How our MIND Works
How our emotions affect our perspective
Most of us believe that how we experience the world around us, is a true reflection of how it is. What we perceive appears to be a direct reflection of reality. Our reality however, is a combination of how we perceive the world around us through our senses and what we believe the world to be like. What we believe however, is a combination of what we experienced in the past and the emotional memory tied to those experiences. As a result, our current experience can be positively or negatively affected by our past experiences, thereby making the present experience of reality, very much OUR experience.
Our reality is really
OUR REALITY
If For example, we had a bad experience riding an elevator when we were young, we may inadvertently not like elevator rides, even if our current experience is without issues. The more emotional the experience was in the past, the longer it can last and affect future experiences.
This phenomenon is a common occurrence in our daily life and shapes our personality. As we get older we tend to perceive our experiences in life based on our personality and thereby create our own personal reality. If we are happy we tend to see the beauty and wonder in everything around us. When we are sad, we tend to see the struggles and problems around us.
Dr. Joe Dispenza describes the connection between our thoughts and emotions as follows:
As such, our emotional state and expectation of the world around us, shapes our experience.
How Perception affects or Perspective
The Adelson’s checkershadow illusion shows how our perception of the world around us is influenced by our expectation of what we are looking at.
Adelson’s Checkershadow Illusion
The Adelson’s Checker Shadow illusion, shows how our mind adjusts the perceived color of the center square to match the expected pattern of a checker or chess board. The ability to determine the nature of an object based on less than perfect data, is important for survival, but it also shows that our perceived reality is not always a true reflection of reality as it is.
How OUR Beliefs Came to Be
During the first 7 years of life, children are primarily in Theta , a brain frequency just below consciousness. That state allows a young child to learn about the environments by observing the parents, family and world around them. Theta is a state of imagination as well as a state of hypnosis. Kids learn very quickly in this state simply by observing, replicating and playing. What is learned during those first 7 years is what makes up the subconscious mind, “the program” , that determines our subconscious behaviors, tendencies, views we have about the world, hidden fears, tendencies for seeing the glass half full, or half empty and so on.
95% of your life comes from the program in our subconscious. Everyday only about 5% of your life we are conscious.
Dr. Bruce Lipton
What we believe dictates our thought, which dictates our emotions, which dictates our actions, which dictates our results.
The results (in turn) reinforce our beliefs.
David Bayer
Einstein describes he dilema in the following manner.
GEtting unstuck
So what can you do if your life is not on the right track. What can you do if you feel stuck? There are many things one can do, but the first one is to regain and reclaim the power you have to direct your life. Below are some methods that provide that first step to refresh your mind and provide you a new positive perspective.
BREAK The Routine
One of the easiest and most effective techniques is creating a break in our common routine or behavior.
For example: Let's assume you are frustrated and you feel trapped in your life and daily routine. Maybe you had dreams for your life that just seem very distant and out of reach.
The first step can be very simple by changing your routine.
Breakfast Treat
Take time and enjoy a great breakfast.
For instance: Treat yourself to some unusually good NUTRITION
You can buy some great healthy foods for breakfast such as fresh fruit, juice, eggs, etc. with a focus on ingredients that match your dietary needs/restrictions and put a smile on your face. Put so much effort into it, so that you are already excited about the next day’s breakfast before you go to sleep at night.
The next day, get up early enough so you can really take your time and enjoy your breakfast. Savor the taste of the good food you prepared and enjoy the aroma of the coffee or tea. This is your morning, you created it and you are meant to enjoy it.
Making such a change allows you to obtain a new perspective - from stuck in a routine to being free and creative to shape your future as you like it. As your perspective changes, your experience of your world changes and that opens the door to unlimited possibilities.
Start a new hobby
Adding a new hobby has several benefits.
It confirms that you are in control of your life - because you are the one making the change
It introduces opportunities for new experiences that support your new choices and interests.
It helps you find what you are truly passionate about,
A new Hobby
Find your passion
Create a new positive habit
Adding a new positive habit has several benefits beyond that of a hobby
It introduces a new “program” for the sub-conscious mind (The “program” is something I will touch on in the upcoming section on “Becoming Conscious”)
It is repetitive enough in every day life (more than a hobby) that it will bring a continues reminder that you have the control over your life and able to change it whenever you want.
Have a fantastic day!!
The Daily Run
Get into the habit of daily exercise.
Becoming Conscious
You may be thinking, this is a crazy subject, I am already conscious, and you are right. This is really about becoming more conscious, and to a lesser degree pulled in directions that are not in line with where you want your life to go.
From Dr. Bruce Lipton we know that during a typical day most of us are only conscious for about 5% of our day.
95% of your life comes from the program in our subconscious. Everyday only about 5% of your life we are conscious.
Dr. Bruce Lipton
This is because our subconscious runs like a program, helping you drive when you don’t pay attention, helping you walk and avoid objects and people, when you are on the phone, or otherwise multitasking. It is also the often perceived inner voice in our head that provides comments, judgement, etc. as we go about our day.
As we see, the subconscious is quite busy all day and for the most part, I am sure, doing a great job.
It processes information much faster than the conscious mind and that is primarily because it only uses information that was stored during the early years of 0-7 or later through hypnosis, meditation or newly attained habits. As such it will not, unlike your conscious mind, make any new choices or begin any new pattern of behavior or thinking, when the world around you changes or circumstance warrant it.
If you have any unwanted tendencies such as overeating, smoking, or negative thinking for instance, it is in most cases not your conscious mind that is stopping you from overcoming them. It is the current “program” or saved pattern of behavior, in the subconscious, that is the culprit.
So how can we effectively make changes? Well, the methods that provide you the greatest amount of conscious control, in my mind, are meditation and the forming of new habits.
Meditation leads to increased level of consciousness, because it provides a path to greater inner peace, health, life-balance, etc., which helps adjust incongruent subconscious beliefs and tendencies.
Forming a new habit, such as exercising to increase health, helps to increase consciousness, because it requires conscious thought to do the new habit, while at the same time, the opposing subconscious beliefs or tendencies are, over time, replaced with new ones.
The Subconscious Mind and The Inner Voice
The Conscious Mind allows us to make decisions, be creative, take action and adjust to a changing environment.
The Subconscious mind however, also known as the “habit mind”, runs the programmed thoughts, triggers the programmed emotions and feelings. It’s job is to do things fast, without the need for conscious thought.
How do we know what is programmed? There are several clues such as commentary of your inner voice and on a broader perspective, how your life has turned out so far.
The Inner Voice are thoughts, driven primarily by the subconscious mind, providing feedback, often a type of commentary, on our actions and decisions we take or omit throughout the day.
Dr. Eckhart Tolle explains:
Shakespeare once said:
“Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
William Shakespear
In his book “The Biology of Belief” Dr. Bruce Lipton writes:
The thinking “we have to” is coming from our subconscious program.
How to become (more) conscious
Become conscious of how you think, begin to notice how you act and pay attention to how you feel
Choose conscious over subconscious experience
a) Be present in a conversation, listening actively to the input of others
b) Walk, drive and eat consciously allowing yourself to experience the wind, the road, the food you eat with all the nuances and plethora of sensations that can be experiencedStart a habit such as meditating that can help to focus your mind, guide your thoughts and become more aware of your emotions
Feed your mind, body and soul with inspiring, healthy and joyful thoughts, nutrition and feelings
Remind yourself that change is not found in the known, but in the unknown which is to be explored