Building Blocks of Experience: NLP Submodalities

Have you ever wondered why some memories make you beam with joy while others feel like a heavy cloud hanging over your day?

In the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), the secret isn’t just what you remember—it’s how you encode it.

Dating back to the late 1970s and championed by Richard Bandler, the concept of submodalities provides us with a manual for our own minds. By understanding these "tiny bricks" of experience, you can learn to turn up the volume on the good times and dim the lights on the bad ones.

Modalities vs. Submodalities: The Big Chunks and the Fine Details
Before we dive into the fine details, we have to look at the "big chunks" known as Modalities. These are our primary senses—the ways we take in the world:

• Visual: What we see (eyes)
• Auditory: What we hear (ears)
• Kinesthetic: What we feel (touch and internal emotions)
• Olfactory & Gustatory: Smell and taste

While these modalities are the main channels, submodalities are the building blocks inside them. Think of a modality as a LEGO set and the submodalities as the individual bricks that colour the shape, size, and texture of the final build.

Common Submodalities Examples:

The Power of the Remote Control: Why This Matters
So, why does this matter? Because submodalities are the code of your brain. If you think of someone you love, you likely have a specific "code" for them: perhaps a bright, warm image or a soft, comforting voice. Your brain uses these settings to tell you how to feel about every memory and thought.

The magic happens when you realise that you have the power to edit this code. You can consciously change the submodalities of a memory to change its emotional impact.

How to Use Submodalities to Change Your Life

1. Intensify the Good Stuff
Want to make a happy memory feel even better?

Freeze-frame a peak moment of a happy holiday or achievement.
Turn up the brightness and make the colours more vibrant.
Bring the image closer until it becomes a 3D, panoramic experience.
Turn up the "volume" on the laughter or pleasant sounds.
Notice the feeling and make it grow stronger in your body.

2. De-intensify the Bad Stuff
Are you replaying a frustrating argument like a tape loop?

Shrink the image: Make the picture of the argument tiny and push it far away into the distance.
Drain the colour: Make it a grainy, black and white photo.
Turn down the volume: Imagine a volume knob and turn it until the voices are faint and difficult to hear.
Change the "Driver": Find the one setting (the "driver") that makes the biggest difference for you. For many, simply making a memory "greyscale" or "far away" saps its emotional power.
 
Take Control of Your Narrative
The beauty of NLP is that it works even if you think you "can't visualise." If you just pretend or imagine you are changing these settings, your brain will respond with the same results.

By practising these shifts, you gain a level of emotional mastery that most people never realise is possible. You are no longer at the mercy of your memories; you are the director, the editor, and the master of your own internal experience.

Ready to dive deeper? Start experimenting today. Pick one good memory and one minor annoyance, and play with the "knobs" of your submodalities. You might be surprised at how quickly your world changes.