NLP Sensory Acuity
NLP sensory acuity is crucial for any NLP practitioner to know the subtle changes made in a subject. Sensory Acuity is required to develop a good rapport with anyone and your secret weapon to read people.
It liberates NLP practitioners from making wild guesses to knowing whether the subject is receiving change or not.
What is Sensory Acuity in NLP?
An individual can be acutely aware through our senses.
In Simple words, while you observe the minor changes in senses of our NLP representation system of others acutely, you can identify many more details.
Sensory Acuity is very different from micro expressions, gestures, and body language. There are no set categories in NLP for sensory acuity; expressions can be different for different people.
The NLP sensory acuity will enable NLP practitioners to distinguish fact from perception.
How to do NLP Sensory Acuity?
There are no set of NLP techniques for this; You can do matching and mirroring or any other rapport-building techniques.
But for NLP sensory acuity, observation is the key. You have to keep an open eye for the minute changes in the physiology of the client.
There will be a slight change in the client’s physiology when your communication is affecting them.
For Example.
You see your client sitting with a very relaxed posture in the chair. Suddenly, when you bring something interesting in communication, he/she sits upright or changes the stance anyway.
These subtle changes are an unconscious response to the communication happening in the external world.
Some more examples.
You must have noticed while talking to someone, their breathing pattern, tone of voice, blinking rate of eyes, and hand gestures change throughout the conversation.
Why is learning NLP sensory acuity necessary?
The meaning of communication is the response you get.
Many times we face a situation where we do not receive any response. Well, assuming it is face-to-face communication, sensory Acuity is your tool to decode no response.
It is also said in the communication. No response is also a response.
Moreover, To know whether your communication is making an impact or not, you need sensory Acuity.
Imagine people working in sales. Suppose they could know just by observing the sensory responses whether the client is interested or not. Imagine the difference it could make.
It just requires you to keep your eyes open and observe while you are making conversation.
What to observe in NLP Sensory Acuity?
I understand focusing on microexpression while taking can be a difficult task for anyone. but with practice, you can get there.
However, it would help if you first observed the eye patterns for a starter, read more on
breathing pattern – slow, fast, from the chest or deep navel,
position of back – relaxed or alert.
You can focus on a selection of words as well. Do they change from positive to negative with a change in their physiology?
Reading NLP techniques is fun and practicing them is even more fun, but we need NLP scripts while applying these NLP techniques.
I have created a small book of NLP scripts of the 7 most used NLP techniques. You can use them in your practice for only $10. You can buy the book from here. Buy NLP scripts
NLP sensory acuity exercise.
It is a simple sensory acuity exercise you can do with your friend. Take turns of observer and note down what you observe.
- One becomes an observer, and the other becomes the subject.
- The subject thinks of the event he/she dislikes the most.
- Subject pays close attention to internal feelings as he/she feels about the event.
- Observer observes the change in physiology and other changes in the subject.
- Discuss what you felt and observed.
It is likely that the observer may have noticed a change in breathing pattern, eyes clenching, throat movement, and so forth. Repeat this exercise while thinking of something that you like. See the changes and discuss.
Just for fun, I observe people standing in lines at various places, like banks, railway stations, and fast-food counters. I can easily make out which one can be easily angered or annoyed with slow/bad services. I can also make out the peaceful ones.
In a nutshell, to master sensory Acuity, one must learn to observe.
Image credit –
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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