By L. Michael Hall & Bobby Bodenhamer

Both success and the barriers to achieving it have an underlying structure. Our thoughts take form through internal representations—visual images, sounds, and sensations, often arranged as mental snapshots or movies. By learning how to edit these representations, we can shift our emotional states, attitudes, and behaviors.

The Role of Submodalities in Thought Processes

The key difference between individuals who excel and those who do not lies in their ability to recognize subtle distinctions in their thought processes. These distinctions, known as submodalities, along with higher-level cognitive patterns, shape our experiences.

Reframing Trauma Through Mental Coding

Traumatic experiences continue to affect us when they are mentally encoded as if they are still happening. Elements such as vivid colors, closeness, or intensity reinforce the sense of immediacy and threat. By recognizing how we internally code these experiences, we gain the ability to modify them, reducing their emotional impact.

Dr. Hall discovered that some early NLP submodality techniques were ineffective in shifting beliefs, values, and understandings. This is because altering submodalities alone is insufficient—we must also address the overarching meanings and cognitive frames.

Foregrounding and Backgrounding Mental Representations

What we focus on consciously (foreground) versus what remains in the background of our minds determines our overall mental framework. Many people unknowingly emphasize limitations, obstacles, or inadequacies, which can hinder effectiveness.

Shifting our focus to solutions—by asking, What do I want? or What resources do I need?—leads to more productive outcomes. Changing what we foreground and background in our thinking can significantly improve our decision-making and emotional well-being.

Eliminating Negative Thought Patterns

Attempting to suppress negative thoughts or habits through sheer willpower is often ineffective, as it requires continuous effort. Instead, redirecting focus and using strategic interventions can create lasting change.

Despite Western culture’s tendency to dismiss “negative thinking,” peak performance often arises from an ability to notice and challenge existing assumptions. Effective thinking includes both validation and doubt, which helps refine our perspectives and decision-making processes.

Beliefs and Their Influence on Perception

Beliefs act as commands to the nervous system, guiding how we interpret and respond to the world. They are formed through experiences and generalizations.

Key categories of beliefs include:

• Self-beliefs: Identity, skills, values, and self-worth.
• Beliefs about others: How we perceive their motivations, behaviors, and needs.
• Beliefs about the world: Work, relationships, time, past events, future expectations, and personal destiny.

A belief, once established, becomes a lens through which we filter information. Repetition and familiarity reinforce these beliefs over time, making them seem unquestionable.

Transforming Limiting Beliefs

Doubt and disbelief arise when we start questioning the foundations of a belief. To weaken a limiting belief, we must undermine its foundation through inquiry. Conversely, self-doubt often emerges when we question our own behaviors and attitudes.

Process for belief change:

1. Write the new belief in a compelling and effective manner.
2. Affirm it from a meta perspective, incorporating future pacing.
3. Repeat the new belief daily for at least 30 days.

Beliefs can also be altered conversationally using metaphors, reframing, and NLP techniques such as the Sleight of Mouth patterns.

The Meta-Yes Pattern for Strengthening Empowering Beliefs

This pattern helps eliminate limiting beliefs while reinforcing positive ones:

1. Identify both a limiting belief and an empowering belief.
2. Recall a time when you confidently said “No” to something. Apply that sense of refusal to the limiting belief.
3. Recall a moment when you gave an enthusiastic and definitive “Yes.” Apply that conviction to the new empowering belief.
4. Amplify, reinforce, and anchor the belief with a strong “Yes.”
5. Future pace the belief by imagining how it will influence future actions.

This technique can also be applied in conversations, sales, and relationships by generating a series of positive affirmations, known in sales as the “yes set.”

Structuring Understanding: The Power of Going Meta

To develop expertise, we must move beyond scattered data and identify organizing patterns. Understanding comes from recognizing connections, sequences, and relationships within a given domain.

When experiencing confusion, rather than avoiding it, use it as an opportunity to restructure knowledge in a new and meaningful way.

Steps for structuring understanding:

1. Define the specific area you want to understand.
2. Identify the key knowledge and skills involved.
3. Examine how experts structure the information.
4. Experiment with different frameworks and diagrams to find what works best.

The Role of Values in Motivation and Decision-Making

Values determine what we consider meaningful, significant, and worthy of attention. They influence emotions, motivation, success, and self-regulation. Every mental framework we use is connected to values, shaping how we evaluate situations.

Key insights on values:

• The intensity of an experience is linked to the importance we assign to it.
• Emotions act as a reward and warning system, summarizing our past learning about pleasure and pain.
• Negative emotions, rather than being inherently bad, can serve as motivators for constructive action.

Understanding and Eliciting Personal Values

To explore your own values, ask yourself:

• What do I consider highly important?
• What is trivial and insignificant to me?
• What do I strongly want to avoid?
• What am I compelled to pursue?
• What was once important but no longer matters?

By comparing answers, you can recognize the submodalities that differentiate important and trivial matters in your thinking.

Changing Personal History Through Reframing

Our past experiences shape the lens through which we interpret present events. However, most problems arise not from the experiences themselves but from the meaning we assign to them.

Since our minds encode memories using submodalities, we can reframe past events by modifying these mental representations.

Steps for changing personal history:

1. Identify a past event you would like to change.
2. Determine what resources or insights would have made a positive difference.
3. Mentally apply these resources to the past event.
4. Reinforce the new perspective by creating an alternate, resourceful memory.
5. Future pace this resource to ensure it influences future reactions.

Inserting Resourceful Ideas for Personal Growth

Our thoughts reflect internal representations of past experiences. When we pause a mental movie, it often feels static and unchangeable. However, movement signifies progress and adaptability.

By identifying gaps between mental images, we can insert new, empowering ideas that transform our internal narratives.

Reading and Recognizing Submodalities in Others

Observing physiological cues—such as eye movements, facial expressions, and gestures—can reveal how others internally represent information. For example:

• A person looking at a small mental image may lean forward.
• A person focusing on a large mental image may lean back.
• Hand gestures may indicate movements associated with shifting perspectives.

By developing awareness of these subtle cues, we can better understand how others think and communicate.

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Conclusion

Mastering submodalities and meta-structures allows us to reshape our thinking patterns, overcome limitations, and enhance personal effectiveness. Whether applied to belief change, motivation, or understanding, these techniques offer practical tools for transformation.

By consciously editing our mental representations and shifting our cognitive frameworks, we can create lasting improvements in our perception, behavior, and overall success.