How to Unlock the Power of Your Subconscious Mind

 
When I went through my hypnotherapy training ten years ago, I learned a few surprising things about myself and my own mind that maybe you can relate to.

For example, has it ever felt like the harder you try to make something happen in your life, the further you seem to push it away?

Like my friend David. No matter how hard he tried to attract the right woman into his life, he kept experiencing disappointment after disappointment when, yet again, things didn’t work out.

Or, have you ever wondered what the real impact your thoughts are having on your physical body?

Like the time my friend Jenny was venting about yet another conflict she was experiencing in a challenging relationship. As she was talking about it, a muscle in her back went into such a strong spasm it literally took her breath away.

If you’ve ever wondered about how your thoughts are influencing your life, then you’ll probably love what you learn here. (This is also available on video, and on my podcast—if you prefer listening on the go).

Here, I share how you can unlock the power of your subconscious mind, and I spill the beans on 7 secrets I learned in hypnotherapy school.

I say secrets only because these rules of the mind seem to be understood by so few people.

I’ve got good news and bad news for you.

The bad news is whether we like it or not, these rules of the mind are at work in our lives EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

The good news is, once you understand these rules, you have the ability to harness the power of your own mind and have whatever breakthrough you are ready for, in any area of your life.

So pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage and grab a pen and paper, because you’re going to want to write some things down.

Before you dive in, though, bring into your mind one area of your life in which you would like to be having a different experience.

Then let me know which of the 7 rules you think best applies. 

1. First, every thought or idea that you have causes a physical reaction in your body. Let me repeat that. Every thought or idea causes a physical reaction.

To help illustrate this point, I want to do just a little guided imagery with you. For just one minute I'm going to ask you to play along and close your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths just to get yourself relaxed. Now imagine someone comes walking into the room with a big silver platter of bright yellow lemons. Now pretend you can actually hear them cutting into one of those lemons. Almost immediately the sweet, citrusy scent starts to hit your nostrils.

Now, imagine being handed one of those juicy tart lemons wedges and biting into it. Maybe you even suck on it for a few seconds. Notice the citrusy, tart sweetness of that lemon. Maybe you even imagine sticky, sweet lemon juice running down your chin as you take a big swallow. Good.

Now when you're ready, go ahead and open your eyes and simply notice, just acknowledge for yourself any kind of physical reaction you had in your body just by imagining the taste and smell and sensation of that lemon.

Maybe you felt your glands pucker. Maybe your mouth watered. Maybe you even felt like you needed to lick your lips or wipe your chin.

Whatever you experienced the point of this exercise was to help illustrate that every thought or idea causes a physical reaction in the body.

2. The second rule of the mind that I want you to understand: what is expected tends to be realized.

This is sometimes known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. We become what we think about.

For example, if you assume that love hurts and relationships always end up leading to heartbreak, that's probably going to become your experience. That's probably going to become your reality. You will unconsciously and unknowingly support and create that experience for yourself over and over again through your thoughts, your words and your actions.

Remember this, whatever it is you believe, you are likely going to prove yourself right.

If you believe there's never enough money, you're going to be right.

If you believe people can't be trusted, you're going to prove yourself right.

If you believe you're going to end up all alone, you may end up setting yourself up for exactly that.

Because remember, whatever is expected tends to be realized. When you understand this rule of the mind, you start to realize that the thoughts you choose to feed with any kind of consistency are impacting every aspect of your life. And in fact, are helping to create your life.

The third and fourth rules of the mind are pretty closely tied together. So, I'm going to share them at the same time. They are:

3. Two opposing ideas cannot be held at the same time, and

4. The one with the strongest emotion behind it will always win.

So for example, let's say the opportunity for your dream job presents itself. You've been preparing and building up to this for a long time. If you start to doubt whether or not you can do it and you fear that maybe you're actually biting off more than you can chew, you're probably not going to take that opportunity.

But, if you see this as an opportunity to up-level your life in the most amazing way and you know you have what it takes or that you can learn what you need to know to do the job justice, you're enthusiasm and confidence will be stronger than your fear and self-doubt. You'll probably step up and take that job.

You can't see yourself as a smoker and as a non-smoker at the same time. You're going to have to give up one of those ideas because the two opposing ideas cannot be held at the same time.

You could apply this to any area of your life that you are ready to change. Maybe you want more self-confidence and more self-esteem. But if you keep seeing yourself as being socially awkward, it's not very likely that you're going to be confident and dynamic in social situations.

You can't see yourself as overweight and unhealthy and also see yourself as somebody who's successfully running marathons, for example.

Eventually, one of those ideas is going to win.

But I've got some good news for you. There's another rule of the mind that you can use to help you feed the thoughts and ideas that you want to be feeding, and that is...

5. Imagination is much more powerful than knowledge when dealing with the mind. Reason is easily overruled by imagination.

So here's what this means, you can use guided imagery and creative visualization to help plant the seed that you want to feed and bring to fruition. Because there's another wonderful rule of the mind, which is...

6. Given enough repetition the mind will eventually consider what it is seeing and hearing to be true.

So, since repetition is one of the ways we influence the subconscious mind, if you hold an image and a vision in your mind and you repeat it often, eventually your mind is going to latch onto that and accept it as fact.

The ripple effects of repetitively visualizing what you are ready to experience and live your way into will eventually change the way you think and feel and behave from the inside.

Because all of that is being influenced by your subconscious mind. This is why our thoughts and our self-talk are so powerful.

Here's another really awesome rule of the mind that's super relevant to what we're talking about here, which is:

7. Once an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind it remains until it is replaced by another idea.

So here's what that means, the longer an idea remains the more opposition there is to replacing it with a new idea. It becomes a fixed habit of thought.

Depending on what we're talking about that can be seen as good news or bad news.

The bad news is, if we have a stubborn thought or habit that is deeply rooted in our lives, it may be a little more resistant to change. But, that doesn't mean it can't be done, that just requires more persistence.

Therefore, if you really want to change your experience, get very clear on what you want and then visualize it over and over again. You'll keep planting and re-planting that seed over and over and over again. It will eventually take root and become fixed.

It's kind of like building a fire—once that fire is started, it's much easier to keep it going.

The reason understanding these rules of the mind is important is because whether you realize it or not or whether you want it to be true or not, these rules of the mind are always at work in your life. They are either working for you or they're working against you, period. There is no way around this.

It's working against you if you choose to be unconscious and unaware of how your thoughts are influencing your life and are in fact helping to create your life.

Or, you are using this awareness and these tools to help you have the breakthrough you are ready for and to create the life you want.

So why not take this knowledge and learn to harness the power of your own mind? Now, I realize there's a lot of heady information that I shared with you here, pun intended. This is why you may want to read this blog (or watch the video or listen to the audio version) again. You may even want to write down these rules of the mind that I shared with you. This is valuable information you're going to want to remember.