Why we don't often get what we wish for/Chapter 10 in an online book: ‘Blowing the Whistle on Enlightenment: Confessions of a New Age Heretic,’ by Bronte Baxter.
This is Chapter 10 in an online book: ‘Blowing the Whistle on Enlightenment: Confessions of a New Age Heretic,’ by Bronte Baxter.
Do I trust my ability to succeed? Does my subconscious believe I am a loser. Do I sabatoge myself with quiet negative self talk that creates fear of doubt?
Therefore my conscious desire is not in line with my subconscious beliefs
This mental self sabatoge is keeping us from getting what we want and this baggage keeps us from things
The first thing is to realize that what looks like lack of personal power is really tremendous power hiding behind the mask of self-doubt.
How do we get
around this problem of a self-sabotaging, negatively programmed
subconscious mind? The first thing is to realize that what looks like
lack of personal power is really tremendous power hiding behind the mask
of self-doubt. The person who can’t get what she consciously longs for
is very powerful in creating what she subconsciously thinks she
deserves: failure and unhappiness. Once she can see how her beliefs
about herself are what undercut her, once she becomes conscious of the
negative self-talk, she comes to an understanding that allows her to
change the situation.
The trick is
to persuade the deeper levels of mind to accept the new consciously held
opinion that I should have, experience, or be able to do the thing I
wish. How does a person persuade subconscious mind to give up its
long-held attitudes and biases that subvert that?
We come to
realize that if our subconscious harbors self-defeating attitudes, it is
our own conscious thoughts that created the situation. Telling
ourselves again and again for years, “I can’t,” “It’s dangerous,” “It’s
impossible,” or “I’ll look stupid” has colored the subconscious mind
with matching beliefs. But what conscious mind created, it can uncreate.
The computer programmer can always overwrite the program he has written
for himself.
We are each
the author of our personal story, and we can revise it at any time. We
can only do this if we can perceive how our thoughts have created and/or
allowed all of our experience.
Once we consciously accept that we are
indeed the authors of our reality and should, in theory, be able to
change and direct it, we are ready for the next phase of empowerment,
which is to start to rewrite the programming we no longer want in our
subconscious mind. How do we do that?
before falling
asleep, precisely what you desire to experience, in all its color and
glory. As your drowsy mind fantasizes, your subconscious mind becomes
more alert and receptive (because deeper mind is most lively and open in
a drowsy or trancelike state). Using this technique, the image of what
is desired is recorded by the subconscious mind clearly and powerfully.
Resistance to the desire is less than in normal waking consciousness,
because the mental chatter is absent in a drowsy, alpha state.
You know
you’re making progress when you find yourself “getting into” the
fantasy, experiencing it as you would a movie in which you’re
emotionally involved. When you find your emotions and/or your senses
responding to your imaging, it means your subconscious mind is accepting
your desire without blocking it. Deep mind is seeing your wish as a
doable thing. The program is being rewritten!
When you
practice this technique (which I like to call “imaginating”), it’s
important to visualize the scene from the perspective of being in it,
not from the perspective of a watcher. Imaginating is different in that
sense from watching a movie. You become an actor in the scene, as
opposed to an outside observer. Rather than seeing an image of yourself
thin, let yourself experience the feeling of being thin, and imagine
doing the things you would do or feel as a thin person. If you want a
visual image of yourself, you can imaginate looking in a mirror. The
point is to imaginate from the perspective of being in the movie.
If you find
that visual images don’t spontaneously come to you, it doesn’t matter.
You can imaginate through any of the senses: sound, touch, taste, smell –
you don’t have to get visuals. You can even imaginate without sense
involvement, by imagining the feeling of an experience. For most of us,
though, starting out using some sense image helps generate the feeling
we’re looking for. Having the feeling of the wish fulfilled is the
culmination of properly practiced imaginating.
When you
imaginate, picture the scene as if the desire has already been
accomplished. Don’t imagine looking at the title of your home – imagine
holding it in your hand. Don’t think of a piece of land in the country –
imagine sitting on the grass in the front yard, or working in the
garden. Imagine however your heart directs you, but always from the
perspective of the wish fulfilled. If you imaginae a bike in a store
window, the bike will always stay in the store window. Instead, feel
yourself riding the bike, with your personal paraphernalia attached.
