What Are Modalities And Submodalities?

In NLP modalities and submodalities are refered to as our preception to the univers. In order to change our viewpoint of the universe we need to become familiar with the way we precive the world around us. Therefor knowing their concept and function is essential to undrestand our own viewpoint of the universe.

Basad on NLP our preseption of the universe is shaped through our senses. Thus we represent the information received within ourself and then by analysing them (elimination, distortion, generalization) we come to an undrestanding of the world around us. Threfor the difference between our preception and the reality of the universe is natural. By this defination it cab be concluded that human preseption of the world is not fixed and unchangble, so by knowing the structure of modalities and submodalities we can make changes in our preseption toward improvement and a beter life.

What Is Modality?

In NLP the inner image created through the 5 senses is called modality. This inner image besides the picture itself contians sounds and everything felt or recieved by the 5 senses. For instanse you’ve wittnessed an accident which includes many details and you captured just some of them. But the question here is that after a coupple of houres the imgae you have in your mind and scene of the accident itself are the same? definatly not. It’s probable that some parts of the image are bold and more noticable and some has been removed.

What remains in your mind of that accident is definatly differnt from what acctually has happend. Modality is the very inner image you have of the reallity. Modalities are build through our preferrd repesentational system. Everything you experience is as a result of information you take in through your visual, auditory and kinaesthetic system. So modalities are catagorised into these three systems.

What is submodality?

Submodalities are fine distinctnctions or subsets of modalities. As we mentioned modalities are catagorised into these systems of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. In fact submodalitues add more information to our inner images, sounds and senses. For instance you can describe an inner image with the colors, size, sharpness, distacse and ect. These features are called submodalites. Here are some commen submodalities:

Visual Submodalities:

• Black and White Or Color
• Near or Far
• Bright or Dim
• Location
• Associated or Dissociated
• Focused or Defocused
• Framed or Unbounded
• Monie or Still
• If A Movie; Fast/Normal/Slow
• 3D or 2D 

Auditory Submodalities:

• Loud or Soft
• Near or Far
• Internal or External
• Mono or Stereo
• Fast or Slow
• High or Low Pitch
• Verbal or Tonal 
• Rhythm
• Clarity
• Pauses
• Location  

Kinaesthetic Submodalities:

• Strong or Weak
• Larg Area or Smal Area
• Weight: Heavy or Light
• Location
• Texture: Smooth or Rough
• Constant or Intermittent
• Tempreture: Hot or Cold
• Size
• Shape
• Pressure
• Vibration

Submodalities Key Building Blocks of NLP Techniques

Submodalities are key components to many of the NLP change techniques. As mentioned earlier submodalities, by themselves or as part of other techniques, have been used to assist people to stop smoking, eat more of certain foods and less of others, address compulsion issues, change beliefs and values, enhance motivation, move from stress to relaxation, address phobias, etc. Be sure to keep in mind that NLP is Much more than that!