I realised that in my blogs I’ve missed out telling you about the most important aspect that need you to understand in order to be able to engage in the suggestions I’ve given you and achieve real success. To do that you need to understand how our brain works. And for that we need a little science lesson about the conscious and subconscious brain.
Both of these are terms I’m sure you’ve heard many times before. So let’s just recap briefly:
The two minds are the (self)conscious and the subconscious. The subconscious and conscious minds work as a marvellous tag team.
The conscious mind can juggle only a small number of tasks simultaneously. Although its ability for multitasking is physically constrained, the trained conscious mind is quite adept at “single-tasking.” It is the organ of focus and concentration. We use the conscious mind when we are thinking – about the past, present or future. It’s our imagination, our dreams, our internal-planner and our problem-solver.
The subconscious mind’s role is to control every behaviour that is not attended to by the conscious mind. This means we tend to leave the day-to-day, moment-to-moment “driving” to the subconscious mind. Cognitive neuroscientists reveal that the profoundly more powerful subconscious mind is responsible for 90-95% of our cognitive activity and therefore controls almost all of our decisions, actions, emotions and behaviours.
The most powerful and influential behavioural programs in the subconscious mind were acquired during the formative period between gestation and age 7.
Now here’s the catch—these life-shaping subconscious programmes are direct downloads derived from observing our primary teachers: our parents, siblings, and local community. Unfortunately, as psychologists are keenly aware, many of the perceptions acquired about ourselves in this formative period are not that healthy and seem to be expressed as limiting beliefs. This is because the subconscious mind is just like a machine, it records, pushes a button, plays back, and whilst we were in record mode, we were not able to edit, re-interpret, apply logic, adjust for humour etc. it’s just an un-editable recording.
As the role of the mind is to make coherence between its programmes and real life, the brain generates appropriate behavioural responses to life’s stimuli to assure the “truth” of the programmed perceptions.
The next thing to know is that the two minds learn differently. The conscious mind is called creative and can learn by reading a book or going to a lecture, watching a video, or reading an article. It is creative, it goes, "ah, I have an idea, now I change my mind."
The subconscious mind is a habit mind. And the most important thing about a habit mind is that you don’t want it to change very quickly, because otherwise habits fall apart. So it is resistant to change. And this is where the challenge I realised with the blogs lies – I hadn’t explained this resistance to change and how we need to go about helping getting new ways of thinking and being into our habit sub-conscious mind. That’s the only way we get change that sticks! Whatever aspect of life you want to change be that diet, exercise, ways of working, ways of being or feeling – it needs to become a habit in the sub-conscious mind – as you can’t deliver enduring change from 5% capacity.
That is the first thing we have to realize. It is not as easy to change like the creative mind.
So can we change it? Yes we can (but it’s not necessarily easy or fast...)
Let’s look at how we can change it – there are 4 main ways:
Number One:
EEG’s (electroencephalography) reveal that from the third trimester through age 7, a child’s predominant brain activity is in theta, associated with imagination and hypnosis. During the majority of the day, the adult brain functions in alpha (calm conscious) or beta (working conscious) states. As relaxation occurs, the brain moves from beta state to alpha, and finally, upon sleep enters the theta state – this is the direct line to the subconscious mind. So accessing that brain wave gives you the means to change the programme.
Make it Practical: To do this, you can use “self-hypnosis.” As you go to bed, put on earphones to listen to a recording containing wishes and desires that you’d like to see manifested in your life, habits you want to change.
As you relax and go to sleep, the brain states descend from alpha and goes into theta for a period of time, so the recording / new programme is going directly into the subconscious, before you finally drift into Delta sleep. By habitually repeating this, you can rewrite the subconscious.
I’ve done this for several things. I’ve either found guided meditation recordings that cover the sorts of habits I’m trying to change. I’ve also recorded onto my phone the exact wording of the belief I want to have = and then just played on loop!
Number two:
After the age of seven when our brain emerges from Theta into Alpha and Beta, we can still form habits. We do this by repeating something over and over and over again. Practicing, repeating, practicing. Riding a bike, driving a car, touch-typing, configuring your environment – anything you’ve done a lot that you no longer need to actively think about to ensure you don’t stop doing.
Make it Practical: This is why in so many of my blogs overlap and cover the same thing from different angles – positive thinking, self-care etc. It’s why I’ve talked about making things practical through daily actions and practices – gratitude diaries being an example. It’s the small actions done regularly that enable you to get those changes in habits changed in the subconscious.
I like the phrase, “fake it ‘til you make it!” If you’re not a punctual person, practice saying, “I am on time, I am on time,” all day long. Positive affirmations do take time, and many lose faith before the change become sub-conscious but eventually, the subconscious will absorb the repetition and make that belief a programme. I used to have a list by my mirror so every morning and evening I’d read them out loud whilst brushing hair, doing make-up etc. I’ve also been known to set reminders on my phone for 4-6 times a day that when the phone buzzes I repeat the affirmation.
So, reading my blog or any other form of inspiration and information is a good start to get the conscious mind to decide it wants a change, but only by taking regular and consistent steps – no matter how small (through either option above) – will you experience the desired change.
Number three:
A crucial factor for change is necessity – there’s a whole blog on this if you look back. If change is necessary for the betterment of your life, you can create it. Often we don’t even realise this is the difference – so how many times have you failed to give up something like smoking or sugar or take something up like exercise or a new viewpoint; but that last time it was easy – the difference is usually there was a very clear necessity that meant it wasn’t a choice anymore it just had to happen.
Make it Practical: A great way to create necessity is list all the reasons why something will benefit you. Dr John Demartini, a human behavioural expert advocates that if you can list 250 reasons why something benefits you (in any sphere of life – there are 7) then you will have removed all mental blockers and create the mental necessity that will drive you through. I attach a short explanation of this exercise should you wish to give it a try.
Number four:
There is a new science called energy psychology. It activates the brain to be in a state of superlearning. If you engage superlearning, you can rewrite subconscious programmes in about 10 minutes. Something you have had your entire life can be rewritten in 10 minutes!
Make it Practical: Now there are a bunch of different techniques, but they function all in about the same manner. It pushes the record button of the subconscious mind so you can download new data very, very fast. There are about 20 different energy psychology processes all of which can be effective for some people. We are all unique so in some cases you need to try and few to work out which ones works with your brain chemistry. The most useful resource list I know is on Dr. Bruce Lipton’s site: https://www.brucelipton.com/other-resources#belief-change. Personally I’ve studied Psych-K, EFT and IEH and found them all be fascinating and effective.
“We operate from the conscious mind less than 5% of the day. Unless the subconscious mind has the same programming as the conscious mind, the power of positive thinking will not work” - Bruce Lipton
Summary
So in summary, 2 minds – conscious and sub-conscious. 90-95% of the time we’re operating from the sub-conscious on programmes created before we were 7. This makes us intrinsically resistant to change. Change can occur but it requires, necessity, repetition or the ability to access theta brain or super-learning
(see what I need there around the repetition). So if something in a previous blog grabbed you, go back and read, re-read and read again – find the small thing you can do every day or multiple times a day to start affecting your sub-conscious programmes/habits/patterns.
You’ll also discover this a core tenant of good communication – or as the adage goes “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; then tell ’em; then tell ’em what you told ’em”. You may notice that as you read more of my blogs – I want you to get behind a common understanding, to focus on practical ways to ensure you feel safe and confident – so I am employing the principles I’ve shared with you here to get those changes into your subconscious so they becomes intrinsic, easy and embedded.
So, what’s the first change on your list?
Until next time...
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