Every day you make decisions, think about things, and calculate things – it is your conscious mind that you use day to day, rationally reasoning with yourself and others. It is your subconscious mind that stores your past experiences and memories however, and subliminally influences the decisions you make through your emotions and feelings. For example, if you nearly drowned as a child, and were rescued by a lifeguard, you may still refuse to go swimming. Although you can reason that it is safe and that you will not drown, your subconscious will continually nag unless you do something about it.
The idea of the subconscious mind was first explored by Rene Descartes, who is famously quoted as saying “I think therefore I am” around 400 years ago. He went on to create the idea of Dualism or Duality, which proposed that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind, such as when people act out of passion. The negative emotions and thoughts stored up in your subconscious mind can have a detrimental effect on your success in life and can hold you back without you even knowing.
There are certain exercises however, that you can perform that can to unlock the power of your subconscious mind and here is a brief introduction to some of them:
Positive Self-affirmations - Make a list of 10 – 15 positive statements about yourself achieving your goals and repeat them to yourself out loud in the morning and then again in the evening. Speak them loudly and enthusiastically with a positive attitude emanating from the tone of your voice. Make sure that the statements are positive and in the present tense ie. I am a successful sales man that could sell anything to anyone!
Keep the list of statements on a piece of paper in your pocket so that you can have a read through them at times throughout the day.
Creative Visualization - Take time everyday to imagine yourself achieving your goals. Make it bold, clear and colourful and imagine yourself in the situation. Make it as vivid as possible - taste and feel the success and really imagine the emotions that you are feeling when in that situation. This will help you to naturally attract what you desire and become rich and successful. You can also use this technique to visualise future situations and events such as presentations to ensure that they go exactly as you plan.
Create an Anchor of Positive Energy – Find a song that you really love that is full of energy and really gets you going. Maybe something you listen to before you go out. Lie down and relax while listening to it and visualise a situation that you were really comfortable, having fun and bursting with positive energy. Put yourself fully into the situation smelling the smells, hearing the sounds and feeling the emotions. As you peak your levels of positivity and energy, press your index finger and thumb together to capture the feeling. Now, during the day, when you feel your energy dropping, just press your thumb and index finger together to get that positive state back. Put on that tune again if you can to really give yourself a boost while you do this.
The subconscious mind is very powerful in influencing our behaviour, and by harnessing it, you can really accelerate your success in life. Click here for more info on this topic.
