The subconscious mind only knows what you have programmed it to do.
Have you ever been typing along on your laptop, and all of a sudden your
computer starts running automatic programs that you have no control over?
When you try to use the conscious mind to stop the automatic, subconscious
programs stored in your body, it’s like yelling at a computer that’s gone
rogue, with several programs running while windows are popping up and
showing more than you can handle. Hey! Stop that! The computer isn’t
even going to register that. It’s going to keep doing what it does until there
is some sort of intervention—until you get into its operating system and
change some settings.
In this book, you will learn how to get into the subconscious, and
reprogram it with a new set of strategies. In effect, you have to unlearn, or
unwire, your old thinking and feeling patterns and then relearn, or rewire,
your brain with new patterns of thinking and feeling, based on who you
want to be instead. When you condition the body with a new mind, the two
can no longer work in opposition, but must be in harmony. This is the point
of change ... of self-creation.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Let’s use a real-life situation to illustrate what happens when we decide
to break from some memorized emotional state and change our minds. I
think we can all relate to one common state of being: guilt. So I’m going to
use that to illustrate in practical terms how this cycle of thinking and feeling
works against us. Then we’ll identify some of the efforts the brain-body
system is going to make to remain in control and preserve that negative
state of being.
Imagine that you frequently feel guilty about one thing or another. If
something goes wrong in a relationship—a simple miscommunication,
someone unreasonably misplacing his or her anger on you, or whatever—
you wind up taking the blame and feeling bad. Picture yourself as one of
those people who repeatedly say or think, It was my fault.
After 20 years of doing this to yourself, you feel guilty and think guilty
thoughts automatically. You have created an environment of guilt for
yourself. Other factors have contributed to this, but for now, let’s stay with