Your personal visual acuities and your sub-modalities is something only you can see and are aware of in your ‘minds eye’ and what you view when you are imagining, day- dreaming, during hypnotherapy and visualisations. You are always processing this kind of information often without realising it and is important to understand it.
Here we are speaking mainly of visual acuity but there are also sounds, feelings, smells, tastes etc. and most people are not even aware that they have their very own palate of colours and internal visual acuities and sub-modalities and learning how this can affect our anxieties, stressors, PTSD and trauma can be fascinating.
Sub-modalities refer to the subjective structural subdivisions within a given representational system, for example, in visual terms, common distinctions include: brightness, degree of colour (saturation), size, distance, sharpness, focus, and so on; in auditory: loudness, pitch, tonal range, distance, clarity, timbre, and so on.
In NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming and hypnotherapy we help people look at the context, structure and process of these internal representations, therefore the internal images, feelings and sounds a person has or makes often more than in the content of itself as life internally is like a constantly changing moving reel.
We often say to people that your visual acuity and sub-modalities are like having your own internal television or movie reel that you can learn to observe or check into from time to time to see if it is supporting you or distracting you, similar to analysing your dreams or day-dreams but in more profound and precise ways.
This has nothing to do with your visual sight per say or how well you read or your visual communication as such but it does impact how you feel, your mood, motivations and how you communicate internally and externally and you can have more control over it by understanding it now.
The best way to find your sub-modalities is by asking someone to imagine their bedroom at home and what they say is how they process remembering and what is conveyed in a visual way and with all sensory aspects are deemed their sub-modalities.
Every single person has their own unique sub-modalities and visual acuity is just one of the many sensory modes to explore and this can be fascinating when understanding feelings and how these can change from one moment to the next.
In fact, how we process information is so fascinating and still so vastly unknown that you can study hypnotherapy with different practitioners, trainers and lecturers and everyone will explain and use different techniques but helping to induce changes in one’s sub-modalities acuity is often straight forward and agreed upon.
This makes life very interesting but also sometimes quite confusing and frustrating because what is happening in our ‘minds eye’ is occurring at such a rapid pace that we are often not aware of the changes taking place and this is where a session can be tremendously useful, and learning it is essential.
We have had clients who one day can remember what their old bedroom looked like in fine detail to not being able to recall colours or forgetting elements and sensing a haze or different sounds whilst recollecting it at other times.
'Everyone’s visual acuity externally is different and can be measured by an ophthalmologist on with an eye chart and special eye machine, whereas internal visual acuity needs to be discussed and can change faster than the wink of an eye.'
I have found during hypnotherapy sessions that people that are often overly anxious do not realise that their sub-modalities and visual acuity is often blurred or taking place at a very rapid speed and their internal imagery is deeply affecting how they feel.
This can range from having sub-modalities that are quickly shifting in colours to complete darkness or emptiness and can be quite disturbing to realise at first but then a huge relief as it can often be resolved with mindfulness techniques, NLP, or hypnotherapy.
In fact, understanding oneself is the greatest part of having a hypnotherapy, life coaching or executive coaching session as you get to explore what is happening with your sub-modalities and how your visual sensory acuity is just one of your senses and can sometimes be the most significant to shift.
When recollecting an event that has been traumatic sub-modalities can often change over time like most memories however if it is still impacting a persons’ life the sub-modalities will often present themselves different and is a significant key in self-awareness.
Change and transformation may not always be simple or easy but understanding the importance of sub-modalities and visual keys can make a significant difference in how one remembers and what is discussed and viewed during hypnotherapy.
Learning about how your own acuity of your visual sub-modalities can change or is moving or adapting in the real world can be a strong key to understanding how and why you feel anxious in certain situations and how hypnotherapy, NLP and coaching can help you to feel more calm or motivated.
Comments