What Is an Internal State
Discover what an internal state is in NLP: the four components (physiology, focus, representations, internal dialogue) and how to change it to access your resources.
A person's resources never really disappear. It's the internal state that determines whether they're accessible. A mood is not identity, not character, not destiny: it's a temporary configuration.
What Does Internal State Mean?
NLP draws a sharp distinction between the person and their internal state. An internal state is the temporary psychophysiological condition a person is in at a given moment, generated by four components:
The Four Components of an Internal State
- physiology (posture, breathing, muscle tension, expression)
- focus (where attention is directed at that moment)
- internal representations (the images, sounds and sensations with which the experience is being represented)
- internal dialogue (what one is telling oneself)
A state is always relative to a task or a specific context: there's no such thing as a state in the absolute, only a state with respect to something one is about to do or experience. When identity and state get confused, when a person says “that's just how I am” instead of “right now I'm in this state”, rigidity is created. When they're kept distinct, room opens up for learning, change and training.
How Internal States Influence Behaviour
Change the state, and you change what's possible to do. The same skills, the same knowledge, the same person can produce completely different results depending on the state they're in at the moment of action. It's the common experience of someone who knows a subject perfectly but blanks out during an exam, or someone with all the technical ability who can't express it under pressure in competition.
Distinguishing identity from state also matters in how we relate to others: addressing an unhelpful state in a person is very different, and far more respectful and effective, than labeling the person themselves as inadequate. NLP in fact talks about useful or unhelpful states, based on whether they let the person access their internal resources, not about right or wrong states in a moral sense.
How to Change Your Internal State
An internal state is changed by acting on one or more of its four components: adjusting physiology (for example changing posture or breathing), shifting the focus of attention, changing the internal representations through which the experience is being lived, or working on internal dialogue. Much of coaching consists of identifying which of these components is worth changing first in a given situation, since not all of them produce the same effect in every context.
The distinction between identity and state is also the basis of the presupposition that the positive value of the person stays constant, while only the appropriateness of the behavior generated by that state gets questioned. This completely changes how one can work on oneself or another person: the work isn't correcting who someone is, but making a more useful state accessible for the task at hand.
Common mistakes
The most common mistake is confusing state with identity: interpreting a moment of discouragement, anxiety or anger as proof of how one is made, instead of as a temporary, changeable condition. This kind of confusion tends to freeze states that would otherwise be passing.
A second mistake is ignoring the physiological component of state, trying to mentally convince yourself to feel different while the body stays in the same posture, breathing and tension that are sustaining the unwanted state. Physiology, focus, internal representations and internal dialogue all influence each other: working on just one component while ignoring the others often isn't enough.
A third mistake is insisting on always working the same component, regardless of the situation. There's no universal lever: sometimes the body needs the work, other times focus, other times internal language.
Practical example
Two candidates show up for the same job interview, with equivalent technical skills. The first, shortly before the meeting, replays everything that could go wrong, breathes shallowly, and takes on a closed posture: their internal state in that moment is one of anticipatory anxiety, and this affects tone of voice, clarity of answers, and the ability to access concrete examples from their own experience. The second, before going in, consciously changes their physiology (breathing more deeply, straightening their posture) and shifts focus from possible awkward questions to a memory of a professional situation handled successfully. The skills are identical in both cases. The internal state through which they get expressed isn't.
Applications
Working on internal state is central to sports coaching, managing performance under pressure, preparing for interviews, exams and public presentations, managing relational conflict, and generally any situation where the gap between “knowing how to do something” and “actually managing to do it in the moment” depends more on state than technical skill.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is an internal state in NLP?
It's the temporary psychophysiological condition generated by the combination of physiology, focus, internal representations and internal dialogue, always relative to a specific task or context.
Is an internal state the same thing as a person's identity?
No, and this distinction is central: a mood is not identity, not character, not destiny. It's a temporary configuration that can be recognized and changed.
How can you change an internal state?
By acting on one or more of its four components: physiology, focus of attention, internal representations, or internal dialogue. There's no single lever that works in every situation.
What does “useful state” or “unhelpful state” mean?
These are the categories NLP uses to evaluate an internal state: not in moral terms of right or wrong, but based on whether it lets the person access their resources to handle a specific task.
Why does the distinction between state and identity matter when giving someone feedback?
Because addressing an unhelpful state in a person (“right now you're stuck in anxiety”) is very different from, and far more respectful than, labeling the person themselves as inadequate (“you're incapable”). The first distinction opens up possibility for change; the second wounds identity.
Related concepts
The Fundamental Presuppositions of NLP, Internal Dialogue, The Carriage Metaphor, Submodalities: How We Construct Reality, Physiology and Mood Management, What Is an Anchor and How Anchoring Works.
Go deeper
The concept of internal state is introduced in Volume I of “The Invisible Blade” and becomes the object of direct, practical work in the “Generating Change” chapter of Volume II, where Giovanni Ceroni presents concrete tools for working on each of its components.
Related articles
Strategic coach and mental coach. Author of The Invisible Blade – Strategic NLP series and creator of The Invisible Blade Method™.
Further reading to go deeper
If this topic interests you, these readings can help you go beyond the summary offered on this page.
Emotions, internal states and regulation
James A. Russell
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Figure from the reading path
- Bloom, B. S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay.
- Brown, P. C., Roediger III, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2011). Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way: Creating Desirable Difficulties to Enhance Learning. In M. A. Gernsbacher, R. W. Pew, L. M. Hough, & J. R. Pomerantz (Eds.), Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society. New York: Worth Publishers.
- Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. New York: Avery.
- Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer. New York: Free Press.
- Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406.
- Tang, Y.-Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213–225.