It's nice to think we are at the helm of our life. It's assuring to believe that we make our own decisions, and go down our own chosen path.
But this is rarely the case.
The majority of people lack control of their inner state. Emotions sweep them off their feet, any criticism will make them angry and any compliment will make them smile. They have no strong routes, they are victims of life.
The simple reason for this? People seek change in their outer condition without first looking at their inner world. They continually frustrate themselves as they wonder why the same old patterns in life continue to manifest.
You cannot change the world without first changing yourself.
The subconscious is unbelievably powerful. It controls the most important brain functions such as intuition, insight, and creativity. A common theme in successful people is they can passively focus their subconscious on a task. When they are walking, showering, or cooking, insight will come to them.
Not understanding this will block you from accessing the most powerful features you have. Hence why understanding the subconscious is life-changing.
Your subconscious is a problem-solving machine.
Here's what you must understand to harness your capacities:
The subconscious works within the restraints it is given. It will not work to find a solution to a problem it does not believe there is a solution for.
❝“Whatsoever is said, first you look at it negatively. You are against it, and you will find reasons, rationalizations to support your againstness.”
OshoThe limitations of the subconscious are set by you. Limiting beliefs litter your mind and trap you in groundhog day, living out the same familiar patterns.
Limiting beliefs can always be found, but when you have an intention - it is easy to hunt for them because they will be the objections you have.
Questioning is the tool that will destroy a limiting belief once it is found. I will clarify this further later.
You have to care about what you are working on. The subconscious feeds off emotion, emotions tell it what is worth pursuing. Love, fear, hope, and survival, communicate to the subconscious that something is important.
Buying a house, making money, making friends, finding a partner, etc. isn't necessarily motivating. Rather, it's the feeling associated with the fulfillment of these goals that are motivating.
The more primal an emotion is, the more it is motivating. Anger, fear, joy, love, and lust are all highly motivating.
The problem most people face isn't in identifying what they might want, they have trouble caring. Why? Because they can't connect with the feelings it will bring.
So now the question is how?
How to motivate your subconscious -
Inquire about why you want something until you find the root motivation.
For example, if you wanted to start working out, ask why you want to do that. It may be to look fitter, stay healthy or start a new hobby, but let's say you want to look, fitter.
Then ask why again. Maybe it's because you’re into fashion and there aren't enough clothes made for your size. Then why are you into fashion?
Simply because you love and value fashion.
Well done, you have connected a task with your value and the feeling of living up to that value.
Remember - you may have many reasons for why you want to do something. Typically one will be of more importance than the rest, but the more motivating factors there are, the better.
But how about negative motivators? Typically most desires have a negative and a positive motivator. Following the previous example, we could say there is a fear of not being able to enjoy fashion to the extent you want to. This is also valid, but there is a problem with negative motivation.
Negative motivation makes can make you stressed. stress hinders creativity and insight, and in the long term can make you depressed and anxious. Eventually, it may make you want to give up.
Nevertheless, we are human at the end of the day. We are biased towards negativity and negative motivators will inevitably play a large role. At the same time, cultivating a habit of using more positive motivation will be highly beneficial in the long run.
Cultivating Motivation
The difficulty is the distance between the true motivating emotion and the task you need to do to reach it. This is why it's much easier to watch movies or play video games, the motivating emotion is right there. So how can you create a more direct association in your subconscious?
Thinking about and visualizing your end goal. It's very simple but effective, if you can tune into those feelings - you will suddenly find a lot of motivation.
It helps to think about living your deepest values and accomplishing your cherished goals throughout the day. This makes a habit and has the benefit of reminding you why you do what you do. But there is a way to contact the subconscious more directly.
When your mind is clear, this will be infinitely more effective.
Imagine a bucket of water with some writing at the base. You cannot read the writing when the water is moving a lot. In the same way, we cannot contact the subconscious when there is too much movement in the mind. We must get into a clear and restful mental state.
In these states, the physical world is out of our attention and thus our imagination is more real. Our bodies react to the imagination in the same way as real life.
