Coaching with NLP For Dummies®

Understanding the Submodalities

In your mind's eye, think back to an event that happened yesterday. You don't need to think back to a major event, just consider some food you enjoyed, a movie you saw or a conversation you had with a friend. Notice the images, sounds and feelings that come to mind. Which sense is strongest for you? Imagine that you have your own control buttons to change the quality of the images, sounds and feelings. Take the image and make it a different colour, turn up the volume or lower it, change your feelings to a different emotion, change any textures or tastes. Notice what effect each of these changes has on you. You can think of a pink elephant, a sunny day or the sound of the wind without experiencing it in the moment. Playing with your senses demonstrates the fantastic power of your playful mind.

NLP suggests that everything you experience is as a result of information that you take in through your senses: Visual (V), what you see; Auditory (A), what you hear; Kinaesthetic (K), what you touch and feel emotionally and physically; Olfactory (O), smell; and Gustatory (G), taste. These senses are the modalities and are referred to as the representational system of VAKOG (read more in Chapter 2 on representational systems).

Each modality has a level of ...