In the chapter The Sanchen and Yin and Yang you were asked to close your eyes and become aware of how you were feeling emotionally inside. It also suggested you start to become aware of how you are feeling at intervals throughout the day to develop awareness of yourself and what you are saying in your own mind on a day to day basis. Becoming aware of your inner dialogue and feelings is a great start to becoming more self-confident and secure.

However, you are now going to learn how to tune into those sounds and feelings and enhance them if they are good for you and empowering, or convert them into good thoughts if they are negative and make you feel bad.

INTERNAL REPRESENTATION SYSTEMS

Have you ever wondered why people say their legs turn to jelly whenever they are put in a tight spot to do something they are scared of? How about when a person is describing a time when they won a competition and say it was like a rush of energy surged up their spine and it was as if everything slowed down? Do you ever hear people mention they felt so angry they saw red and then it was as if everything suddenly got further away until the only thing they could see was the person they were angry with in front of them? How about claustrophobics who talk about the walls closing in on them?

These are examples of what in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) they call your Representation System and Submodalities. They are our internal way of sensing our world and connecting meaning to the events we experience around us. For instance, if you think of your most romantic song it will probably make you feel all gooey inside. If you bring back memories of a loved one it may make you smile. Maybe if you drive or walk down certain streets it brings up feelings of people you know or once knew who lived there?

If you think now about something you really love doing and are good at, you will probably start to feel really good inside and maybe hear your inner dialogue giving you supportive comments. However, if you imagine doing something that you are scared of or challenges you, like public speaking, you probably start to feel really, really nervous, the feeling inside wouldn´t be that great and certainly your inner dialogue might start screaming all sorts of abuse at you.

People use visual and auditory “anchors” linked to events and situations that elicit emotions in us all the time. In horror films it is the typical dark room with creaking doors and sinister music that provokes the feeling of fear in us. Advertising and marketing companies are notorious for playing on our feelings to get us to buy their products. The lottery companies have us imagine how wonderful life would be if we just bought a lottery ticket through images of luxury living, yachts and fast cars.

People use it on each other all the time and you have been using it on yourself probably unwittingly throughout your life as well. Now you are going to learn how to manage it and use it to your advantage. The memories and thoughts that make you feel good you are going to keep and improve on, and the bad feelings you experience and thoughts you don´t like you are going to erase, minimise or replace.