When we visualize this state, the subconscious understands it as the truth. In the same way, when we dream we are completely convinced by our dream. This means with intentional visualisation we can expand the limits set in our subconscious. If you are interested in learning more, read psycho cybernetics.
Visualization is strong. Use it.
Limiting Belief Hunting (Uprooting)
When we want to plant a new seed, there will be many useless weed plants that have grown in their place. If we don't become aware of them, they will continue to dominate our consciousness.
Limiting beliefs are distorted views of the world. Often they form when we are younger and more susceptible to taking on the beliefs of others. As we grow older we have more control over the beliefs we form, largely because we already have a formed worldview. We feel that we know what's true.
Of course, any belief is just one way of viewing things. This is important to comprehend. If we can begin to see that beliefs are just one perspective, they begin to be a lot more valuable. I call the way we view beliefs meta-beliefs.
Some other important "meta-beliefs" to question:
"Strong beliefs make me strong"
"Examining beliefs is a waste of time"
"My beliefs make me who I am"
It is worth seriously examining any of these beliefs because your view on them will determine if change is possible for you.
So how can we identify and uproot limiting beliefs?
Intention, Identification, and Deconstruction.
Intention and Identification
Beliefs are often hard to spot, they are so deep within us that we don't even think to question them. We assume their truth, and thus we don't even notice them. But there is one thing that makes this easier. Intention!
When we have an intention, our mind starts to find out the way to that intention. Whatever is in the way will show up. Limiting beliefs will often show up in a feeling of pain, discomfort, or general anxiety. In short, resistance.
Let's imagine Susan, a 30-year-old woman working as a software engineer in a mid-sized company. She's been doing her job satisfactorily for several years, but recently, she's had a new intention. She wants to climb up the corporate ladder and become a team leader.
As she sets this intention, her mind starts finding ways to make this happen. She thinks about taking leadership training, managing some small projects in her spare time, and talking to her manager about her ambition. Yet, as she thinks more about it, she starts feeling anxious and uncomfortable.
She begins to doubt herself, thinking "Am I capable of leading a team?" She's worried about dealing with potential conflicts, making tough decisions, and possibly, making mistakes that could impact her team's performance. These are her limiting beliefs, standing in the way of her intention.
Every time she thinks about asserting herself or volunteering for a leadership role in a meeting, she feels a pang of anxiety. She finds herself getting headaches on Sunday nights at the thought of another work week. She's even beginning to lose sleep over her ambitions.
This is the resistance her mind is putting up against her intention.
These feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and pain are a manifestation of her limiting beliefs about her capabilities and potential. Overcoming this resistance will be a crucial part of her journey toward her intention of becoming a team lead.
Deconstruction
Once found, you need to disprove and uproot the limiting belief. There are two general tactics we can use.
Journaling and "pushing through"
A mix of both is best, although a limiting belief is ultimately best disproven through action. It's sort of like exposure therapy. But this isn't helpful because sometimes we do turn back from the overwhelming pain, but luckily we can combat this with journaling.
Keep the focus on the intention.
As discussed earlier the intention is the true source of motivation. This is the source of strength we will use to push back against this resistance! Think about the intention often, don't daydream, and be intentional.
Inquire
Inquiry is powerful. Don't underestimate what it can do. The secret to effective inquiry is an open mind, you should approach questions with a sense of curiosity and interest.
I am going to suggest two approaches here, but they are in essence the same. Question the validity of the belief.
Bryon Katie's four questions. This is great because it invites us to feel the difference between believing and not believing the thought. I highly suggest using this method, you'll get better with practice.
Socratic Reasoning. This is a method of inquiry that is about asking questions to uncover assumptions, clarify opinions, explore implications, etc.
"Why do you say that?" (looking for evidence)
"Is this always the case" (challenging assumptions)
"What is a counter-argument" (exploring other perspectives)
I love Socratic reasoning. It has helped me immeasurably. I wouldn't be writing this newsletter if I hadn't first confronted my doubts about whether it was worth doing.
Keep a journal, on your phone or a real one. Write down a limiting belief whenever you identify one. This will become easier over time. Remember, the more you do this, the more free you will feel.
