The language you speak without even knowing it

Our problems are schemes . They act in the prescribed manner, which invariably repeats every time we encounter them. How to use the programming system of your own subconscious to influence your thoughts, feelings and actions?

Think about what you really, really love . About something simple, for example, about cupcakes, kittens or the formation of a perfect rainbow from the roots of books standing on the shelf. For a few seconds, consider a mental image of this object or phenomenon.
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Is the picture color or black and white? Where exactly is it located on your internal screen (left, right, top, bottom, fixed center)? Is she big or small? Is the image far or close? Is it moving or static? Light or dark?

And now think about what you really, really don't like. For example, about cockroaches, spiders and so on ... Look at the available image and ask yourself the same questions. These two pictures will not be identical.

The insignificant and automatic difference between these visual representations largely determines the types of behavior that you are most likely to demonstrate when confronted with similar phenomena. This mental coding system works continuously and is extremely powerful, but many of us don’t even think that it exists until we are asked to analyze our own thoughts.

How different we see things

What you encounter, like your every thought, is classified and connected on a subconscious level to a certain combination of sensory characteristics, like the ones you just received. Your mind does this so that in the future you will remember what feelings this thing should have in you. The above example looks at visual representations, but similarly, your entire sensory experience can be broken down into subcategories. It's a kind of personalized symbol language that you speak fluently from birth. In neuro-linguistic programming, these characteristics are called submodalities.

Modalities are feelings: visual (vision), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (touch), olfactory and gustatory. In this article we will seriously discuss only the first three of them, because they are easier to access, and they are usually used to make changes.

The word “submodalities” refers to the ways of separating and classifying information coming from each of the modalities of the senses. In essence, submodalities are the parameters of your thoughts, this is a special approach to how you look at the image, hear the sound, or perceive the sensation.

Why is this information so useful to extract (both for the therapist and for yourself)? You can manipulate the submodalities, helping your mind to treat things differently. For example, if the author could see his inner image of cockroaches, using a set of submodalities corresponding to a picture with a fluffy kitten, he would probably manage to write this article, dispensing with the grimace that appears on his face every time he uses the word "cockroaches ".

How does all this determine our perception of life?

All this concerns not only our internal visualization, but is used by the subconscious and for filtering and evaluating the experience obtained in the interaction with the outside world. The coding of submodalities is something that happens even before the information obtained through the senses reaches our consciousness.

So, by the time you realize that you are looking at a kitten, your subconscious mind has already decided to process incoming information in accordance with your “cat” set of submodalities. This, in turn, leads to the fact that you do not have to, every time seeing a new kitten, decide what feelings it causes you. You always know what the pre-programmed reaction to kittens will be, so if nothing interrupts your normal behavioral pattern, you just do it as usual. Thus, the system of submodalities saves a lot of time and energy, eliminating the need to evaluate, and then select the appropriate model of attitude to the world around.

Submodalities can be invaluable information for solving someone's emotional or behavioral problems. Our problems are schemes. They act in the prescribed manner, which invariably repeats every time we encounter them. It looks like this:

• first, the trigger is triggered (usually it is something related to the environment, what we see / hear / feel / smell / taste);
• then follows the selection process, during which our brain decides to which segment of the previous experiment the impression appeared (“this is the same thing that already happened then”);
• this is how an emotion relating to this thing (“inner feeling”) is created, based on choice;
• Finally, all of this determines the behavior that we have as a result and demonstrate.

Consider as an example the problem with the chiefs. Imagine a person who becomes agitated and loses the ability to talk coherently every time the boss asks him a direct question. Subsequently, being at a safe distance from the boss, he comes to a normal state and reproaches himself for having (again!) Behaved like a wordless idiot.

All this happens because the subconscious draws up the image of the boss using a combination of submodalities, saying: "Fear it" or "Danger!". This is probably due to the fact that it connects the current environmental factor (boss) with the terrible memory of childhood. For example, with too picky school teacher. And although the boss is completely different from that teacher, the subconscious mind helpfully unites them into one category - things that should be avoided. Just to be safe.

Practical use

There are literally hundreds of different ways to use sets of submodalities or manipulate them, allowing you to make positive changes. They form the basis of all thoughts, so the possibilities here are much broader than the banal “like / dislike”.

The submodalities of bodily sensations can be adapted to reduce the intensity of pain in people with chronic illnesses (or simple headaches caused by stress ). You can also influence the worldview, shift the values ​​so that the phenomena subconsciously end up at different levels of significance. This means: you can actually find yourself taking actions that you have previously avoided, or find yourself no longer doing what you would like to give up.

