Beyond the Power of Your Subconscious Mind (7 page)

William James, the father of American psychology, said that the power to move the world is in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is one with infinite intelligence and boundless wisdom. It is fed by hidden springs, and is called the law of life. Whatever you impress upon your subconscious mind, the latter will move heaven and earth to bring it to pass. You must, therefore, impress it with right ideas and constructive thoughts.

The reason there is so much chaos and misery in the world is because people do not understand the interaction of their conscious and subconscious minds. When these two principles work in accord, in concord, in peace, and synchronously together, you will have health, happiness, peace and joy. There is no sickness or discord when the conscious and subconscious work together harmoniously and peacefully.

Whatever is impressed in your subconscious mind is expressed on the screen of space. This same truth was proclaimed by Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster, Lao-tzu, and all the illumined seers of the ages. Whatever you feel as true subjectively is expressed as conditions, experiences, and events. Motion and emotion must balance. This is the great law of life.

You will find throughout all nature the law of action and reaction, of rest and motion. These two must balance, then there will be harmony and equilibrium. You are here to let the life principle flow through you rhythmically and harmoniously. The intake and the outgo must be equal. The impression and the expression must be equal. All your frustration is due to unfulfilled desire.
(An uncompleted act creates frustration.)

What is your idea or feeling about yourself now? Every part of your being expresses that idea. Your vitality, body, financial status, friends, and social status represent a perfect reflection of the idea you have of yourself. This is the real meaning of what is impressed in your subconscious mind, and which is expressed in all phases of your life.

We injure ourselves by the negative ideas which we entertain. How often have you wounded yourself by getting angry, fearful, jealous, or vengeful? These are the poisons that enter your subconscious mind. You were not born with these negative attitudes. Feed your subconscious mind life-giving thoughts, and you will wipe out all the negative patterns lodged therein. As you continue to do this, all the past will be wiped out and remembered no more.

How the subconscious controls all functions
of the body

While you are awake or sound asleep upon your bed, the ceaseless, tireless action of your subconscious mind controls all the vital functions of your body without the help of your conscious mind. For example, while you are asleep your heart continues to beat rhythmically, your lungs do not rest, and the process of inhalation and exhalation, whereby your blood absorbs fresh air, goes on just the same as when you are awake. Your subconscious controls your digestive processes and glandular secretions, as well as all the other mysterious operations of your body. The hair on your face continues to grow whether you are asleep or awake. Scientists tell us that the skin secretes much more perspiration during sleep than during the waking hours. Your eyes, ears, and other senses are active during sleep. For instance, many of our great scientists have received answers to perplexing problems while they were asleep. They saw the answers in a dream
(we will discuss how this happens in detail in Chapter 13).

In his New York Times bestselling book
The Brain That Changes Itself
,* author Norman Doidge, M.D. writes:

The newest brain scans show that when we dream, that part of the brain that processes emotion, and our sexual survival, and aggressive instincts, is quite active. At the same time the prefrontal cortex system, which is responsible for inhibiting our emotions and instincts, shows lower activity. With instincts turned up and inhibitions turned down, the dreaming brain can reveal impulses that are normally blocked from awareness.

Scores of studies show that sleep affects plastic change by allowing us to consolidate learning and memory. When we learn a skill during the day, we will be better at it the next day if we have a good night’s sleep. “Sleeping on a problem” often does make sense.

Oftentimes your conscious mind interferes with the normal rhythm of the heart, lungs, and functioning of the stomach and intestines by worry, anxiety, fear, and depression. These patterns of thought interfere with the harmonious functioning of your subconscious mind. When mentally disturbed, the best procedure is to let go, relax, and still the wheels of your thought processes. Speak to your subconscious mind, telling it to take over in peace, harmony and divine order. You will find that all the functions of your body will become normal again. Be sure to speak to your subconscious mind with authority and conviction, and it will conform to your command.

Your subconscious seeks to preserve your life and restore you to health at all costs. It causes you to love your children which also illustrates an instinctive desire to preserve all life. Let us suppose you accidentally ate some bad food. Your subconscious mind would cause you to regurgitate it. If you inadvertently took some poison, your subconscious powers would proceed to neutralize it. If you completely entrusted yourself to its wonder-working power, you would be entirely restored to health.

How to convey the idea of perfect health
to your subconscious mind

A wonderful way to convey the idea of health to your subconscious is through disciplined or scientific imagination. I told a man who was suffering from functional paralysis to make a vivid picture of himself walking around in his office, touching the desk, answering the telephone, and doing all the things he ordinarily would do if he were healed. I explained to him that this idea and mental picture of perfect health would be accepted by his subconscious mind.

He lived the role and actually felt himself back in the office. He knew that he was giving his subconscious mind something definite to work upon. His subconscious mind was the film upon which the picture was impressed. One day, after several weeks of frequent conditioning of the mind with this mental picture, the telephone rang by prearrangement and kept ringing while his wife and nurse were out. The telephone was about twelve feet away, but nevertheless he managed to answer it. He was healed at that hour. The healing power of his subconscious mind responded to his mental imagery, and a healing followed.

This man had a mental block which prevented impulses from the brain reaching his legs, therefore, he said he could not walk. When he shifted his attention to the healing power within him, the power flowed through his focused attention, enabling him to walk.

