when this specific emotion is driving you. It is to remind you how you no
longer want to be, and how you were making yourself so unhappy. This step
helps you become aware of how you unconsciously behave and what you
say to yourself while you’re thinking and feeling, feeling and thinking, so
that you have more conscious control in your waking day.
Executing this step is a work in progress. In other words, if you sit down
every day for a week to focus on this, you will probably find that you
continue to modify and refine your list. That’s good.
When you do this step, you enter the operating system of the “computer”
programs in the subconscious mind and throw the spotlight on them for
your review. You ultimately want to become so familiar with these
cognitions that you inhibit them from firing in the first place. You will
prune away the synaptic connections that made up the old self. And if
everywhere that a neurological connection is formed constitutes a memory,
then you are in fact dismantling the memory of the old you.
Throughout this next week, continue to review the list again so that you
know even better who you no longer want to be. If you can memorize all
these aspects of the old self, you will separate your consciousness even
further from the old self. When your habitual, automatic thoughts and
reactions are completely familiar to you, they will never slip by unnoticed
or unrecognized. And you will be able to anticipate them before they are
initiated. This is when you are free.
In this step, remember: awareness is your goal.
You know the drill by now ... read Step 6 and do your writing; then
you’ll be ready to start your Week Three meditations.
STEP 6: REDIRECTING
Here’s what happens when you use the tools of redirecting: You prevent
yourself from behaving unconsciously. You stop yourself from activating
your old programs, and you biologically change, causing unfiring and