REPRESENTATIONAL

SYSTEMS

NLP

PRACTITIONER

CERTIFICATE
 REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS

VISUAL: An individual who primarily operates from a visual representational

system will use their vision for memory and decision making, and their primary
contact with the world will be through their eyes.

Visual processing takes in lots of information, and a picture can carry more information
than sound or feeling. Individuals with this representational system preference are
often very skilled in being able to see the big picture and plan on a long-term basis.

For example, Walt Disney, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Albert Einstein were all
accomplished visualizers.

Here are some other clues that might help you to begin identifying those with a
preference for visual processing.

- You'll notice that they pay particular attention to how they look, how their home
looks and how others look.

- They may find it difficult to concentrate with lots of visual activity.

- They talk quickly, breathe higher and often develop upper body tension. There is a
lot more information in a picture than a verbal description.

- They use visual information for remembering, planning, and making decisions.

- They more often than not need to see a picture of what you're talking about.

- They are better at recalling faces than names.

- They prefer to see your facial reactions face to face, as supposed to talking over the
phone so that they can fully understand what you are saying.
 REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS

AUDITORY: Auditory system processing is linear and sequential. Visual system

processing handles a lot more information. It's like a recorded message as
supposed to a picture.

Someone who mainly operates from an auditory representational system will typically:

- Be more aware of a subtle change in the tone of your voice and be more responsive
to certain tones of voice.

- Be easily distracted by noise.

- Learn best by listening and asking questions.

- Enjoy taking part in discussions and prefer to communicate through spoken language
as supposed to writing.

- Talk through problems and prefer to have someone available that can bounce ideas
off.

- Be sequential in their thinking and are able to remember instructions and directions
more easily.

- Need to be heard.

KINESTHETIC: Someone with a kinesthetic preference is mapping predominantly in

feelings and therefore has a high sense of body awareness.

Those with a kinesthetic preference will tend to:

- Be more aware of their bodies and their feelings and respond to physical rewards and
touch.

- Speak slower than others because they need time to get in touch with how they're
feeling about the topic.

- Learn by doing, moving or touching.

- Make decisions based on how they feel.

- Dress and groom themselves with more consideration for comfort than aesthetics.
 REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS

AUDITORY DIGITAL: Those with an auditory digital preference spend a lot of time
talking to themselves.  Understanding how things work is very important to them -
they like rules, logic and the mechanics of a process.

For those with an auditory digital preference, instead of saying something 'looks good',
'feels nice' or 'sounds right', you'll often hear them say 'that makes sense', or 'that seems
logical'.

Those with an auditory digital preference, will usually:

- Have a desire to work things out so that they can understand

- Memorize details by sequences and procedures

- Like to think and plan things through - they are rarely spontaneous.

- Continue conversations with others in their mind - they spend a lot of time talking to
themselves.

- Weigh heavily on logic, facts and figures when it comes to making decisions. 
 REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS

Below are 2 exercises that you can use to start becoming more aware of
representational systems in the context of your own life:

Exercise 1: Now that you have a better understanding of how different individuals
operating from each representational system tend to behave, start paying more
attention to those around you. For example, observe your friends and family to see if
you can identify their preferred representational systems(s).

Exercise 2: Take 2 minutes to describe your home using only visual words. Then do
the same exercise again but only using auditory words. And then finally, using only
kinesthetic words. For example, for visual you could describe the different colours etc.