Until a few decades ago we thought that our mindset was just that, set in a rigid way, unchanging and unchangeable.
We now know that we can change our mind. This is just as well given that most illnesses a whopping ninety five percent are caused by the way we use our mind. My invitation to you through this short blog is to bring health and wellbeing back into your life with mind management. Even if you have not experienced a positive mindset, you can make changes from today. Consistently practicing will create new habits and a way of being that you will enjoy and love.
Our minds drive everything that we experience. Here are three distinctive layers to the mind.
The first is our conscious mind a small and the newest part of the mind, able to have one conversation at a time.
The second is the subconscious mind, a waiting room behind the conscious that can handle about four to eleven things at a time.
The last largest part by far is the unconscious. This can handle a lot of information at once. For example, we drive and have a conversation with a passenger. We process the day when we are sleeping. Past present and future experiences are processed before we are aware. It stores all of our experiences including negative as well as positive ones.
The source of any toxicity is words used to interpret an experience based on nonconscious experiences. Think of these as the roots with the weeds as outcomes. There is always a way to create flowers! There is always a solution. You can find the toxic stuff and reframe it with a perspective shift and positive affirmations such as ‘I can cope with this historic issue’. Other helpful practices include yoga and meditation. Suppressing is not an option as eventually we explode!
Rather than numbing feelings and thoughts with drugs there is a useful process of just five steps that you can use to change the neurocycle. Practised over two months your mind will change. Abuse and trauma require four neurocycles so approximately eight months. This is neuroplasticity. You cannot change the past but you can choose how your past plays out in your future, if you are in a bad place and feel bad, this is something that happened to you and you can choose the five steps.
1. This is yoga/meditation. Calming your mind down gather awareness by asking ‘what is my unconscious telling me? For example, explore what feelings are you experiencing? What is the emotion? Sensations? What is your thinking in this moment? What is your behaviour?
2. Reflect with three key questions. How might this thought have got into my mind? What thought might this be coming from? What memories or meanings are connected to this thought?
3. Now brainstorm by writing answers to 1&2 without judgement. No need for structure or sense making. Recheck what happened.
4. Perspective shift – how can I look at this data differently? Reframe the words into helpful ones ones that are functional not painful.
5. Action. Put into practice now. For example, I am in charge of my thoughts do I choose words that enable me to solve problems.
Good luck. Let me know how you get on via my e mail.