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REPROGRAM THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
8 TECHNIQUES TO CHANGE YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS
To reprogram the subconscious mind is to effectively also reprogram your life because your mind is the cause behind all your experiences in every area of your life. The techniques in this article will teach you just how to reprogram your subconscious mind by intentionally overwriting negative, disempowering and limiting beliefs. The techniques are aimed at positively changing what you believe so that what you think, feel and imagine about yourself, about others and about life also change, as do your circumstances in time. And given the plasticity of the brain, you can reprogram your subconscious mind at any age.
The Core Beliefs Series of Articles
This article is the last in a four-part series on core beliefs. The first article focuses on understanding core beliefs, the second is a list of common beliefs in each area of life, the third is about identifying your limiting beliefs, and this article is on reprogramming the subconscious mind to change them. I suggest you read the articles in order before using the techniques below to change your beliefs.
8 Techniques to Reprogram the Subconscious Mind
Below is a sneak-preview list of the 8 techniques discussed in this article. As I add more techniques on how to reprogram the subconscious mind, I will also update this article. As an aside, you will notice that each technique also has a link to its stand-alone article after its write-up. It is well worth the effort to read the related articles on the technique(s) you choose to use.
Core Beliefs and Your Personal Belief System
When you set out to reprogram the subconscious mind the focus is on your core beliefs because they are the root cause of what you believe, which in turn determines what you feel and imagine is possible for you and the circumstances that follow suit. To reprogram the mind at the subconscious level is to change your beliefs, while to reprogram your mind at the conscious reasoning level is about training yourself to commit to doing the techniques aimed in that direction with intention and purpose.
The Plasticity of the Mind to Reprogram the Subconscious Mind
Before looking at how to reprogram the subconscious mind, let's take a look at the latest discoveries in Neuroscience. Studies about the brain suggest that most beliefs are locked in place at a very young age before the reasoning capacity of the mind is developed. Moreover, more recent research suggests that the subconscious mind remains passively programmable until one's late 20s where 'passive' means without one's conscious input, decision or discernment. Now, there's no use in blaming your parents, teachers or society for the limiting beliefs you've adopted over time. Doing so just serves to strengthen those unwanted beliefs.
Actively Reprogramming the Subconscious Mind
Yes, your subconscious mind was passively programmed with any persistent message from any source until your late 20s. But that is when the passive programming of your mind stops, not the active. Research about the plasticity of the brain concludes that the human brain can be actively reprogrammed at any age, where actively means by using intention and concentrated mental focus. Your aim, therefore, is to determine which limiting beliefs do not serve you and change them, while also bolstering your existing positive beliefs and installing new positive beliefs where they have been relatively neutral to date.
To Reprogram the Subconscious Mind is to Overwrite Limiting Beliefs
While positive beliefs are obviously preferable to their negative counterparts, it is arguably more important to decode your limiting beliefs because they are the ones that stand in the way of the more favourable life that you may be trying to create for yourself, and hence, they are the ones that need changing. Negative beliefs are also the cause behind any low self-esteem or lack of self-confidence you may have. It is only logical, therefore, that limiting beliefs should be the focus of change when you reprogram the subconscious mind.
If you are not where you want to be in your life, whether physically, emotionally, romantically or financially (and so on), chances are your negative or limiting beliefs are the cause. This doesn't mean any of these factors should define you or your self-worth. It just means you are free to also enjoy abundance in every area of your life and changing your limiting beliefs by reprogramming the subconscious mind is a fundamental step in this direction.
Using the Techniques to Reprogram the Subconscious Mind
The techniques in this article are discussed in the context of changing your limiting beliefs but you can use them for any purpose, including to reprogram or program your subconscious mind with new beliefs that you have no opposing beliefs about, bolstering your already existing positive beliefs or creating your desires and so on. Once again, the reason the focus is on limiting beliefs is that they are the root cause of many, if not all, of your unwanted circumstances both inwardly and outwardly. By overwriting them from the outset, or at least challenging them at first as a buffer, you are setting yourself up for long-term success because your life is precisely what you believe it to be.