How to harness the subconscious for a project
A project can be anything. A project can be a sport you want to improve at, a craft you want to master, or just your development. In the last section, we talked about connecting your subconscious with long-term aspirations. Now we are going to focus on the more granular aspects of working toward a vision.
Set Intention - we must be clear about what we need to do as a next step. This is why it is so useful to have planners and spend a little time every morning figuring out what is important to do. In the morning we have a lot of clarity and access to our subconscious, this is the best time to do it.
I used to think this was a waste of time. I liked being liberal and not planning out my day, letting what was important come up naturally. But this is anything but liberating. You will waste so much time that you could save by thinking for a little bit, about what is important and deciding what needs to be done.
This doesn't have to be an elaborate system. I just write out the long-term projects I am working on and what I need to do to move toward them today.
Remember - the subconscious will only work towards an intention that is seen as possible. If you have limiting beliefs, the subconscious will be limited.
For example, when you set an intention to start a business, you may see a limiting belief that says: "There is too much competition better than me." When these thoughts surface you should feel great, because you have just become aware of another piece of your mental prison. Write the belief down so you can dissect it later, using Socratic reasoning or the 4 questions.
Learn - the subconscious needs data. For the subconscious to find the best solutions, the best patterns - it must have a vast wealth of information to search. Similar to how AI works.
It doesn't matter too much what you learn about. It's best to consume information relevant to your intention, but you can find lessons in anything.
Rest - The subconscious works when the conscious mind is at rest. This is why sleep and relaxation are so important. Most people these days have a very broken relationship with stress and work. They believe that work = productivity, and neglect the role that rest plays.
So what role does rest play?
When resting, our subconscious is very productive. It is making connections between various areas of the brain and finding solutions to problems. Many accomplished people have been known to emphasize rest in their lives. Charles Darwin is a good example, spending most of his day walking a resting.
Rest is associated with creativity, insight, and intuition. Moments of insight have a habit of occurring during resting moments like showering.
When resting, the parasympathetic nervous system is active (known as "rest and digest mode"). We also see a slowing of brainwaves. So what are some ways to induce these effects?
Deep breathing - Any breathing exercises that use "belly breathing" (rather than chest breathing) and slow exhalations. I use the 4 4 4 4 technique which tells you to breathe in and hold for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds, and rest for 4 seconds. There are many exercises you can try out there.
Progressive muscle meditation (PMR) - PMR involves systematically tensing and then releasing different muscle groups, starting from your toes and working your way up to your head.
Relaxing meditations - Certain meditations work to concentrate, and some work to relax. We are focusing on relaxing so consider looking into TM (mantra), mindfulness meditation, or do nothing meditation.
Walking - This sounds simple but walking is powerful especially in quiet places and in nature.
Sleep hygiene - Substances like alcohol and THC are bad for sleep hygiene, you don't have to ban yourself from these substances, just limit them. Don't eat a lot before sleeping and minimize noise while you sleep. Consider using the Sleep Cycle app.
There are many other small things you can do, such as water and smiling relax us. But my point is that you should prioritize the quality of your rest.
4. Implement - When a solution/idea is found, work towards it ASAP. Indecision leads to doubt and fear, you cannot afford to let these states of mind foster.
When you implement straight away - success isn't guaranteed but data is. Data is used for learning, and this will give the subconscious more to work with.
Hesitation never leads to learning, it is a dis-ease of the mind.
I have gone over a lot in this article, it has been very information dense and practical. I hope at least some of it sticks with you.
Summary:
- The subconscious operates within the limits imposed upon it
- Primal emotion is the fuel the subconscious operates on
- You must connect with the primal motivating emotion through inquiry to "shorten the path of association"
- Cultivate this motivation through active visioning and making a habit of thinking about your end goal
- Limiting beliefs are beliefs that cause resistance in the pursuit of our intention
- Meta-beliefs are beliefs surrounding how we approach beliefs, it is important to question them
- Limiting beliefs can be identified through unpleasant feelings
- Limiting beliefs can be disproven through inquiry and results from action
- We can harness the subconscious in smaller ways through setting and intention, learning, resting, and taking action
Thank you for reading,
Jarvis.
