Secrets of your subconscious mind.

Most of us believe we are consciously in control of what we do.  However many of our thinking and behaviour patterns are set on autopilot, run by our subconscious minds.

Everything that is not in your conscious mind is stored here and this supercomputer runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, never sleeping.  It is the recorder of your life.  All of your experiences, memories and skills are stored here.  This is your guidance system, reviewing all information taken by the senses and assessing the probability of opportunities and danger.

The subconscious mind ensures that our bodies’ systems are functioning, regulating body temperature, heart rate, breathing and overseeing repairs.  Through harnessing the power of the subconscious mind, we can speed the healing process, boost wellbeing and change maladaptive thinking and behaviour patterns.  The subconscious mind holds all information about us including our self-image, beliefs, assumptions, expectations, attitudes and world view. 

Through specific strategies and techniques, we are able to remove unhelpful patterns and replace them with new, more helpful patterns that serve us better.  However, our brains do not like change and, in an attempt to keep us “safe”, will initially resist any attempt to introduce a new pattern, by giving us negative feedback, unhelpful urges or a sense of danger. 

If we are aware of this, we can learn to find ways of overriding the resistance, through autosuggestion; accessing the subconscious mind and repeating new, more helpful patterns until they become automatic.  The subconscious mind does not understand language; however, it does understand images, emotions and feelings, especially when we are in certain brainwave states.  If we understand this, we can learn to easily influence our subconscious thoughts and behaviours.

In order for information to stay in the subconscious mind, it must be associated with emotions, the stronger the emotion, the firmer information is implanted in the subconscious mind.  It is immaterial whether the emotion is positive or negative, either will happily be accepted by the subconscious mind and negative emotions tend to be stronger.

This is why it is important to recognise negative thinking patterns and to address them before they lead to repeated negative emotion which will be picked up by the subconscious mind.

One way to counter this is to become more aware of your thoughts.  Check in with yourself several times a day and ask yourself. “how am I feeling?”  If the answer is negative, consider what you have been thinking about. This will help you learn to notice your negative thoughts.

Developing a strategy to counter your negative thoughts can be very helpful.  For example, if you notice a negative thought, say the word, “delete” immediately afterwards, and imagine the thought on a piece of paper, which you can screw up and throw in the bin.

Over time, you will train your mind to think more positively.

A second technique is to become more grateful. Evidence shows that people who practise gratitude experience more happiness and better health.  You can cultivate this practice by starting a gratitude journal.  Each day write down 3 things that you are grateful for.  This may seem like a task at first but very quickly, your list will easily become longer as you will start noticing more and more things to be grateful for in your life.

A final technique is to start practising visualisation. Before you go to bed, run through your plans for the next day, seeing yourself achieving everything you want successfully.  These images will feed your subconscious mind and it will start to seek out information around you to validate your expectations.

Developing a better connection with your subconscious mind can help you feel happier, healthier and more successful and may very well be one of the most important relationships in your life.