Ideas worth remembering

1. Your subconscious mind controls all the vital processes of your body and knows the answer to all problems.

2. Prior to sleep, turn over a specific request to your subconscious mind and prove its miracle-working power to yourself.

3. Whatever you impress on your subconscious mind is expressed on the screen of space as conditions, experiences, and events. Therefore, you should carefully watch all ideas and thoughts entertained in your conscious mind.

4. The law of action and reaction is universal. Your thought is action, and the reaction is the automatic response of your subconscious mind to your thought. Watch your thoughts!

5. All frustration is due to unfulfilled desires. If you dwell on obstacles, delays, and difficulties, your subconscious mind responds accordingly, and you are blocking you own good.

6. The Life Principle will flow through you rhythmically and harmoniously if you consciously affirm: “I believe that the subconscious power which gave me this desire is now fulfilling it through me.” This dissolves all conflicts.

7. You can interfere with the normal rhythm of your heart, lungs, and other organs by worry, anxiety, and fear. Feed your subconscious with thoughts of harmony, health, and peace, and all the functions of your body will become normal again.

8. Keep your conscious mind busy with the expectation of the best, and your subconscious will faithfully reproduce your habitual thinking.

9. Imagine the happy ending or solution to your problem, feel the thrill of accomplishment, and what you imagine and feel will be accepted by your subconscious mind and bring it to pass.

6

Habit Patterns: First We Form Habits, Then They Form Us

Let me repeat the subtitle to this chapter: “First We Form Habits, Then They Form Us.” Just like our self concept, we came into the world with no formed habits.
All
of our habits have been developed, and once developed most often become conditioned responses to our environment and internal perceptions. It is important to note that maintaining a habit is
our choice
. For those habits that support us and serve us well, we need to apply purposeful practice and attention. But, more important, we have the capacity to change
any
habit that may no longer be useful or of benefit to us.

We have two types of habit patterns---positive and negative. Positive habit patterns may include walking, talking, eating, driving our car or a thousand other things. Negative habit patterns always contain the element of FEAR. We will talk more about negative habit patterns later in this chapter.

Habit patterns are wonderful because they allow us to do so many things simultaneously. Since we can only hold one thought at a time in our conscious mind, without habit patterns it would be difficult (dangerous?) to attempt simultaneous activities.

Let’s take driving a car, for example. When you first started driving, you didn’t just jump in the car, turn on the ignition, shift into drive, release the brake and take off. You didn’t know what to do. So with a good instructor (mom and/or dad) combined with driver’s education, you
learned
how to drive an automobile. But, it took some time, some mistakes, and a lot of concentration. On your first few attempts you weren’t about to simultaneously get on your cell phone or listen to books on tape. It was all you could do to avoid oversteering, braking too hard, and how about those first few attempts at parallel parking on a steep
hill! (My daughters, Julie and Jill, may still be upset with me for that drill.)

O.K. You get the drift. We learn or develop habits through:

1. Data input; and,

2. Repetition

Here’s what this means neurologically. In his book
The Talent Code
,* author Daniel Coyle writes:

The talent code is built on revolutionary scientific discoveries involving a neural insulator called myelin, which some neurologists now consider to be the holy grail of acquiring skill. Here’s why. Every human skill, whether it’s playing baseball or playing Bach, is created by chains of nerve fibers carrying a tiny electrical impulse— basically, a signal traveling through a circuit. Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. When we fire our circuits the right way—when we practice swinging that bat or playing that note—our myelin responds by wrapping layers of insulation around that neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and speed. The thicker the myelin gets, the better it insulates, and the faster and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.

Coyle continues:

The revolution is built on three simple facts. (1) Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a precisely timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons—a circuit of nerve fibers. (2) Myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy. (3) The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our movements and thoughts become.

In our driving example as stated, the data input is the instruction we receive, again from parents, driving school, older siblings, or friends.

The repetition is self explanatory. We simply keep “practicing” (i.e., driving) over and over until it becomes a habit. How do we know when it is a habit? It becomes a habit when we no longer have to think about it
consciously
. Our data input, through repetition, is now embedded into the
subconscious
area of our mind. In other words, we simply turn the activity, in this case driving, over to our “auto pilot” (no pun intended) who performs the activity while our conscious mind is free to participate in other activities such as talking with a fellow passenger, or listening to a ball game on the radio. Have you ever been in a restaurant or bar with a piano and observed the pianist playing beautiful music while fully engaged in a deep conversation with one of the customers. The pianist’s hands are flying over the key board without an error while the pianist herself is concentrating on the conversation with the customer. Needless to say, the pianist didn’t play the song this competently the first time she attempted to play it. She read the music with great concentration (with no side conversations) and practiced it over and over until she could play the song flawlessly
without having to think about it consciously
. It had become a habit pattern.

In this same example, if another patron asked her to play a song of which she had the sheet music but had not committed the song to memory, she could read the music as she played, but there would be no side-bar conversations as her full concentration would have to be on reading the music.

The same could be said of typing. First we learned to type, with much instruction and many mistakes, and now we just type.

So, as stated previously, habit patterns are great in that they allow us to do so many different things without having to apply conscious thought. But, now we will examine how certain habit patterns, specifically negative habit patterns, can affect our behavior in negative ways and in some instances may actually be harmful to us.