Transform Your Life, Enrich Your Mind
Sarah Rehfuss Bastian
“Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life...If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind.”
Anonymous
Anonymous
"I just don’t understand. I know I need to eat to stay alive, but I can’t swallow anything that is solid,” the frail, anxious woman explained one day in my office. She had observed that, no matter how much she believed and understood that she needed to eat, she could not make an effective change in her mind in order to swallow more than just liquid. Do you ever feel like this woman? Do the things you set your intention on often fail to come to fruition no matter how hard you focus on them? Many inspirational speakers believe we have the power to create the life we want by changing our thoughts. Yet if we have this remarkable influence, why aren’t most of us experiencing the results we desire?
The first thing we need to ask is: What is the mind? Many scientists and psychologists believe that there are two parts of our mind that control our cognitive activity. The conscious mind uses reason and logic. Anytime we are aware or “conscious” of something we are doing, we are using this part of our mind. The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is responsible for all of the involuntary actions going on within our body. It is also a storehouse for our beliefs and memories.
According to recent research, we have been trying with the smallest portion of our mind to produce significant change in our lives. In “The Power of the Mind,” former University of Wisconsin Medical School professor and Stanford University researcher, Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., states: "We now recognize that ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of our cognitive activity comes from the subconscious mind; less than five percent is influenced or controlled by the conscious mind." We need to start accessing and changing the programmed responses in the ninety-five percent of our mind—the subconscious—in order to transform our lives successfully.
Now that we know what the mind is our next query is: How then do we access and change our subconscious mind? Since the mid-18th century, hypnotherapy has been used professionally to connect to and change the subconscious through relaxation techniques and auto-suggestion. Since that time, many mind-body techniques have been developed to help further access and process the beliefs and intentions of the subconscious mind. Lipton recommends a technique called Psych-K created by Rob Williams. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) developed by Gary Craig, and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) co-founded by Richard Bindler and John Grinder are two other highly acclaimed techniques for communicating with the subconscious mind. I personally have successfully worked with Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET) founded by Dr. Scott Walker. One of the significant differences between NET and many of the other techniques in the mind-body field is that, through NET, the present triggering event is acknowledged as well as the original event from some time in the past where that belief first became programmed into the subconscious mind. By finding an original event, you subsequently process the many times that incongruent belief became strengthened after that originating event. The woman I mentioned earlier is a perfect example of how a belief can physically hold us back from our intentions. As we began the process of NET, we uncovered a belief incorporating distrust of her husband who had been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As we began to explore the possibility of an earlier occasion, she spontaneously remembered a time in her childhood when her mother, who also had bipolar disorder, had tried to poison her through food. Her husband’s erratic behavior and recent diagnosis triggered a subconscious belief involving fear for her safety. Even though he was not trying to poison her, her body subconsciously remembered the experience, beliefs, and feelings she had formed from her childhood. She went through the process of letting go of her childhood belief, and I received an excited phone call from her the next day. She had been able to swallow scrambled eggs and was absolutely elated. From there we continued to work on removing any other beliefs surrounding this situation to ensure her ability to swallow normally would continue to return.
I stumbled upon another powerful method for connecting to the subconscious mind after attending a Holistic Moms Network meeting on meditation. In Buddhism, the practice of mindfulness is not only a technique within meditation but a way of living that allows you to be in touch with your subconscious mind on a regular basis. Mindfulness is essentially being conscious of each moment and all of the thoughts within. It’s not just thinking about the chatter in your head but observation of your thoughts and the things around you without comment or judgment. By taking this step back we become more aware of our habits and tendencies to respond in certain ways. What we begin to see is that most of the time we are operating on previously encoded responses from our subconscious rather than from our actual conscious intentions. Stephen Batchelor, author of The Awakening of the West, describes it this way:
The Buddha described his teaching as ‘going against the stream.’ The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we are tossed along in the stream of past conditioning and habit. The moment we decide to stop and look at what is going on (like a swimmer suddenly changing course to swim upstream instead of downstream), we find ourselves battered by powerful currents we had never even suspected - precisely because until that moment we were largely living at their command.
One of the best things about mindfulness is that it requires no one else to guide you through it, and it can be done as often or as little as you wish. Mindfulness is something you can do on its own or in combination with many of the previously mentioned mind-body techniques.
Understanding and discussing ways to transform our subconscious mind has given us the potential to truly and effectively change our lives. We now hold the key. All we have to remember is “Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life...If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your subconscious mind.”
