As human beings, we make sense of the world through our five senses ... sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. This is the information used to make up our internal representations of the world. What this means is that every thought, memory or use of imagination, contains information from our senses. So, it may comprise pictures, sounds, feelings, smells or taste. Furthermore, the information from our five senses contains lots of different qualities and distinctions.
So for example a picture can be moving or still, bright or dim, black and white or colour, a good or poor contrast, 3-D of flat just for starters ... which only takes in the distinctions made using sight ... there are four other senses we use everyday as well!
If you haven't heard about Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), you may never have given much thought to how you code information in your brain. NLP has a name for the finer distinctions of our senses – submodalities. Its not something we usually think about, but it's extremely valuable to know about.
It's valuable to know about submodalities, because it's possible to use them to modify and / or change how our memories are coded in our brains and as a result change the meaning of the memory.
By making changes to the coding, memories and imaginings about the future can be made more or less intense, positive or negative, more desirable or less real. Have you ever had the experience of thinking about a past event, or suddenly remembering something and feeling intense unpleasant feelings?
It may be that you have a fear of something, and some kind of trigger, a word, smell or sound etc may set you off, so that you experience all those unpleasant feelings as if they're really happening in that moment.
NLP, has a range of techniques, which can be used to reduce or eradicate the intensity of remembered experiences. Its possible to take an unpleasant memory, examine how it's coded and then make changes so that it's no longer unpleasant and the emotion just drains away.
You can also learn to be aware of the impact of how you code experience for yourself.
In it's simplest form working with submodalities can allow you, if you choose, to take something that has unpleasant feelings associated and allow those unpleasant feelings to drain away as if they never existed in the first place.
The best way to learn about submodalities is to experience them. Try the following:
Find a quiet place ... or even better a quiet place with a committed friend to talk you through the process.
Have a think about something that's unpleasant or uncomfortable for you, like something that annoyed you recently.
When you think about it do you have a picture?
If so, where is the picture located, is it near or far? - If it’s near make it far and if its far, make it near. How does that feel? Place the picture wherever if feels best.
You could make other changes to the picture, try turning the brightness up or down, if its black or white make it colour and vice versa.
Do you see yourself in the picture, your whole body? (Disassociated) Or are you re-living it, as if through your own eyes (Associated)
Generally speaking when an event has unpleasant emotions for us attached to it, you'll be associated into the picture ... that is it'll be as if you're re-living the event as if you were really there, feeling the feelings, experiencing the experiences.
From this place of being in it ... move yourself to a place where it feels like you're watching yourself in a movie ... to the point where it seems as if you're watching yourself on a screen.
Are there any important sounds to go with the picture?
If there is a voice, try changing it to something funny, perhaps Donald Duck, or a really sexy husky voice!
You can turn the volume up or down, make the tonality and quality clearer and even change where the sounds are coming from.
Again just play around to see what changes make the memory more pleasant. Think about the feelings that go with the memory ... Where are they located?
Try, moving the feelings to somewhere else, say your little toe. If they're moving, try making them still or vice versa.
What shape are the feelings? You could make them into a pink, fuzzy, vibrating ball, the size of an apple pip, located in your little toe!!
Notice the change in how they feel as you play around with them.
You'll notice that the funnier and more unreal you make this 'movie' the less intense the unpleasant feelings will be ... eventually you'll get to a point where the whole thing is feelingless ... if that's a word ... or even comedic.
It's at that point you'll find you'll be able to leave that unpleasant event behind you and move forward in your life with grace and ease.
Love to know how you get on! Leave a comment below.
Love life and live it creatively and on purpose!
Leanne
PS If you’re looking to feel great about yourself and your life check out our fabulous audios at www.YourSuccessfulMind.com/FeelingGreat MindRight Programming Tools to put you back in the driver’s seat of your life!
