Note: This article is from blogger Erin Falconer, who shares her personal experience making subconscious changes.
Every day, I helped patients get up from their beds to engage in a walking exercise together. I focused on guiding their attention to the basics of walking, such as foot placement, stride length, and the proper positioning of the knee and hip. Sometimes, even covering a distance of 3 meters took several minutes. The patient had to focus on each step taken, or they would lose balance and risk falling.
Patients are now using their conscious minds to take a simple step. What was once an accessible, natural activity has become challenging and monotonous.
By observing this, I developed a deep fascination for understanding the complexities of the brain, that miraculous marvel of nature.
The brain allows you to walk down the street while talking on the phone and sipping your coffee simultaneously. This happens by forming neural connections that later translate into automatic actions. In other words, you don't need to consciously think about walking and numerous other functions like breathing because the subconscious mind controls such functions. Your subconscious mind frees your conscious mind—the part responsible for desires and creativity—to operate at a higher cognitive level.
It took me several years to realize that the subconscious mind isn't solely responsible for acquired automatic movements like walking. Just as you walk automatically without conscious effort, you're also likely unaware of recurring thoughts such as "I'm not capable," "I'm poor," or “I don't deserve love.”
These thoughts are deeply rooted in your childhood and linger in your mind effortlessly, much like how you walk without conscious effort. These unconscious thoughts have the potential to bring significant suffering and pain into your life.
The Power Of The Subconscious Mind
The thoughts in your subconscious mind wield a much greater force in shaping your reality than those in your conscious mind. In other words, your subconscious mind is larger and more influential than your conscious mind.
To make it clear, scientists use an iceberg analogy to illustrate the difference between the conscious and subconscious mind. The iceberg's visible tip above the water represents the conscious mind, while the more significant submerged portion symbolizes the subconscious mind.
When you gaze at an iceberg on the horizon, the segment you observe is merely a small fraction of the whole iceberg. Remember, the submerged part bears much greater weight.
Here's an illustration of how this occurs in life. Let's assume you aim to increase your earnings. You might repetitively affirm, loudly in front of a mirror, "I want to earn more money." However, it's crucial to recognize that despite repeating this phrase a thousand times, if you subconsciously believe that you're poor, it will continue to manifest in your reality. In other words, poverty will persist in your life, irrespective of your conscious affirmations or thoughts.
Then what do you do? How do you alter these unconscious thoughts that might sabotage you? You take the same approach as stroke patients while relearning walking practice.
Altering Your Subconscious Mind
Practice fundamentally means repeating the desired movement or idea until it becomes automatic. In this case, you're altering your subconscious mind. For me, there are three simple and effective ways to alter the unconscious thoughts:
1. Pattern Recognition
Vision is always the first step, and to see means to bring what was previously non-conscious into your mind.
For stroke patients, this implies the initial conscious recognition that they cannot walk as they previously did, requiring acceptance of their present condition. Similarly, this applies to your negative subconscious thoughts. You're utilizing the power of your consciousness to recognize these thoughts, essentially bringing them into your conscious mind.
2. Attention Shifting
Once your mind becomes aware of the subconscious, you can alter it, shifting your attention to what you desire.
When dealing with the example "I am poor," the emphasis should not be solely on the idea itself but rather on what you truly desire. By doing so, you plant a seed in your subconscious mind that completely contradicts this notion. For instance, say, "I feel abundant." Stand before the mirror, echo these words, and let the essence of this affirmation resonate within every fiber of your being. However, words that aren’t followed by actions are useless.
Believing entirely in this truth is vital. It's about perceiving, sensing, and embracing the abundance in your life as you attract what you focus your attention on. As a result, the awakening of your conscious mind mirrors the moment when sunlight pierces the soil, reaching the dormant seed beneath the earth.
3. Practicing Gratitude
If awareness is akin to sunlight reaching the seed, then gratitude is the water required for this seed to sprout. Awareness and gratitude function harmoniously together, so practice gratitude for what you possess and who you are now.
I vividly remember how gratitude played a positive role for my patients. Those who accepted what happened and felt grateful for being alive achieved far better results than those who resented their situation. Ultimately, gratitude significantly aided my patients in relearning how to walk.
The same can be said about other unconscious patterns: observe, consciously refocus, and be grateful.
In Conclusion
These steps aid in altering your subconscious mind, leading you to believe in your inherent value automatically. They also serve as the gateway to attracting abundance into your life.
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