The first thing we need to ask is: What is the mind? Many scientists and psychologists believe that there are two parts of our mind that control our cognitive activity. The conscious mind uses reason and logic. Anytime we are aware or “conscious” of something we are doing, we are using this part of our mind. The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is responsible for all of the involuntary actions going on within our body. It is also a storehouse for our beliefs and memories.
According to recent research, we have been trying with the smallest portion of our mind to produce significant change in our lives. In “The Power of the Mind,” former University of Wisconsin Medical School professor and Stanford University researcher, Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., states: "We now recognize that ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of our cognitive activity comes from the subconscious mind; less than five percent is influenced or controlled by the conscious mind." We need to start accessing and changing the programmed responses in the ninety-five percent of our mind—the subconscious—in order to transform our lives successfully.
Now that we know what the mind is our next query is: How then do we access and change our subconscious mind? Since the mid-18th century, hypnotherapy has been used professionally to connect to and change the subconscious through relaxation techniques and auto-suggestion. Since that time, many mind-body techniques have been developed to help further access and process the beliefs and intentions of the subconscious mind. Lipton recommends a technique called Psych-K created by Rob Williams. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) developed by Gary Craig, and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) co-founded by Richard Bindler and John Grinder are two other highly acclaimed techniques for communicating with the subconscious mind. I personally have successfully worked with Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET) founded by Dr. Scott Walker. One of the significant differences between NET and many of the other techniques in the mind-body field is that, through NET, the present triggering event is acknowledged as well as the original event from some time in the past where that belief first became programmed into the subconscious mind. By finding an original event, you subsequently process the many times that incongruent belief became strengthened after that originating event. The woman I mentioned earlier is a perfect example of how a belief can physically hold us back from our intentions. As we began the process of NET, we uncovered a belief incorporating distrust of her husband who had been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As we began to explore the possibility of an earlier occasion, she spontaneously remembered a time in her childhood when her mother, who also had bipolar disorder, had tried to poison her through food. Her husband’s erratic behavior and recent diagnosis triggered a subconscious belief involving fear for her safety. Even though he was not trying to poison her, her body subconsciously remembered the experience, beliefs, and feelings she had formed from her childhood. She went through the process of letting go of her childhood belief, and I received an excited phone call from her the next day. She had been able to swallow scrambled eggs and was absolutely elated. From there we continued to work on removing any other beliefs surrounding this situation to ensure her ability to swallow normally would continue to return.
I stumbled upon another powerful method for connecting to the subconscious mind after attending a Holistic Moms Network meeting on meditation. In Buddhism, the practice of mindfulness is not only a technique within meditation but a way of living that allows you to be in touch with your subconscious mind on a regular basis. Mindfulness is essentially being conscious of each moment and all of the thoughts within. It’s not just thinking about the chatter in your head but observation of your thoughts and the things around you without comment or judgment. By taking this step back we become more aware of our habits and tendencies to respond in certain ways. What we begin to see is that most of the time we are operating on previously encoded responses from our subconscious rather than from our actual conscious intentions. Stephen Batchelor, author of The Awakening of the West, describes it this way:
The Buddha described his teaching as ‘going against the stream.’ The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we are tossed along in the stream of past conditioning and habit. The moment we decide to stop and look at what is going on (like a swimmer suddenly changing course to swim upstream instead of downstream), we find ourselves battered by powerful currents we had never even suspected - precisely because until that moment we were largely living at their command.
One of the best things about mindfulness is that it requires no one else to guide you through it, and it can be done as often or as little as you wish. Mindfulness is something you can do on its own or in combination with many of the previously mentioned mind-body techniques.
Understanding and discussing ways to transform our subconscious mind has given us the potential to truly and effectively change our lives. We now hold the key. All we have to remember is “Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life...If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your subconscious mind.”
Resources
Batchelor, S. The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture. Berkeley, CA: Parallax, 1994.
"Bruce Lipton : Wisdom Of Your Cells : Our Original Mission Statement." Bruce Lipton : Internationally Recognized Leader In Bridging Science And Spirit. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2009. <http://www.brucelipton.com/wisdom-of-your-cells/our-original-mission-statement >.
First printed in Inner Vision Magazine January 2010. Reprinted here with permission from InnerVision Magazine. www.innervisionmagazine.com
Batchelor, S. The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture. Berkeley, CA: Parallax, 1994.
"Bruce Lipton : Wisdom Of Your Cells : Our Original Mission Statement." Bruce Lipton : Internationally Recognized Leader In Bridging Science And Spirit. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2009. <http://www.brucelipton.com/wisdom-of-your-cells/our-original-mission-statement >.
First printed in Inner Vision Magazine January 2010. Reprinted here with permission from InnerVision Magazine. www.innervisionmagazine.com