Self Empowerment: How to Create Good in Your Life – Part 2
By Linda-Ann Stewart Ct.H., Ct.H.A
Last week, I wrote generally about how the Mind works. This week, I’ll discuss it in more detail. As we know, the conscious and subconscious minds each have their own separate functions. The conscious is the reasoning mind, the subconscious is the storehouse and the processor. While the conscious is objective, analyzing details, the subconscious is subject to what the conscious mind allows to filter into the storehouse.
We train ourselves to do things, from learning the ABC’s, to driving a car by initially paying attention to each detail. Using our conscious mind, we have to think about each step until it eventually wears a groove into our subconscious mind. From then on, we’re able to act automatically.
How many of us have been driving down the road while daydreaming, and passed our turn? We have learned to turn the operation of the car over to the subconscious, and drive on autopilot. Our conscious mind was focused on something else when we passed our exit.
Our attitudes are the same way. As children and young adults, we learn how to think about ourselves and our world. This is when we develop our beliefs about whether we deserve to be loved, to be valued, whether we get attention by denying ourselves or be demanding, and much more. A natural tendency is to pattern ourselves on the grownups around us, generally our parents. We do so to survive in their world, because they have the power to punish or accept us. Since acceptance is preferable to punishment, we try to do what we can to get them to like us. If a parent that we want to get close to was ill when we’re young, we may try to unconsciously model ourselves on them and be ill to gain acceptance. We also discover that they get attention that way, and use the same means to get our needs met.
These beliefs and attitudinal behaviors become habits. When we grow up, we act on them automatically, just like we know that “A” follows “B” without having a cheat sheet. Our conscious mind has allowed this information to filter into our subconscious mind, and sometime in the past made a decision that the behavior was beneficial. Now, even though we may have outgrown the need for it, we still behave that way. And many times, we resist any attempt to change. The subconscious thinks that it’s necessary for us to cope, and our conscious mind must convince it otherwise.
If we have a belief that life is a struggle, our subconscious will attract circumstances to verify that idea. Our conscious mind may eventually realize that life doesn’t have to be difficult. A few years ago, I began to deal with this issue. I’d affirm that life flowed easily for me. Within days, I’d experience great obstacles. For instance, my car broke down, and though I had a loaner to make life a little easier, it took the better part of a month and $1500 to get my car road-worthy again. Every time I’d begin that affirmation, some other crisis would slap me down. My subconscious didn’t want to change. Finally, I put together a long affirmation that dealt with the causes of the belief. For example, I thought if I worked really hard at something, I’d deserve the reward and prove that I was worth it. After I used that for a while, things flowed more easily for me.
I used the reason of my conscious mind to convince my subconscious that struggle wasn’t necessary or desirable. Making a different decision from what I was familiar with, I imprinted that on my subconscious mind. Initially, my subjective mind resisted my new attitude, but I persisted. Since I was committed to the fresh idea, my subjective mind had no choice but to accept it. That is it’s function.
Linda-Ann Stewart is a nationally known hypnotherapist, writer, speaker and leads seminars on empowerment and stress reduction. You can visit her web site at www.cedarfire.com.
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