How To Check If Your Subconscious Mind Is A Friend Or An Enemy?

Have you ever asked yourself a question “why does it always happen to me?” or “why don't I have enough money/time/etc.?”

If you have ever asked yourself such questions then maybe this is a time to look closer at the programming of your subconscious mind.

We've got at least two levels of thinking – conscious and unconscious or subconscious. First one is the logical level – it analyses things and helps you to solve problems and devise certain conclusions.

When you start learning anything, like driving a car, this part of your mind - the conscious mind - is helping you out. It's powerful but a bit limited as it cannot focus on too many tasks at the same time. You may still remember how you felt on your driving lessons - when you were trying to remember to check mirrors, you were forgetting to change gears or indicate. There were simply too many things to do at once.

When your subconscious programming starts working against you

In most cases like driving, walking or reading, it’s a very useful ability. Sometimes however, these programs become viruses and are actually sabotaging your actions.

Have you ever driven a car in the country with traffic on the opposite side of the road? You need to be extra careful there - your habit of driving on particular side of the road can actually kill you. Just a moment of day dreaming and you suddenly end up on the wrong lane. Your useful habit becomes your enemy.

In this case you are aware of it so you can cope and handle it well, but what would happen if you didn’t know about different road rules? Would you keep asking yourself why am I having so many accidents all the time?

The power of subconscious mind - driving a car becomes a habit

How does it feel now? Do you even remember how your journey to work today was? Do you recall how many times you changed gears or looked into mirrors? I doubt it, but surely you did all what was necessary to drive safely. The driving process became a habit.

When you are driving, your mind can do something else, like listening to the music, while your subconscious does the job. It's like being on an auto pilot, a program running in your head without your constant supervision.

How to discover faulty mind programs

Knowing what you know now, check the areas of your life or things that happen to you all the time and ask yourself a question – what program am I running that leads to these unwanted results?

For example, if you keep saying that you don’t have enough time, one of the programs you are running might be the belief that being busy means productive - equals good. It could be that you were kept busy all the time as a child by your parents. Your parents could believe that if they left you to do what you wanted, you could have silly ideas and get yourself into trouble.

You have the power to change your habits

There might be other reasons as well so you need to spend a healthy amount of time trying to figure them out. Once you are aware of them, you have the power to control and change them in the same way as you would do while driving on the wrong side of the road. You simply adjust your program to work in this new situation.

If the situation is not temporary but permanent, you can keep practising new way of approaching it until it becomes a habit. New program will then work for you and not against you.

It’s not as easy as it sounds

You may say that it's one thing to know that something is not working correctly, but another to actually change it. It’s not easy at all and requires quite a lot of work before it become a new habit.

If you ever had to move to a country when people drive on another side of the road as I had, you would know it takes a lot of conscious effort to keep you on the right side. At the beginning you are very aware of what you are doing and you need to keep yourself at this level of high awareness as it could cost you your life otherwise.

It's hard and very tiring work. For some it comes easier, for others it’s a long way before they become so used to the new rules to trust their body fully to do the right thing without thinking.

The more you do it, the easier it becomes

In the field of driving a car, most people believe the benefits of actually getting used to the new situation are much higher than the discomfort at the beginning and they know that it will become easier with a time.

The same can be said about new habits in any area. They are hard to follow at first but it becomes easier and easier with every repetition. It’s because the brain get used to running the new program and the old one is left behind with more and more dust piling up on it. One day it will end up in your mind archive and stay there forever or until next time you may need it.

Still to make it happen, you need tactics to stick to your new plan. For a driver it’s easy – using the old driving program could put your life in danger. With thinking habits, it’s not that simple, they usually have much softer effect in the short term, however much bigger impact in long term.

Imagine the worst possible consequences of using your old programs

Sometimes it's a good idea to remind yourself where you will end up if you keep doing what you do. What will be the result of your current unhelpful habits in the future? Not so good? Great - make the image bigger and more colourful in your imagination, then add emotions so it becomes really scary.

If for example you want to give up on fatty foods as you don’t want to put on weight, then imagine what could potentially happen in 5 years time if you have eaten a lot of fat. I know you will not eat that much but who knows what can happen?

You can imagine for example that you are gaining on pound a week which gives you 4 pounds a month. After a year you would be 48 pounds heavier! I guess we don’t even need to go as far as 5 years here. So how would you look like when you were 48 pounds heavier?

Don’t rely on will power, use your imagination

Imagine seeing your photos made at that stage, in the bikini the best. The more ugly imagine you can produce, the more you will try to stay away from it. Add emotions – how would you feel, what people might say to you when you were eating a doughnut for example?

Be cruel to yourself, don’t make the picture softer. The more scary and frightening it is, the better effect it will have. Your subconscious needs to know why we are abandoning the old program. There should be clear connection between eating too much fat with this scary picture of you.

To balance it out, your new program should be connected with a very positive, big and colourful image so you know the benefits you are aiming for. Have fun with this one and keep the old one as a safety measure.