By practicing
this technique right before sleep and sometimes falling asleep in the
midst of the fantasy, a person will often find their desire realized in
the outer world in a very short time. Circumstances come together,
sometimes in remarkable ways, to bring the wished-for results.
While subconscious
mind may seem dumb in that it blindly accepts whatever we tell it,
there’s nothing dumb about an intelligence that can move the universe to
bring us what we want. The subconscious mind deserves to be respected,
but we need to understand that it is we, as conscious mind, that gives
the orders.
By practicing this technique right
before sleep and sometimes falling asleep in the midst of the fantasy, a
person will often find their desire realized in the outer world in a
very short time. Circumstances come together, sometimes in remarkable
ways, to bring the wished-for results.
This back talk
usually comes in quiet ways, as little nagging feelings throughout the
day. It whispers on a barely conscious level, poisoning our good mood
and self-confidence. After a perfectly blissful morning imagining
session, where we joyfully knew our dream was in the process of coming true, we can, by 11 o’clock, be irritable and depressed, asking ourselves, “What on earth was I thinking?”
How to handle
this? I’ve found head-on confrontation to be most effective. When I
notice negative self-talk, I try to take a break from whatever I’m doing
and give a little feedback to the Sub. I close my eyes, get quiet, and
look at the nagging thought my subconscious mind has presented. Then I
genuinely consider the possible truth of the negative thought, in light
of my desired ideal. I listen to the argument of my sadly programmed
subconscious as I would to an opposing parent or spouse: with patience
and attention. Then I’m able to see the fallacies in its point of view,
which is easy, because I now know more about life than I did when I
taught those attitudes to my subconscious.
So I explain
to the Sub where its thinking is wrong, why life does not work quite
that way, or why it doesn’t have to. I do this little internal
conversation using reason, logic, emotion, love, whatever my instinct
tells me is necessary to heal the old attitude. It’s like telling a
little child, afraid to jump in the water for the first time, why it’s
all right and doable. You listen to the fears, and then you address
them. You reassure and explain, in light of your greater knowledge. And
the child, or in this case, subconscious mind, adjusts its thinking to
reflect your reassuring understanding.
But back to
negative self-talk. Sitting down and having a little chat with your
subconscious is the most useful technique I’ve discovered for rewriting
old self-defeating programs. You may have to do it a number of times. In
the first session, you’ll answer and erase the first “Yes, but.” Later
that same day or the next, your subconscious will raise another,
different objection, one that underlies the doubt you just resolved. So
you sit down and address that issue, too. Then a still deeper layer of
programming will expose itself in the form of another nagging fear or
doubt. Again, you consciously and compassionately address it. You keep
on doing this, peeling the onion, until all the objections have been
aired and answered. After this happens, the self-talk will be far less
powerful. That’s because the overwrite is well underway.
But sabotaging
self-talk may still occur. At this stage, negativity is mostly a matter
of old habit. The subconscious mind has understood the new explanations
you’ve sold it, but it hasn’t completely bought the package. It’s used
to the old habitual way of seeing and doing. That is more familiar, more
comfortable. At this point, a little self-discussion about comfort
zones may be in order. When you’ve talked that through and have the
feeling your subconscious mind is basically in league with you, but
hesitant to commit, that may be the time to simply tell it: “Enough –
we’re going to do this thing.”
This is a form
of ordaining that works when subconscious mind is 99 percent with you
and just needs a little nudge over the edge. But don’t order your deeper
mind around unless you’ve fully listened to it first. If you start out
your work on a manifesting a desire by telling self-talk to stop, your
deep mind will obey you. The doubts and fears will go underground and
become repressed. Then your desire won’t materialize, and you’ll be
stymied as to why. Your subconscious won’t tell you, of course, because
you told it to shut up.
Never regard
your subconscious mind as stupid or a nuisance, something to be sneered
at or bossed. Its doubts and fears are trying to protect you, based on
what you taught it is safe from before. Treat it like a concerned
friend. But after you’ve explained everything to the friend, if they
have no objection left other than being nervous at the newness of it
all, it’s time to nudge them encouragingly and say, “Come on, buddy,
let’s go for it.”
This is Chapter 10 in an online book: ‘Blowing the Whistle on Enlightenment: Confessions of a New Age Heretic,’ by Bronte Baxter.
