{"id":7006,"date":"2025-04-17T10:57:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T08:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/stop-stirring-the-muddy-waters\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T10:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T08:57:38","slug":"stop-stirring-the-muddy-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/stop-stirring-the-muddy-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Stirring the Muddy Waters."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I think we all know:<\/p>\n

the ongoing dialogues in our heads,<\/p>\n

the one-sided dialogues, as the other party is not present,<\/p>\n

the non-stop reliving past events,<\/p>\n

the creating of worst-case scenarios.<\/p>\n

The list of mind traffic is endless, and tiresome.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And what\u2019s the outcome?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fatigue.<\/p>\n

Anxiety.<\/p>\n

Restlessness.<\/p>\n

Frustration.<\/p>\n

Pain.<\/p>\n

Indeed, no solutions, no happiness, no joy.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I would like to talk to you today, about clearing out the cobwebs in your head.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The last couple of weeks, I wrote about simplifying your house*, detoxing your body**, clearing out your agenda**, all means to restore your energy levels.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re going to tackle our mind.<\/p>\n

To be able to change our minds, literally, it\u2019s important that we understand how our mind works***.<\/p>\n

95% of all that we\u2019re doing, and thinking, is generated by our subconscious mind.<\/strong><\/span> That is our automatic response, our Ego, our protected self. We\u2019ve been developing this mind from the day we were born. Everything we’ve learned, heard, saw, experienced, \u2026 is stored in that subconscious mind. It\u2019s there to protect us from harm. Everything we encounter, sends a direct signal to this brain, and it searches for similar events in the past, so that a \u2018correct\u2019 response can be sent and executed.<\/p>\n

And that is not always bad!<\/span><\/p>\n

It protects us from danger: we know not to touch hot surfaces, not to cross streets without looking, \u2026.<\/p>\n

It makes us able to do complicated things: we can drive a car, we can perform complicated surgery, \u2026.<\/p>\n

We are able to go through life, and act with all the knowledge we have gathered so far.<\/p>\n

But,\u2026 and here comes a big BUT.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also prevents us from moving on<\/span><\/strong> from heartache, from pain.<\/p>\n

It prevents us from forming our own opinions<\/span><\/strong>, f<\/span>rom shedding false beliefs, from living from our own deep, true, values, from what our heart is longing for.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

What if a teacher once said: you\u2019 re no good at math, and you still believe until this day, that you are no good at math. You\u2019ll never even try to become good at it, because you believe you\u2019re bad at it.<\/p>\n

The same goes with every criticism you ever received, once you believe it, you make it \u2018true\u2019 and you are stuck with it. You can\u2019t move on.<\/p>\n

The good thing is, we still have that 5%<\/strong> of our mind, which we call the conscious mind, the one with the mental muscles<\/strong>*<\/span>*** we can train in order to change our minds.<\/p>\n

Once we realize we can let go of these false beliefs, once we are willing to clear out our subconscious mind, that\u2019s when we can start living from our higher self, according to our own values, our own \u2018truths\u2019.<\/p>\n

Once we learn how to use the mental muscles: perception, imagination, intuition, repetition (memory), free will, rational reasoning<\/span>,<\/strong> a whole new world opens up to us. A world in which we can be completely ourselves, a world in which we decide how we want to feel, and how we want to live.<\/p>\n

To change our minds, to get rid of false beliefs, uncertainties, \u2026 \u00a0we have to learn how to train these mental muscles<\/span><\/strong>. And the same goes here as for physical muscles: build them up slowly, keep doing it, and become stronger. Even though it may feel \u2018sore\u2019 in the beginning, you know you\u2019re gaining strength. Don\u2019t stop, because then you\u2019ll fall back into old patterns, into old beliefs. You need to create new pathways in your brain. It\u2019s comparable to cart tracks on a dirt road. You need to make the new pathway deep enough. Then, it\u2019ll be easy to stay on track. As long as the old tracks\/ways are still deeper, you\u2019ll easily fall back into them.<\/p>\n

