NLP calls your mood and readiness your state, and teaches that you can manage it: change your posture, your breathing, the pictures in your mind and the voice in your head. The part about the voice in your head has real research behind it.
What “state management” means
In NLP, a state is the sum of your thoughts, feelings and body at a moment: calm, nervous, confident, flat. State management means choosing tools to move from one to another. The usual tools are:
- Breathing and posture. Slower breathing, open posture.
- Self-talk. What you say to yourself.
- Imagery. What you picture.
- Anchors. A cue linked to a helpful state (NLP part 5).
- Reframing. Changing the meaning of the situation (NLP part 6).
What the research says about self-talk
In 2011, Hatzigeorgiadis and colleagues combined 32 sport-psychology studies, with 62 measured effects, into a meta-analysis. Self-talk interventions had a moderate positive effect on performance (about 0.48 standard deviations). Other findings:
- Self-talk helped more for fine motor tasks (precision) than for gross ones (power).
- It helped more for new tasks than for well-learned ones.
- For fine tasks, instructional self-talk (“smooth,” “eyes on the ball”) worked better than motivational self-talk (“I can do this”).
An updated review has since been published, and the field continues to develop. The point is that self-talk is a tested skill, not just an NLP idea.
Using self-talk well
Instructional cues. Short words that direct attention: “Slow,” “Breathe,” “Eyes up.”
Motivational statements. Encouragement: “Stay with it,” “I’ve done this before.”
Believable wording. If a statement feels false, your mind argues. “I’m getting better at this” is easier to accept than “I’m brilliant at this.”
Questions and “you” statements. Some people respond better to asking “What’s my next step?” or speaking to themselves in the second or third person, a bit like a coach. This is worth trying, though results differ between people.
Match the task. Use instructional cues for technique and motivational ones for effort.
A quick reset routine
When you notice a state you don’t want, such as nerves before a call:
- Breathe out slowly for a few breaths, longer on the exhale.
- Drop your shoulders and uncross your arms.
- Say one cue to yourself, such as “Steady.”
- Name the first step you’ll take.
- Go.
Limits
- State management does not remove all anxiety, and it shouldn’t try to. Some arousal helps performance.
- It isn’t a treatment for anxiety disorders, depression or panic. If these affect your daily life, see your GP.
- A quick technique won’t stop you feeling things you need to feel, such as grief.
In hypnosis
Hypnotherapy suggestions are, in effect, carefully prepared self-talk, and many hypnotherapists teach clients a short self-cue to use afterwards (see hypnosis series, parts 31 and 49).
The bottom line
State management is a catchy name for a set of ordinary skills. Self-talk is the best-supported of them: choose short, believable, task-specific words and practise them.
Next in the series: Submodalities: Can Changing a Mental Picture Change How You Feel?
This article is for general information and is not medical advice.