Reprogram your mind and transform yourself

Almost every person would like to change something about their lives. Boosting their self confidence, get rid of fears, wanting to be healthy, get more money etc. Humans are habitual creatures. This means that we run an internal program everyday. Our do’s and don’ts are based on this self programming. For most people the program running is on autopilot. But what if you could change this? What would it mean if you could be in control of your own life?

Let me tell you this is definitely possible. But it's also easier said than done. To understand this we need to take a look at the consciousness and the subconsciousness mind.

The subconscious mind

In your subconscious are all kinds of routine behavior, values, associations and emotions. You could say this is basically the autopilot of your mind. A prime example of this is your breathing. You are not consciously breathing every second. That is very fortunate, because otherwise you would go completely bananas.

Another characteristic of this mind is that it accepts everything that comes in. It has no distinguishing values like whether something is good or bad for you. Addictions are a good example of something that resides often deep in the subconscious mind and no amount of reason could possibly get rid of these. A bad experience or trauma with a certain event, object or person also resides in the subconscious mind and because of this you may not be able to control certain behavior when you come into contact with that which causes this fear or stress.

Even tough the subconscious believes anything you tell it, directly reaching out to it is almost impossible to do.

The consciousness mind

Consciousness -or the mind that is aware- can be seen as a bodyguard or protector of the subconscious. With consciousness you have the ability to allow or reject ideas as opposed to the subconscious mind which has no choice but to accept everything that comes in. It is a good thing then that you have a consciousness, otherwise you would be obliged to directly accept anything and everything from outside sources. However, this also has a drawback. Your consciousness does its job so well in protecting the subconscious that, like stated earlier, any unwanted idea or feeling is not easily removed from the subconsciousness.

Any attempt to interact with your subconscious will easily be repelled by the conscious mind, which is very able to distinguish influences from the outside.

Changing your habits trough affirmations

If you do want to change your habits or just form more good habits, which means that you are rewriting your program, a good start would be repetition of action or words spoken. These spoken words are called affirmations.

By formulating for yourself a constructive sentence or goal for what you want and repeating this daily, you can reach the subconscious eventually to actually believe and accept this new truth. You can practice this in front of the mirror a few times a day.

By forming a schedule for yourself which you follow up day to day can also create also new habits, because due to the repetition of doing this, it takes slowly a hold into the subconscious.

Many people however use this technique of repetition unconsciously as well, for example when they are angry. They go on repeating in their heads why this person or situation is so bad or even worse, why they themselves are not good enough as a person. By repeating this over and over together with a strong negative feeling, this will become a new or stronger truth for this person.

Then we can see that this method works both in positive as in a negative sense, so be careful what kind of things you repeat to yourself!

When using affirmations as a method be sure to not use negations. Only describe what you want to achieve and don’t describe what you do not want.

Repeat what you do not want and it will go in your mind as something you do want. And that is something you do not want. Are you still following?

Besides repetition there are a few other ways to reprogram yourself. This may be done by directly turning off the conscious mind.

Meditation

By laying your conscious to rest, you will have a direct access to the subconscious. Besides, stilling your thoughts also greatly removes stress. There are different kinds of meditation. The ones recommended here would be the kind that lets you focus on one object and set aside all else. Mindfulness – which is very useful for other purposes - would probably accomplish quite the opposite here.

Being startled or shocked

An unexpected situation like a loud bang or a shocking event may cause you to flinch in surprise of the unexpected in which for but a small moment an opening appears directly into your subconscious. A trauma could settle like this. It’s not so easy to use this method for anything positive, because it’s hard to create the circumstances for this to work in a way that you want it to work. Some skilled hypnotherapists may be able to use such a technique correctly however.

When you sleep

During your sleep the conscious mind is turned off, so that would be a good time to get something in. Playing a recording of your own voice with positive affirmations every night could produce some positive results.

By association (such as a smell, touch, sound, etc.)

This is often used in commercials. Certain brands – like Coca Cola- use association in combination with repetition as a way to bind their customers. This alone should be proof enough that it works, because if it didn't, there would be no use in the doing of it.

Think and feel positive emotions

Emotions are the most powerful as they are directly supporting your thoughts in this context. Basically your thoughts are powerful because of emotions. The reason they are mentioned last is that they empower all of the above. Whatever method you use to try and recreate yourself, try to let strong positive emotions guide you. It will make it that much easier to change whatever you are set out to do.

They key is repeat repeat

Let me repeat myself, the key is repetition. Applying affirmations can only work when you apply them consistently and supported by the power of positive emotion. This is a very conscious effort. If you are not disciplined enough to apply this in a regular consistent way, you may be better off not doing at all. It will be a waste of time, because only repetition makes affirmation really work.