How to Re-program your Subconscious Mind
Are you familiar with the cheesy saying, “If you believe it, you can achieve it? It’s the type of cliched saying you might find on a motivational poster in a middle school classroom. Except what if I told you it was true? It’s simply a matter of rewiring your brain accordingly.
The truth is, your subconscious cannot distinguish fact from fiction. It takes in the stimuli you expose it to via tv, books, social media, comments from others. And all of this seeps into the crevices of your subconscious mind. Do you want to know something else? It is highly suggestible. Just look at the trillion dollar advertising industry whose job it is to influence what you buy. Have its alluring messages swayed you in the past? I can admit they’ve influenced me. Some of my breakfast choices as a child- hello, Lucky Charms- are testament to that.
Using Affirmations to Defy Limiting Beliefs
The reality is that your brain is a supercomputer and you are responsible for programming it. I don’t know about you, but I find that both frightening and thrilling all at once. The good news? You have the ability to alter the program and change your reality.
My favorite way to reprogram my subconscious mind is by planting positive affirmations. For example, if you have identified limiting beliefs surrounding money mindset, you can listen to wealth increasing affirmations like this one or others like it on Youtube. Or you can create your own by recording yourself saying them aloud. The objective of using affirmations is to replace your existing (limiting) beliefs with new, empowering beliefs that will help you achieve your goals.
I’ll be honest, the first time I listened to affirmations my ego protested loudly, insisting that this was a creepy form of brainwashing. But this is merely the ego’s method of upper limiting, or trying to sabotage our success. Once you begin to recognize this it becomes easier to ignore.
I recommend listening to affirmations for 30 minutes to an hour each day. The most potent time to do this is before falling asleep. That liminal veil between sleeping and waking is when the subconscious mind is the most suggestible. If you hear something often enough you will begin to believe it and internalize its message.
Alter your Thoughts to Alter your Mood
Consider what messages you tell yourself regularly and evaluate whether they are empowering or disempowering. Decide whether it would benefit you to modify or replace them. For example, I am frequently guilty of the following thought, “I feel absolutely exhausted today, I only got 5 hours of sleep and I am not a morning person.” By saying this, I am reinforcing my low energetic state and breeding negativity. Instead, I can choose to tell myself, “I am feeling well-rested and full of energy. I am so excited for what today has in store for me.” Can you feel the difference in your body when you read the two statements? Which one is more likely to result in a positive start to the day?
If you’re anything like me and you find yourself succumbing to negative thinking throughout the day you can try two different strategies. 1. Commit to a consistent meditation practice. Even meditating 10 minutes a day can make a vast difference! You will start becoming more aware of your thoughts, enabling you to identify and challenge the negative ones. 2. Go on a mental diet. This is a concept created by Tony Robbins in which you decide you will not indulge in negative thinking for 10 days. If you think about anything negative for longer than 1 minute you have to start over from the beginning and start your “diet” over again. I found this difficult, but very eye-opening. You begin to notice the types of negative thoughts you have regularly as well as what triggers this type of thinking.
Today I choose to be happy
We all possess a special superpower. The ability to choose how we feel. And much of this hinges on the stories we tell ourselves. But there is another influencing factor at work here… the stories other people tell us about ourselves. Limiting beliefs often form when others say harmful things about us, especially at a young age, and we accept them as fact. For example, your older brother who you looked up to may have called you “dumb as a doornail” when you were 10 years old and you internalized this as true. You may subconsciously act in ways that reinforce this narrative or focus on instances that validate this as “truth.” Like when you lock your keys in the car. Instead of looking at this as a human moment, or telling yourself, “mistakes happen” you may view this as yet another example of your stupidity.
Take your power back and decide to form your own beliefs about yourself. I’ll tell you a secret- they can be whatever you want them to be. I am reminded of Aibileen’s encouraging words from Kathryn Stockett’s book, The Help, “You is smart, you is kind, you is important.” After all, your subconscious mind is not in a position to disagree with you!
Be aware of your thoughts and choose your words wisely. Decide to reject disempowering statements from others. As Napoleon Hill said, “I am the captain of my fate. I am the master of my soul.” What will you choose to feed your subconscious mind?