The manipulation of submodalities is usually used by persons aware of them for immediate release from negative emotions (for example, from anxiety or anger). This is a fantastic tool for actors and athletes.

Probably, the understanding of this coding system should be taught in elementary school. It is extremely simple and powerful, although many of us are not even aware that we can easily influence our attitude to things.

How to manipulate your thought process

To change your submodality sets, you need to:

• first determine and analyze the scheme of the problem you want to solve;
• consider which modalities it represents;
• and then extract the submodalities of these thoughts and modify them.

“DON'T GET EVERYTHING !!!” - negative dialogue with yourself

In the classroom with the athletes this occurs again and again. In many cases, right before an athlete makes an unforced error (sends a golf ball to the trees, makes a double mistake when serving in tennis or misses a penalty in football), he can hear a voice in his head saying something like " You will spoil everything! ”Or“ This is really important, so don’t spoil everything! ”Both phrases, of course, usually lead to the same disastrous results.

Of course, not all of us hear a voice before making a mistake. Some just have a feeling , for others the same role is played by a mental picture. Sometimes there is a combination of all the listed phenomena. However, if the factor is an internal voice, the resultant behavior (for the error) is partly due to a set of submodalities.

Example: Golfer's Peg's Excitement

Right before the golfer prepares to strike at the crucial moment of the competition, she has a voice in her head: “Do not spoil everything!” After these words, she has a bad feeling as if she knows what will happen and then the girl always makes a mistake.

Since the problem circuits “light up” in their established order, breaking this connection — by installing something like a breaker — you can prevent the remainder of the circuit from “breaking out”. This means that there will be different options for the outcome. Intentional change of submodalities is one of the available methods of committing such a “sabotage”.
The most obvious element suitable for change in the case of a golfer would have been the voice. It might be possible to consider the submodalities of a bad presentiment, but since the voice comes earlier, aiming at it, you will kill two birds with one stone.

Highlight a set of voice submodalities by answering the following questions.

• Variable auditory submodalities:
• Localization: where does the sound come from (left, right, top, back, bottom, front)?
• Does it sound inside or outside your head?
• Volume: loud or quiet?
• Texture: soft or rough?
• Tone: high or low?
• Timbre: does he have any distinctive features (for example, squeaky, like Mickey Mouse)?
• Duration: short or long?
• Pace: fast or slow?
• Distance: near or far?

Having a combination of variables, she can change them one by one in order to understand which traits affect the feeling triggered by the voice. Usually a significant difference is given by 1-2 submodalities, while the majority of the rest bring little fruit or do not affect the situation at all. Those of them that significantly change the state of affairs are called “engines”.

Localization is a common engine. Imagine that our golfer noticed the appearance of a serious difference after transferring a source of voice from the right half of the head to the left. Usually, immediately after changing the submodality engine in a negative dialogue with yourself, you begin to feel that the voice is losing its strength. He may become irrelevant or even stupid in a new place.

As you can see, other submodalities after the change of the engine will change automatically. For example, after moving a voice to the right, our golfer may seem that he is farther away or sounds quieter. In the end, the only thing that really matters is that you feel different (you feel better).

Armed with this information athlete is able to withstand the old negative voice, highlighting a second to move it to the right. If the engine had a tone, it could have made it lower or, conversely, raised to change the result. If it were about pace, it would be possible, respectively, to speed it up or slow it down. In fact, there are no rules, you should continue your attempts until you see the changes. Then you get the result.

A change in submodality leads to the temporary removal of self-doubt, which is the root of the problem. This frees up the window of freedom from the old restrictions, and now it can be used to concentrate on something more useful, for example, on visualizing a ball moving in the right direction. She could see a similar picture with a set of submodalities associated with success or ease to really increase her chances of a good hit.
This language can be used to get rid of conflicting feelings, disturbing images or distracting sounds. Sometimes making changes becomes a tool that you use further. In other situations, it is enough to do so only a few times so that the subconscious mind decides to make modifications permanently and automatically.

Part of the effect of this process is that it allows you to regain a sense of control, and even manage your feelings. We tend to think that we are dominated by our own emotions, so regular use of a practice that proves the opposite can greatly increase self-esteem.

PS We recommend another article on the topic - How to turn off the internal critic and ignore the desire for perfection?

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult .