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’s the outcome?
Fatigue.
Anxiety.
Restlessness.
Frustration.
Pain.
Indeed, no solutions, no happiness, no joy.
That’s why I would like to talk to you today, about clearing out the cobwebs in your head.
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.
Today, we’re going to tackle our mind.
To be able to change our minds, literally, it’s important that we understand how our mind works***.
95% of all that we’re doing, and thinking, is generated by our subconscious mind. That is our automatic response, our Ego, our protected self. We’ve been developing this mind from the day we were born. Everything we’ve learned, heard, saw, experienced, … is stored in that subconscious mind. It’s 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 ‘correct’ response can be sent and executed.
And that is not always bad!
It protects us from danger: we know not to touch hot surfaces, not to cross streets without looking, ….
It makes us able to do complicated things: we can drive a car, we can perform complicated surgery, ….
We are able to go through life, and act with all the knowledge we have gathered so far.
But,… and here comes a big BUT.
It also prevents us from moving on from heartache, from pain.
It prevents us from forming our own opinions, from shedding false beliefs, from living from our own deep, true, values, from what our heart is longing for.
For example:
What if a teacher once said: you’ re no good at math, and you still believe until this day, that you are no good at math. You’ll never even try to become good at it, because you believe you’re bad at it.
The same goes with every criticism you ever received, once you believe it, you make it ‘true’ and you are stuck with it. You can’t move on.
The good thing is, we still have that 5% of our mind, which we call the conscious mind, the one with the mental muscles**** we can train in order to change our minds.
Once we realize we can let go of these false beliefs, once we are willing to clear out our subconscious mind, that’s when we can start living from our higher self, according to our own values, our own ‘truths’.
Once we learn how to use the mental muscles: perception, imagination, intuition, repetition (memory), free will, rational reasoning, 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.
To change our minds, to get rid of false beliefs, uncertainties, … we have to learn how to train these mental muscles. And the same goes here as for physical muscles: build them up slowly, keep doing it, and become stronger. Even though it may feel ‘sore’ in the beginning, you know you’re gaining strength. Don’t stop, because then you’ll fall back into old patterns, into old beliefs. You need to create new pathways in your brain. It’s comparable to cart tracks on a dirt road. You need to make the new pathway deep enough. Then, it’ll be easy to stay on track. As long as the old tracks/ways are still deeper, you’ll easily fall back into them.
Practice the following routine, whenever there is a situation where you feel your automatic, negative response (from your subconscious mind) popping up:
Look at it from all possible angles, ask yourself: “what else is possible here?”.
Imagine another outcome, one you like a lot better.
Feel with your body how you respond to this new image, this new result. Whenever there is joy, respect, love, … your body will respond positively.
Repeat this image over and over in your mind until it has become something that feels better than your old response, and something that begins to feel natural for you.
Every time, over and over again, you are free to choose your response, 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.
Once you ‘see’, once you feel, how your new response will have a positive outcome, you can take the necessary steps to make it happen.
The more you practice these steps, the better you’ll become at implementing this. It will become your new modus operandi.
The more you train your mental muscles, the more you’ll be able to let the muddy waters become still in your mind.
The stiller the water, the more clearly, you’ll see.
The clearer your vision becomes, the easier it will be, to act from you Higher Self.
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.
Do these steps whenever there is a situation you want to feel different about. Change your beliefs about all that is making you unhappy.
For instance:
You think someone is out to get you?
Ask yourself: what else is possible here? What is really true, and what is my interpretation of the situation.
Someone snapped at you.
Ask yourself: what is this person going through? How can I defuse this situation?
You become ill.
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’t think anyone ‘deserves’ to get sick.
The weather is awful.
Ask yourself: What can we do even though it’s pouring. How can we be creative?
I know, you can say I am a Pollyanna. But just decide how you want to feel.
Do you want to feel angry all the time, frustrated, annoyed, sad, …?
Or
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?
It really is a life choice.
And completely up to you.
The marvelous thing is, the more you look for beauty, the more you’ll see beauty around you.
As dr. Wayne Dyer so beautifully stated:
Believe it and you’ll see it.
I wish you all, the belief that beauty is out there, the willingness to train your mental muscles and the strength to keep on building them.
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’ll be supporting me and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!
Katrien
*’Who Runs Your House: You or Your Clutter?’ by Katrien Degraeve.
**’Creating Space Leads to Feeling Energized.’ By Katrien Degraeve.
***’The Trouble is, it’s All Up to Us, the Good Thing is, it’s All Up to Us.” By Katrien Degraeve.
****’The Secret of the Science of Getting Rich’ by Bob Proctor.