Rewiring Your Subconscious A Guide to Positive Change
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Hey there, friends! 🌟
Have you ever wondered about the incredible power of your subconscious mind? It’s a fascinating world that influences our beliefs, values, memories, and even how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Let's dive into how our subconscious works and how we can harness its power to improve our lives.
What Does the Subconscious Do?
Our subconscious mind is like a vast storage unit. It holds our beliefs, values, and memories, constantly processing and monitoring information around us. It decides what to bring to our conscious mind and what to store for later. Amazing, right?
Here’s the remarkable part: our subconscious believes everything we tell it. With over 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80% of them being negative (unless we practice awareness to reshape our thinking), it’s no wonder that our subconscious can sometimes work against us. Whatever we repeatedly tell ourselves—knowingly or unknowingly, whether it’s positive or negative—gets deeply embedded in our subconscious, influencing our feelings, behaviors, and responses.
Feeding Your Subconscious
Think about this: if we constantly feed our subconscious harmful thoughts, it will store these and shape our conscious mind accordingly. This stored information then dictates how we feel, behave, and respond to various situations.
Have you ever noticed someone with a chip on their shoulder? That’s their subconscious at work, feeding them harmful information that influences their energy and behavior. But you, my friend, don’t have to be that person. You want to embrace positivity and enjoy all the wonderful things life has to offer, right?
How Beliefs and Memories Affect Us
Let’s focus on a specific area: food and body weight. Our beliefs, values, and memories can significantly affect our relationship with food and our body image. For example:
- Beliefs: “I can’t stop at just one potato chip; I have to eat the whole bag.” Coincidentally, when I eat a whole bag of potato chips, I feel full, bloated, and ashamed. Even though I know this before I open the bag, I do it anyway because that’s the pattern stored in my subconscious. Sound familiar?
- Memories: Personally, I remember events where the dessert table was the highlight. It reinforced an obsession with sweets. This led to not feeling well after eating too much; but it’s what I was driven to do because of the pattern I created over time. Do you have any food memories that lead you to unhealthy or healthy behaviors?
- Values: Placing high importance on comfort food or a full belly during stressful times. Maybe you were fed during difficulties as a child or developed this pattern on your own. Once the pattern is ingrained, it will always be a struggle unless you find a way to change it.
How Does the Behavior Become Automated?
Think of a trail in the woods. The pathway formed from so many people walking on it is like a neural pathway in our mind. The neurons create pathways based on our continued patterns. Our brain wants our life to be as easy as possible—it remembers our pattern and stores it in our subconscious so we don’t have to think about repetitive activities, like brushing our teeth at bedtime.
Have you ever driven someplace familiar and your mind drifts? You’re not consciously thinking about where you’re going, yet you arrive at your destination. That is your subconscious mind at work. You intuitively know where to go so your conscious mind is free to think about other ideas.
This is how our brains handle repetitive thoughts and actions. It stores them in our subconscious mind, and whether they’re harmful or helpful, they influence the way we behave.
It is remarkable that our subconscious believes everything we tell it. Learn to become aware of your underlying thoughts.
How to Change Harmful Beliefs
An important part of my practice in helping people with sustainable weight loss is changing harmful beliefs and replacing them with ones that empower different behaviors.
Maybe you have some beliefs, memories, or values you want to change. You don’t want to be stuck in your neural pathway/pattern. We need to catch and challenge our harmful beliefs. I’ve been trained in many techniques (one size doesn’t fit all, we are all unique) to help my clients change their patterns. In so doing, my clients become aware of what’s getting in their way and learn strategies to reinforce a new pattern.
Clearing Your Subconscious
If you want to clear your subconscious of harmful beliefs, there are several ways to accomplish this. In my practice, I use all of them:
- Counseling: Empathetic listening and feedback can help you explore and change negative patterns.
- Semi-Hypnosis: This technique helps you relax deeply, identify underlying issues, and replace them with empowering thoughts.
- Meditation and Relaxation: Regular practice can help you become more aware of your thoughts and beliefs, making it easier to change them.
- Socratic Method: Use this technique to question and challenge your beliefs.
Would This Work for You?
Sometimes people wonder if they’d actually be able to change their patterns. After all, this is how they’ve been for years, maybe as long as they can remember. That was definitely my case with binge eating from 8 to 51 years old! These strategies and techniques have changed my life for over 12 years already!
Let’s try something:
- Recall a Success: Close your eyes and remember a time when you felt incredibly successful. Give it a minute; our brains aren’t used to focusing on our successes. Maybe it’s a job you got, a project you finished, a relationship you love, or something you figured out. Just one success that made you feel so good about yourself.
- Feel the Success: Relive the emotions and sensations of that success. Remember how you felt when you knew you did it. You accomplished that goal and maybe weren’t sure if you could, but you did. How did that feel? Were you proud of yourself? Did you feel like you could take on the world, or maybe another challenge? Indulge in this memory. Take yourself there in your mind; remember how good it felt. What were you thinking and feeling?
- Create an Anchor: Choose a physical action (like clenching your fist, pinching your thumb and forefinger together, or hugging yourself) to associate with this feeling. Now practice this action as you remember your success and how it made you feel.
- Use the Anchor: Whenever you need a boost of confidence, initially once a day, perform your anchor action to bring back that feeling of success. Sense how that makes you feel.
Try this exercise now! Close your eyes, recall a success, feel it, and create your anchor.
Final Thoughts
Our beliefs, values, and memories shape our reality, but remember: beliefs are not facts. Beliefs are only what we’ve been telling ourselves. We can challenge and change them to create a more positive, fulfilling life. Keep challenging and replacing harmful beliefs, and use your anchor to reinforce your successes.
Thank you for joining me today! If you have any questions or want to share your experiences, drop a comment. Stay tuned for more supportive content and exercises to help you live a happier and healthier life.
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Shoshanna Richek, CFNC
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If you have any questions or want encouragement in your weight loss journey, please contact me. I love being the spark that helps women feel better and in a healthy rhythm that works.