E is for Eye Patterns
“The eyes are the windows to your soul” – William Shakespeare
Have you ever noticed that our eyes move when we talk and think?
This is why we say they are the windows to the soul, because it is true, eye movements can show how someone is accessing information in their minds; i.e. whether they are thinking in pictures, sounds or feelings.
People store information in their minds in different ways. Consider the mind to be like a filing cabinet with different sections and folders. When they want to access information they use their eyes to help locate it.
These eye patterns are one of several NLP tools that we can use to understand others better. This could be to build rapport, gauge or challenge someone’s thinking, to imagine the future and more!
What are the Eye Patterns?
When looking up, this is accessing visual thinking (pictures), towards the ears is auditory thinking (sounds) and down is accessing feelings or emotions and our self talk. The things we say when we are having a conversation in our heads.
In the main (and this is important so I repeat, “In the main…!)
- Looking up and to the left it is remembering an image, e.g. of a partner’s face, a holiday you’ve been on
- Looking up and to the right is creating or constructing images, e.g. your lounge painted in a different colour or the vision of your future
Benefits of Eye Patterns
Eye Patterns are useful in many different ways and here are just a few:
- Changing Perspectives. As a coach recognising thought patterns can help someone change perspective and to move forwards in their lives.
- Healing trauma. Using and moving our eyes is the basis of dealing with trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder by a process called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing.)
- Modelling Excellence. By detecting thinking patterns of someone who is excellent in their field, you can learn and model how they do it and find the difference that makes the difference. This is one of the key foundations of NLP.
Want to learn more about Eye Patterns and NLP, contact me to find out how I can help.