We all have within us an incredible ability to achieve anything we set our minds to, the only major obstacle that stands in the way of achieving your goals is you, that is, your subconscious mind.
What exactly is the subconscious mind?
Briefly, the mind can be divided into two parts; the subconscious also called the unconscious, where permanent memory, habits and beliefs are stored, and the conscious mind where short-term memory, willpower and rationalization faculties are stored.
The subconscious operates differently from the conscious mind, it uses images and imagination as its language, it does not rationalize but simply accepts whatever information comes in through the conscious mind, it is the job of the conscious mind to edit beliefs and perceptions before accepting them.
Here’s how it works: Long-term memory, personal experience, early conditioning, upbringing, and culture all combine to form your belief system. These beliefs aren’t necessarily the absolute truth, of course, but your perception of how are the things. These beliefs inform everything about you and how you behave, causing you to think, feel, and behave the way you do, and this, in turn, produces your desired or unwanted results.
So, to put this sequence in context, here’s an everyday example: You’ve had a rough day at work, nothing’s going right, so to feel better, sit down at the end of the day and eat a family-sized loaf. chocolate. And as you eat that chocolate, you feel better, but only while it’s still there, when it’s all gone, do you come back to square one, the chocolate was just a fleeting distraction from your bad day.
So why choose food as a distraction so you don’t feel bad? There are several reasons, it all depends on the individual, but generally choosing food as a distraction from emotion is compulsive behavior that is directly related to your subconscious conditioning. Your subconscious belief is that chocolate will make you feel better, so you feel compelled to eat chocolate to feel comfortable.
Your subconscious mind’s job is to protect you at all times, and in this case, it’s protecting you from feeling bad by directing you toward the chocolate that your subconscious believes will comfort you. There is nothing wrong with eating chocolate if you want, the problem arises when you actively try not to eat chocolate, because you want to lose weight or because you are following a particular healthy eating program. This is where the conflict arises, consciously you want to give up the chocolate, subconsciously you want to eat the chocolate, there is a struggle between conscious willpower and subconscious conditioning and nine times out of ten, the subconscious wins.
So how can we change? Well, essentially, in order to change an unwanted habit or behavior so that you can finally achieve your goals without struggling daily with a failing willpower, you need to change the belief, habit, or feeling on a subconscious level. There are many techniques and strategies that will allow you to do that. For example, visualization, goal setting, cognitive behavioral therapy, NLP, affirmations, and hypnosis are extremely powerful tools for personal change.