Like most of you, my wife and I are experiencing the coronavirus quarantine and the quiet separation from our family, friends, and fellow neighbors.
I received an email from a good friend who wrote of the suffering he and his spouse are experiencing from the fright of possibly losing each of their jobs and the potential financial means required to support their living conditions and lifestyle. I have received similar comments from others followed by the question(s) of what can we do to better deal with this present discomfort. The overwhelming thought I have had is for all of us to become more aware of the incredible power of our own self talk.
When most of us were in school and introduced to the functions of both the conscious and subconscious areas of our being, the explanations were quite brief. Most of the functionality of the subconscious was limited to our physical bodies.
“The subconscious grows our hair and nails, heals a wound, and digests our food, etc.” It wasn’t until I was 27 years of age that I first learned the subconscious is also a servo mechanism that carries out the instructions given to it by the conscious area of the mind. And most important it is totally non-judgmental and will work just as hard to fulfill a negative instruction as it will a positive instruction. Let me explain.
All of us talk to ourselves all day long at the rate of 150-300 words per minute, or over 50,000 thoughts a day! As you are reading these words you are interpreting what they mean to you, whether you agree or disagree, what you are having for dinner tonight, and some thoughts perhaps of what you are doing tomorrow.
It is most important that we all increase our awareness of what we are saying to ourselves with the knowledge that our subconscious will be at work 24/7 to achieve our expectations (positive or negative).
So, if you are repeatedly saying to yourself, “I always get nervous when speaking in front of a group”, or “I can never remember names”, the subconscious will be at work 24/7 helping match up your behavior with the commands (subconsciously) that you have given to the subconscious mind. The subconscious can become your very best friend when your self talk is constantly reinforcing the behavior you like most about yourself or the positive changes you wish to bring about in yourself and your life.
Therefore, when faced with situations in which we may not know the end result, we don’t want to reinforce possible negative results with negative self talk. The coronavirus is a new experience for most of us. And, because the outcome(s) may be unknown at this time, we want to guard against repeating results we may fear such as, “I am going to lose my job”, “I won’t have the funds to pay my mortgage or our children’s tuitions”, etc., etc.
Eliminating our negative self talk does not assure us that we will not experience some failures and setbacks. But, our lives will unfold with greater achievements and fewer setbacks when we learn to program our subconscious mind with positive expectations and desired results.
This is all explained in detail in my new book, Expand the Power of Your Subconscious Mind, scheduled to be published in mid-September.
Let me give you one more example of the power of our subconscious and how it works 24/7 on our behalf. And, this is an experience that most of you have had.
You are going on a trip and you have an early morning flight. You regularly wake up at 6:00 a.m., but tomorrow you plan to awaken at 4:00 a.m. You set your alarm and call the person you will be traveling with and ask if they can please call you at 4:00 a.m. You must be up by 4:00 a.m., (you keep telling yourself) or you risk missing your flight. You don’t go to bed earlier, but rather later as you are doing last minute packing, etc.
Finally, you go to sleep and you are in a very deep sleep when you suddenly awake with a start. The room is dark and you turn over to look at the alarm clock. At that moment the minute hand is moving from 3:59 to 4:00 a.m., and the alarm sounds. At that same moment your friend calls you telling you it’s time to get up. But, who woke you up? It was not your alarm or your friend. It was your subconscious mind who never sleeps and works 24/7 carrying out the orders, positive or negative, given to it by the conscious area of the mind.
Bottom line: embrace your subconscious mind and make it your new best friend. Pay closer attention to the quality of your own self talk. And when (if) you catch yourself giving some negative instructions, say, “Stop!” and restate what you really want (rather than what you don’t want) and trust your new best friend (the subconscious) will find a path to lead you to the end result you desire.
To find out more about the work of James Jensen please go to https://cjamesjensen.com/