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Make a Commitment to Your Future Self
Resolve now to make a commitment to yourself—to your future self—that you will put in the effort to reprogram your subconscious mind and create the life you desire. Resolve now to train your mind in the pursuit, not of happiness, but of excellence. Do not leave your life at the mercy of beliefs you did not consciously choose to begin with. Your beliefs are there to serve you, not the other way around. Resolve now to become the Master of your mind—the most benevolent master of your subconscious mind and of your life.
The 40-Day Plan to Reprogram the Subconscious Mind
Make 40 days the first rule of thumb when you set out to reprogram your mind to overwrite limiting beliefs or create new ones. This is based on the understanding that it takes 40 days to create a permanent shift in consciousness. Create a 40-day plan to use the techniques that resonate with you— every day and for 40 consecutive days. Do not skip a day, and if you do, start again or at the very least add a day to the plan. Moreover, remember to keep a journal and keep all your related work together as much as possible. When you keep track of your progress not only do you get to see how far you have come and what needs your immediate attention, but it also helps to reprogram the subconscious mind when you have everything in writing. Finally, make sure to keep your efforts private—say nothing to no one.
Relax, Have Fun and Enjoy the Process
Whatever you choose to do, and that's up to you, have fun. Do not make anything so serious that it weighs you down or feels like 'hard work'. In the same way that children learn best through play, be playful in using these techniques and you will find your mind 'joining in' and learning whatever it is you want to teach it rather than resisting your efforts. The less resistance you encounter, the easier it is to reprogram the subconscious mind.
Technique #1: Positive Affirmations
The first technique for reprograming your mind is to use positive affirmations. This is to mentally affirm a positive belief that challenges an opposing negative belief by repeating a positive statement that implies the belief you want to adopt. You want to repeat your affirmations with focus and truly feel what you are affirming—feel it to be true in that moment. The aim is for the new belief to be accepted by your subconscious mind and for the opposing belief to be overwritten in time. A world-famous affirmation is that of Emile Coue: "Every day in every way, I am getting better and better."
Technique #2: Autosuggestions
The second technique to reprogram the subconscious mind is the often-overlooked power of autosuggestions. This method is similar to affirmations but quite different in its approach. Unlike affirmations, autosuggestions are stated in the second-person as if addressing yourself using your first name. While affirmations affirm a positive statement as if it already holds true, autosuggestions simply suggest it as if wanting to convince yourself of it. Using the same example from Emile Coue an autosuggestion looks like this: "[Your first name], every day in every way you are getting better and better." You may find autosuggestions are preferable if faced with inner resistance or feelings of despondence with little desire to repeat affirmations.
Technique #3: Creative Visualization
Creative visualization is one of the most effective methods with which to reprogram the subconscious mind. Whether you want to overwrite a negative belief or create a specific desire, visualization is the way to go. Put simply, in a relaxed state of body and mind, imagine a scene that implies the new positive belief that you want to adopt with no concern whatsoever for the negative one that you want to overwrite.
Feel what it would feel like if it already was your belief in the present moment until it feels real and you believe that it is. Imagine yourself feeling, thinking, talking and acting as if it was your belief in that moment. Repeat the visualization daily, morning and night, until the scene in which you are acting out your new belief begins to take on the tones of reality; until it feels so real to you that the old belief feels foreign. And finally, detach and let it go—when you believe you have something you don't think about it all day. As is the case for all techniques aimed at reprogramming the subconscious mind, I suggest 40 consecutive days of visualizing the fulfillment of the positive belief.
Technique #4: Change Your Perception of Past Experiences
The fourth technique to reprogram the subconscious mind is aimed at changing your perception of a past negative experience, which may itself have created a negative belief or exacerbated an existing one. To change your perception, imagine yourself acting and reacting differently in that past experience as if you already had the positive beliefs you would have wanted to have had at the time. In other words, knowing what you know today, how would you have wanted to act or react in that experience? Imagine a different outcome based on the positive beliefs, or else, a different reaction on your part to the same outcome. Either way, your perception of the experience will change and so the associated negative belief will weaken because you will have 'cut' its root.
