How To Rewire Old Beliefs In Your Subconscious Mind and Replace Them With New Better Beliefs – Part 1
I was so inspired recently by a short video I watched by Bruce Lipton, a teacher and biologist bringing science with spirit. Bruce is also an author, one of his well known books titled ‘Beyond Belief’.
After listening to his inspiring talk, I jumped on to his website and was totally delighted. In his resources section, he had such a long list of different therapeutic methods which are used to reprogram old beliefs. Who said we had to stay stuck in our old belief patterns? We have so many tools at our disposal to change them.
It is indeed true that most of our behaviour, thoughts and feelings originate from our beliefs, which are housed in our big deep cavernous mind – the SUBCONSCIOUS mind. Also true, we are seldom aware of the continual running programs in the depths of our subconscious mind.
Did you know that 95 percent of our behaviours are controlled by our subconscious beliefs, not our conscious mind?
Most of your beliefs are formed at a very early age in your life – in the late stages of being inside your mother’s womb during pregnancy and during the first 7 years of your life. This is one huge reason to respect, love and encourage our children – whether they are ours, our nieces, nephews, grandchildren or maybe students you are working with. What do you do and say to them has a deep impact!
So how do we change these beliefs in our subconscious mind?
I have a friend who suffers from Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD). If you aren’t familiar with this condition, it’s a psychological stress disorder which develops in response to repeated traumatic experiences, usually early in childhood. The child grows to an adult who becomes highly reactive to specific emotional triggers. She or he commonly experiences anxiety, poor sleep and other stress related body signs.
My friend has often told me that she is unable to change the way she is because of her past traumatic events which programmed her beliefs and consequently her current behaviours. True, we do behave and respond according to our subconscious conditioning. True also, it isn’t easy to change these beliefs. It’s a huge task to reprogram deeply ingrained beliefs from our childhood. However, I still believe it is possible. I have witnessed it in some people who have persistently applied retraining methods to change those old core beliefs. The journey isn’t quick or easy, but there are many case histories where people suffering from PTSD have successfully managed to change themselves and their life, through the use of innovative therapeutic techniques such as Brain Entrainment, Brain Sync Conscious Evolution, Silva Ultramind System, Resonance Repatterning and more.
Norman Doidge developed the term neuro-plasticity – the ability for the brain to reorganise itself by forming new neural networks, changing and re-wiring its old patterns or beliefs. Joe Dispenza also conducts progressive workshops where he trains people to change their beliefs and perceptions through specialised techniques. Some of his students have attained outstanding remissions from terminal illnesses by doing his process. So there is some validity in the process of being able to rewire old belief patterns.
Developing a belief that we can change our beliefs, no matter how deep or disturbed they may be, is probably the first step on the journey. Reading and hearing other people’s success stories are very helpful to this process. This allows you to know that it is possible. You can read success stories here.
Research by scientists such as Bruce Lipton indicate that with persistent repetitious reprogramming, positive changes can be made.
One of the secrets to success is being able to access the subconscious mind. Once your subconscious mind is accessed, your brain becomes receptive. This usually becomes possible in deeply relaxed or semi-hypnotic states. This is when you can plant new seeds – new beliefs – quite successfully. But it’s not a quick fix. The process does require time, persistence and consistency. If you think of how a seed grows to become a small seedling, then a young plant, finally becoming a tree, this is a similar process to re-creating new beliefs within your subconscious mind.
One of my favourite teachers, Ramtha, a channelled entity through the medium JZ Knight would often say “It takes 30 days to make soft-wired changes in your brain. But it takes 90 days to hard-wire them.” He was referring to a daily practice of sending new messages in to our brain, in a meditative state, in order to change our belief systems. He understood that 30 days of repetitive daily practice could bring temporary changes in belief systems. However the real and more long lasting changes would come if the student persisted every day for 90 days. This was the ‘hard-wired’ changes he was referring to.
So changing beliefs is something of a somewhat dedicated mission. I am going to share some potent tips to help you do so. However, the real treasure is in the practice! Please remember that.
This system has 3 steps to the process.
- Identify (Work Out the New Belief You Need)
- Access (Open the Door to Your Subconscious Mind)
- Apply (Reprogram and Practice Persistently)
Step 1 – IDENTIFY
Work Out the New Belief You Need
You will first need to identify what is the core belief which is keeping you stuck. I suggest you make it simple to start with and chose just one belief to change. You can branch out more later.
This is a little exercise you can do to help you identify beliefs which need changing.
On a sheet of paper, write down one of your main problems you are currently experiencing. Just chose any. Usually the first one which comes to mind is the best. For example, you might be experiencing a bad rash on your hand which is preventing you from doing your massage work well, which is interfering with your income earning abilities.
Second, ask yourself, how is this problem making me feel? What are the emotions driving the experience? Again, don’t think too much. Just write. So, in the above example, the feelings which come up are – shame, embarrassment, incompetence.
Next, ask yourself – Why? Why do you feel this way? What makes you feel this way? Again, just let the first few thoughts which come to mind flow out. Write them down. In the above example, it may be “I’m not good enough. I look horrible. People will think bad things of me.”
OK. This is the enlightening point. Look over the few sentences you wrote in the last section. They are your limiting beliefs. Beliefs which you have probably carried with you since you were quite young. These are the beliefs which you want to change so that you can be liberated from your current challenge. We want the charge to be taken out of the situation. Once charge is removed, it allows space for new beliefs to emerge.
At this point, it’s important not to fight these feelings. Allow and accept. It’s OK you feel this way. Just observe the thoughts that are behind your feelings. I wonder when they started? They are probably beliefs that you developed a long time ago, in response to a difficult situation. They probably have been running in automatic pilot in your being for quite a long time now. Don’t try to tell yourself to be a different way. Acceptance is key here.
The next step is to imagine you are a most loving mother, father, spirit guide, kind mentor or even your inner God self looking at your ‘little self’. I call this wise loving aspect of you ‘The Big You’. So the ‘Big You’ is communicating with the ‘Little You’, just like a loving mother would be with her beloved child. Now allow your ‘Big You’ to speak out about the ‘Little You’s’ problem. Just allow whatever words of wisdom come first to mind – like a gem of advice for the ‘little you,’ in relation to this problem. Quickly jot down those words.
So, in this case example above, the Big Being could say to the little being: “Its OK to feel as you do. You’re still a beautiful being. You are totally loved. It doesn’t matter what people think of you. And you are totally capable of anything you chose to do.”
Viola! Presto! You have your new set of beliefs there –identified and ready to be programmed. The perfect antidote to helping you release the old problematic beliefs is there.
Next, write down those little gems. These gems are the new programs you will imprint in to your subconscious mind in the coming next two steps. Referring back to the above example again, the new programs to plant could look like this:
- I am a beautiful being.
- I am totally loved.
- It doesn’t matter what people think of me.
- I am capable of anything I chose to be good at.
And for good measure, as most of us have a lack of love at the core of most negative beliefs, you could add – “I love myself as I am.”
Instructions on what to do with this will be explained to you in the third step of this article –APPLY.
OK, you have completed Step One.
Now check Step 2, accessing and opening the door to your subconscious mind techniques in the following blog.