolutely curious about the subject matter you are seeking answers to. Then, like the unraveling of a murder mystery, you come closer toward a conclusion of the article by means of a natural flow.

Writing Stance #3 – Three Things Factual

I find this approach easier for most beginning authors, or if you really need to get an article up and running as quickly as you can. The reason for this is basically because of a psychological tendency for us to move toward completion. If there are three things to consider, then that’s all you need to focus on. After listing each of the three items and elaborating on them, you’ll find there’s little room for mental blocks – your path has already been laid out!

Writing Stance #4 – Frivolity

Ooh. This one is really an off the cuff thing talking about whatever you observe or sense. It’s like conversational banter, and using each thing you notice around you to bring the reader closer to your point. I mean, I might have had a tall latte from Starbucks in the morning, but don’t just talk about that. Make conclusions about what you noticed. A creativity tool called “synectics” can show you how to creatively link two things in a somewhat meaningful way. For example, you might be writing about the topic of happiness. Hey, I’m sure there are a million and one ways to connect a “tall Latte” to “happiness” in a meaningful way!

Writing Stance #5 – Polarity

It’s very easy to agree with what others write. It’s not as easy to consider why others’ points of view may not be the most developed. In other words, you become a critic of others’ writings and elevate your point to something original or innovative. To do this, you have to use an argumentative approach that debunks the premises of others’ claims in order to come up with something more outstanding or give people the “wow, I didn’t realize this, but it’s a great point” experience.

So you have the five stances I’ve modelled from great writing states… go out there and start writing!