Practice the following routine, <\/strong>whenever there is a situation where you feel your automatic, negative response (from your subconscious mind) popping up:<\/span><\/p>\n

Look at it from all possible angles<\/em>,<\/span><\/strong> ask yourself: \u201cwhat else is possible here?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Imagine another outcome,<\/em><\/span><\/strong> one you like a lot better.<\/p>\n

Feel with your body how you respond to this new image<\/em>,<\/span><\/strong> this new result. Whenever there is joy, respect, love, \u2026 your body will respond positively.<\/p>\n

Repeat this image over and over in your mind<\/em> <\/span><\/strong>until it has become something that feels better than your old response, and something that begins to feel natural for you.<\/p>\n

Every time<\/span><\/strong>, over and over again, you are free to choose your response,<\/em><\/span><\/strong> you are free to let go of old ways. It takes some effort in the beginning because your ego is a very strong opponent when it comes to making changes.<\/p>\n

Once you \u2018see\u2019, once you feel, how your new response will have a positive outcome, you can take the necessary steps to make it happen.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The more you practice these steps, the better you\u2019ll become at implementing this. It will become your new modus operandi.<\/p>\n

The more you train your mental muscles, the more you\u2019ll be able to let the muddy waters become still in your mind.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The stiller the water, the more clearly, you\u2019ll see.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The clearer your vision becomes, the easier it will be, to act from you Higher Self.<\/p>\n

That is the path to truly living as you, to being able to peacefully enjoy life, to letting go of all the unnecessary thoughts that are draining you.<\/p>\n

Do these steps whenever there is a situation you want to feel different about. Change your beliefs about all that is making you unhappy.<\/p>\n

For instance:<\/span><\/p>\n

You think someone is out to get you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask yourself: what else is possible here? What is really true, and what is my interpretation of the situation.<\/p>\n

Someone snapped at you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask yourself: what is this person going through? How can I defuse this situation?<\/p>\n

You become ill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask yourself: How can I best handle this? Who can help me? Instead of why is this happening to me. Instead of saying I did not deserve this, as I don\u2019t think anyone \u2018deserves\u2019 to get sick.<\/p>\n

The weather is awful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask yourself: What can we do even though it\u2019s pouring. How can we be creative?<\/p>\n

I know, you can say I am a Pollyanna. But just decide how you want to feel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Do you want to feel angry all the time, frustrated, annoyed, sad, \u2026?<\/p>\n

Or<\/p>\n

Do you want to make the best of every situation? Do you want to experience joy? Do you want to see other people as nice human beings, going through their own stuff, and therefore not always perfectly friendly?<\/p>\n

It really is a life choice.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And completely up to you.<\/p>\n

The marvelous thing is, the more you look for beauty, the more you\u2019ll see beauty around you.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As dr. Wayne Dyer so beautifully stated:<\/p>\n

Believe it and you\u2019ll see it.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I wish you all, the belief<\/span> that beauty is out there, the willingness<\/span> to train your mental muscles and the strength<\/span> to keep on building them.<\/p>\n

Thank you all for reading me, and for supporting me on Medium! If you want unlimited access to all of my articles and to those of many other authors, you can become a Medium Member and you\u2019ll be supporting me and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!<\/p>\n

Katrien<\/p>\n

*\u2019Who Runs Your House: You or Your Clutter?\u2019 by Katrien Degraeve.<\/p>\n

**\u2019Creating Space Leads to Feeling Energized.\u2019 By Katrien Degraeve.<\/p>\n

***\u2019The Trouble is, it\u2019s All Up to Us, the Good Thing is, it\u2019s All Up to Us.\u201d By Katrien Degraeve.<\/p>\n

****\u2019The Secret of the Science of Getting Rich\u2019 by Bob Proctor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think we all know: the ongoing dialogues in our heads, the one-sided dialogues, as the other party is not present, the non-stop reliving past events, the creating of worst-case scenarios. The list of mind traffic is endless, and tiresome. And what\u2019s the outcome? Fatigue. Anxiety. Restlessness. Frustration. Pain. Indeed, no solutions, no happiness, no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}