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Technique #5: Mental Time Travel to Leave the Past Behind
This fifth technique with which to reprogram the subconscious mind is aimed at leaving a past negative experience behind where it belongs—in the past—by mentally travelling back in time to when it happened, perceiving it through the eyes of positive beliefs and then 'freezing' it in place. This technique is most effective when you can trace the limiting belief back to the time it was created or exacerbated. In this way, based on the timeless nature of the Universe, you effectively change all the moments leading up to your present moment thereafter because the negative experience has not been carried with you to the present, and so, the associated negative belief begins to feel very distant and is more easily overwritten.
Technique #6: Change the Past with Revision
This technique to reprogram the subconscious mind is based on Neville Goddard's Revision Technique. It changes a past negative experience in its entirety, into the version of events you would have wanted to experience with the positive beliefs you would have wanted to have had, and with no concern for the details or the negative beliefs of the original experience. Once again, based on the timelessness of the Universe, which means that all possible versions of your past, present and future already exist, you imagine the version of events that you would have wanted to have had, instead of the version that you did have. And since it already exists, you bring it into your timeline and change not only your past but also your present moment and your future because all associated negative beliefs are overwritten.
Technique #7: The Mental By-Product Technique
This technique is aimed at bypassing negative beliefs so that when you visualize the desired outcome, associated negative beliefs do not hinder its manifestation. If you attempt to imagine what you desire while leaving associated negative beliefs unchecked, then by the Laws of Attraction, Vibration and Polarity you may inadvertently attract more of what you do not want. You can use this technique to bypass such negative beliefs by imagining a scene that is a by-product of what you desire but not specifically what you want. In other words, imagine a scene that you do not have a specific negative belief about but that in order to experience it, you must also have what you actually desire. This keeps your subconscious mind from overriding what you imagine and ensures the manifestation of your desire. It also indirectly changes negative beliefs into their positive equivalents, which is of course to reprogram the subconscious mind.
Technique #8: Know Thyself
The final and by far supreme technique to overcome limiting beliefs, reprogram the subconscious mind and also to create anything you desire, is based on the greatest instruction passed down to us by the Ancient Greeks: 'Know Thyself'. To know yourself is not about knowing your beliefs or knowing your strengths and weaknesses. These are aspects of your personal self and have nothing to do with your True Self. Your true nature is above the limitations of the Physical Plane and above even your mental contents of the Mental Plane. The domain of your True Self is the Spiritual Plane.
Your True Self has no limiting beliefs because you are a Divine Spark of The Absolute—All-Powerful and All-Knowing. No limiting belief, no matter how ingrained or how seemingly powerful, stands a chance in the face of the Omnipotence that is also your true nature. Likewise, your subconscious mind is wholly subjective to your Higher Mind, so when you remember who you truly are, you can reprogram your subconscious mind at will—you declare it done. Knowing who you truly are is the only unchanging source of inner strength (and of any strength) as it can never be disturbed by outside appearances, limiting beliefs, supposed weaknesses or anything else. Ask yourself 'Who am I?' When you know yourself and remember who you truly are, there's only ever one answer: 'I AM'—no qualifications, nothing more, nothing less. 'I AM'.
IN A NUTSHELL
In a nutshell, developing an overall positive mind and changing your negative beliefs is key to creating the life you desire. There are several techniques you can use to reprogram the subconscious mind, change limiting beliefs and replace them with positive equivalents that serve you and your success. These techniques include positive affirmations, autosuggestions, visualization, as well as changing perception and changing the past. All these techniques are effective whether used individually or together but the master route to lasting change is to know your true nature. When you know yourself, your self-worth is built on the unshakeable foundation of Omnipotence. Know yourself with a reverence for the majesty of The Absolute, of which you are a Divine Spark, and you will find your negative beliefs disappearing as if by magic.
Written by Tania Kotsos — Published on 21 NOV 2020
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