What are submodalities?

The representational systems or the five senses by which you make an internal representation (IR) of your world are known as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory. Visual is what you see, auditory is what you hear, kinesthetic is what you feel, olfactory is smell and gustatory is taste. In NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) your representation of an external event is based on your five senses and these result in your state, physiology and subsequently your behaviour. This is essentially the NLP Model of Communication. These representational systems are also known as modalities.

These modalities (representational systems) can be further divided into the building blocks of the five senses. For example, how each picture (visual), sound (auditory) or feeling (kinesthetic) is composed. The submodalities of visual are: number of images, whether a picture or a movie, size or shape, colour or black and white, focused or unfocused, bright or dim, framed or not framed, associated (seen through your own eyes) or disassociated, and close or distant. Auditory submodalities can include: volume, pitch, timbre, tempo, tonality, duration, or harmony. Some of the submodalities for kinesthetic are: location within the body, sensations, pulse or breathing rate, intensity and movement or direction. Olfactory and gustatory can include sweet, sour, bitter, aromatic, fragrance or pungency.

Changing submodalities can have a profound effect on the way you think about a situation, event or even a person. For example, you have a colleague who irritates you in some manner. What you need to do is to make an image of that person and see them look at you at whichever way annoys you. Hear them say whatever it is he/she says and notice the bad feeling that occurs within your body. Then with that image change it to black and white (e.g. submodality of visual), move that image far off into the distance. Make that image of that person even smaller and smaller again. Now put a clown’s nose on their face. Next you need to hear whatever they are normally saying except they are saying it in Donald Duck’s or Mickey Mouses’ voice (e.g. submodality of auditory). Notice how you feel differently about that person.

By changing any of the submodalities of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory you can empower yourself in more situations and be in charge of how you respond and react to events.