PERSPECTIVE - HARNESSING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF OUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND FOR A BETTER FUTURE
Thoughts and Emotions Can Shape Our Reality
By: Ulysses C. Ybiernas | January 15, 2021
Learn how mastering our thoughts, emotions, and habits through meditation can transform our life, break negative patterns, and help create the future we desire.
The state of our mind directly influences the quality of our life. How we think, feel, and perceive the world around us can define our experiences and overall well-being. This concept is not just theoretical; it's backed by both neuroscience and psychology. Our thoughts and feelings shape our state of being, and mastering them can transform our life.
The Power of Thoughts and Emotions
The way we think about situations, including problems, has a profound impact on our emotional state. When we constantly focus on the negative aspects of challenges, fear, and sadness become ingrained in our emotional responses. These emotions can deeply affect our mood and mindset, creating a cycle of negativity that can carry over into every part of our life.
The Role of Habit in Shaping Behavior
Habit is a powerful force in our lives. It’s an unconscious cycle of repetitive thoughts, actions, and emotional reactions that are ingrained through consistent repetition. When we repeat certain behaviors, our body starts doing them automatically without the need for active thought. The more we repeat something, the easier it becomes, so much so, that our body can perform certain tasks even better than our mind could consciously plan. This is why we often perform familiar routines without thinking about them, such as typing a password or driving a familiar route.
The Subconscious Mind is A Hidden Force
The subconscious mind operates outside of our conscious awareness and is incredibly influential. For example, we might forget our passwords after a long vacation, but our body will automatically input the correct sequence without us consciously remembering it. This feat often amazes me upon going back to work from a long vacation. This automatic processing shows how deeply ingrained behaviors and memories are within the subconscious.
When we wake up and immediately focus on our problems, our brain begins to react. These thoughts are connected to memories-recordings of the past. Memories are linked to people, places, and emotions, and when we think about our problems, we essentially reliving a painful moment. This makes it harder to have a positive day, as those emotions are triggered first thing in the morning.
The Danger of Living in the Past
When we recall our past problems, especially on a daily basis, we create a feedback loop of negative emotions. These emotions of fear, sadness, anxiety for instance, become embedded in our physical and emotional responses, influencing the way we approach our day. If we start our day by dwelling on past troubles, we are essentially bringing the past into the present. The familiar feelings tied to those memories dictate how we react throughout the day, leading us to unconsciously repeat past mistakes or patterns.
The Power of Choice and Change
Our mind is the creator of habit, and it’s easy to fall into a routine that perpetuates the same emotional and behavioral responses day after day. By the time we reach our mid-thirties, 95% of our behaviors, emotional responses, and thought patterns are subconscious. This is where true change becomes challenging. We can consciously desire happiness, health, or freedom, but our body, ingrained in its familiar habits, will resist. It operates on its own program, making it difficult to break free.
The key to overcoming this resistance lies in the power of the analytical mind. The conscious mind is separated from the subconscious by this analytical barrier, and in order to make real change, we must bypass it. One effective way to do this is through meditation, which allows us to calm the mind, slow down our brainwaves, and enter a state where change is possible.
Meditation As Gateway to Transformation
Meditation enables us to access the subconscious mind, where change can occur. By practicing regularly, we can rewire our brain, disrupt old patterns, and form new, positive behaviors. Most people wait for a crisis, such as trauma, disease, or a loss, to force them to change. However, this doesn’t need to be the case. We can choose to learn and evolve in a state of joy and inspiration, not just out of necessity or suffering.
The Emotional Trap
Our emotional reactions are powerful and often harder to control than we realize. When we experience intense emotions, whether from past trauma or daily stress, they become imprinted in our memory. This creates long-term emotional responses that dictate how we feel in future situations. Emotional reactions that persist for days or weeks become temperaments; when they continue for years, they turn into personality traits. The challenge lies in shortening the "refractory period" of these emotional reactions, meaning, learning to stop them from controlling us.
Overcoming Survival Mode
Many people live in survival mode, constantly anticipating the worst-case scenario. This behavior is driven by stress and fear, leading to emotional and physical responses that reinforce negative patterns. The body becomes conditioned to react with panic or anxiety because it has been trained to expect the worst. Over time, this cycle can become a subconscious program that’s difficult to break. People may become addicted to the rush of these emotions, using them as a way to feel something, even if it’s negative.
The key to breaking this cycle is recognizing that our body cannot distinguish between an actual experience and the emotions created by our thoughts. The body responds to the emotions generated by our thoughts as if they are real, reinforcing the belief that we are trapped in past experiences.
The Role of Meditation and Willpower
The hardest part of personal transformation is stepping out of our comfort zone and making different choices. These choices may feel uncomfortable because they go against the habits and patterns that our body has become accustomed to. But true change comes when we choose to make a different decision, despite the discomfort.
To truly change, we must break the cycle of repeating the same thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Meditation can help us disconnect from our familiar emotional states and allow our will to override the old program. This process takes practice, but it’s essential for breaking free from the emotional grip of the past.
The Future Is Not a Result of the Past
In quantum reality, the cause comes before the effect. We cannot wait for success, wealth, health, or love to feel these things. Instead, we must start feeling these emotions now, even before the external circumstances align. The moment we begin to feel abundant, wealthy, or loved, we begin to align our reality with those emotions. This shift in mindset is crucial for creating lasting change.
By changing our thoughts and emotions, we change the outcome of our life. Instead of blaming external factors, take responsibility for our mental and emotional state. We are the creator of our reality.
Conclusion
To therefore change our future is to mentally rehearse the actions we want to take. Visualize the desired outcomes as if they’ve already happened. This shifts our brain from being a record of the past to a map for the future. Over time, our brain’s neurological "hardware" becomes the "software" that guides our behavior, reinforcing positive changes in our life.
The real work is teaching our body to emotionally experience the future before it happens. The more we practice this, the more it will become second nature, allowing us to step into a new reality that reflects our true desires.
Remember, transformation is not about waiting for external events to change us. It’s about mastering our thoughts, emotions, and actions, and realizing that we have the power to create the life we want.
"Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repitition and emotion will one day become a reality." - Earl Nightingale
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