012 – Managing Your Internal Voices With Sub Modalities

Mike Sweet

NLP In Action

Welcome to NLP In Action. NLP insights and practical tips to help you discover what NLP has for you.

This is Episode 012 of the NLP In Action podcast. This session is all about controlling your state, by managing your internal voice with submodalities and the way it or should say you make you feel. Your inner voice is the one that is talking to you right now.

Perhaps even while you’re listening, watching or reading this, that internal voice is still chattering away. There’s a chance it’s asking you because it wants you to ask me where I’m going with this.

Perhaps you’re confirming to yourself that you’ve heard something like this before! This inner voice or inner critic is with all of us. However, some people blame this inner voice and describe it as a piece of them that they simply can’t control. Some feel it has power over them and it makes them do and feel things or perhaps in some cases, not do, the things that they want to.

Who’s voice is it anyway?

The great news though, it’s your inner critic. In the book the chimp paradox the author describes this as monkey mind. It’s also referred to as monkey mind by certain Tai Chi practitioners. I like to see it as, you! Trying to separate this is precisely the problem. This is a part of you, and you have full control over it, however, some paradigms assume it’s “it”, that has authority.

So how do you begin to relinquish control over the seemingly wild trains of thoughts? One of the ways I mention quite frequently is the type of questions you ask yourself. I’ve covered this in another podcast please check that out. Today’s show is all about controlling this inner voice and sometimes our biggest critic by using submodalities. This is an NLP podcast after all! LOL

Time to get all NLP!

This inner voice in NLP terms is often referred to as Auditory Digital. Auditory Digital means merely the voice inside our head.

Submodalities of auditory digital are volume, pitch, pace, tonality and various other sound defining characteristics. It’s also worth noting that changing the location of the voice is very powerful too. We know the sound of that voice which is inside our head, however, merely moving that sound to another part of your body could also have a dramatic, profound effect very quickly.

We understand lots about language, we know that it’s not so much the words we choose to use, but the “how” we say them that can make a big difference to a person. Thankfully we can change our inner critic easily.

Let’s look at some examples of how to use submodalities

Perhaps you’re learning guitar, and you’re finding it difficult initially as anyone would. You keep on keeping on. But the inner critic just keeps saying, “you’re never going to be any good at this, you just haven’t got the dexterity.” Now if this is said in a tone and way that make you feel as if it has an impact on your performance, then it’s time to change that. Try saying that in your head but in a playground childish “ner ner na ner” style. “You’re never going to be good at this; you just don’t have the dexterity. You’re too old to learn to play the guitar why didn’t you learn earlier?”

You can also change the pace that you use for your inner voice. Another great technique is to simply change the character inside your head when it’s unhelpful to something that perhaps comical or has less perceived authority. Something like Lisa Simpson, Donald Duck or Stuart Little.

Volume is also a great way to control how you feel when your inner critic just jumps in. Just imagine for a moment. Turn it down or even using proximity and moving that voice from the centre of your head. Perhaps down your body to your knee or your foot or even move it away from you entirely. Perhaps on the window ledge or even outside of the window so it’s really quiet just talking to you from outside. Remember this is all a process of imagination, and so much of NLP is about constructing a new imagined process which dramatically changes your state and your outcome. Even though there are some guidelines and boundaries remember you can play with this as much as you want, just notice your state as you do so.

Submodalities can be used in so many ways. Some people like to imagine a control room inside of them where they’re able to adjust all of the submodalities. Imagine for a moment you’ve got your own internal control room that you can access any moment to turn up and down experiences, make them bigger, make the smaller, desaturate them or really make them vibrant and colourful. They are your imaginations therefore your constructions and your creations. But most of us don’t give a second thought to what we create. Even though they directly affect the way we feel and act. Adjusting and playing with submodalities really can allow us to regain control.

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