5 Steps to Reprogram Your Subconscious
You might immediately think of psychoanalysis when you hear that you should “reprogram your subconscious.” This is because it’s a motor for many of the things we do. It guides our day-to-day reactions and way of interacting with the people around us. However, what you may not know is you can program your subconscious.
When we’re introduced to a new person, for example, it doesn’t take us long to quickly evaluate whether we like them or not. When we go down the stairs and miss a step, we usually react in a split second to regain our balance.
There are many things that we do automatically and many answers we give without analyzing and rationalizing them. Overall, there are many behaviors we have that come from this subconscious structure.
However, what if we told you there is a way to get into this black box in our mind in order to get to know it better and even control it? Doing it would be an incredible way to act with more assurance and less fear. As a result, we can make ourselves more liberated and happier people.
Your subconscious is your mind’s autopilot
Nothing you find in your subconscious is arbitrary or accidental. Your subconscious hosts the essence of everything you’ve gone through, seen, and felt. It’s a kind of “junk drawer” where the compass of your being and everything that’s happened to you is kept.
Everything you’ve lived through leaves an emotional mark according to how you have processed it. Therefore, you construct certain associations, correct or not, based on things you’ve experienced. For instance:
- People who look me in the eye are trustworthy because my mother looked at me like that.
- Men who avoid looking at me when they speak to me are dangerous because my first boyfriend did that, and he really hurt me.
Therefore, everything you’ve gone through leaves a mark on your subconscious. Thus, you probably interpret your reality according to the information you’ve stored.
Your subconscious is what allows you to respond quickly when there isn’t time to think about things. There are several things it might respond to. For example: “Should I accept the job offer?” “Is it a good idea to give my phone number to my new friend?” “Which path should I follow? The one of the left? Or, the one on the right?”
Reasons to reprogram your subconscious
There are many reasons why you might want to program your subconscious, such as in order to get to know yourself better, correct bad habits such as smoking, stress, anxiety, depression, and self-confidence, and create a reality that fits your desires better.
If you decide to program your subconscious, it could help you turn into the person that you truly want to be.
What to keep in mind before you reprogram your subconscious
Of course, nobody can change the interior decoration of their home if they don’t know what’s in the house, to begin with. The most common situation is that there are dark rooms that light hasn’t touched in a long time. These are places where your fears and limiting thoughts are hidden. Additionally, these are the ones that are keeping you from being happy.
Thus, it’s vital to learn about the problem areas in your subconscious so you can heal them. Only then will you be ready to orient it towards health and achievement. To get there, you’ll have to do the following and it will be extremely helpful.
Learn how to connect with your subconscious
- Pay attention to your intuition. Hunches are messages your subconscious sends to your conscious mind. Therefore, these bits of information can give you a hint as to what lies within and what you should pay attention to.
- Keep a dream diary. Put a notebook on your nightstand and write about every dream you have. Do it as soon as you wake up before you forget. Later on, analyze it and ask yourself what the dream might mean.
- Practice meditation. Find a calm moment in your day to spend on this healthy exercise. Think of it as a half-hour you can use to connect with yourself.
- Paint mandalas. It’s a way to focus on the here and now so you can also connect with yourself.
- Keep a personal journal. Write down your thoughts, your memories, and your feelings. It’s the perfect way to create a literary structure where your essence and a bit of your subconscious can come out.
Like this article? We think you may also like to read: Micro-meditation: What It Is, Its Benefits, and How to Practice It
Reprogram your subconscious in five steps
It’s important to work on the previous step, self-discovery, before you move on to this phase. It’s only when you’ve found your weaknesses that you can start on this process of interior change.
You should remember one key thing: be consistent. These exercises should be done daily, so be patient. Changes won’t happen in a week or even a month.
Take note of what tasks you can carry out.
1. Practice visualization
Practice visualization every day. Imagine yourself in your car. You’re in the driver’s seat, you’re at the wheel, and you know exactly where you have to go.
- You feel a nice breeze on your face and see a calming sunrise coming over the horizon that’s giving you hope.
- That point on the horizon is where your goals are. You drive towards it confidently and fearlessly. Nothing can stop you.
2. Use positive affirmations to empower yourself
First, come up with phrases or mantras that work for you: “I deserve to be happy and nothing can stop me. My worst enemies are in my mind and I’ve already beaten them.” Then, repeat these affirmations often, especially before going to sleep.
3. Live in the “here and now”
Be connected to what’s happening in the present moment. If you focus your attention on the past or future, your subconscious is betraying you. This is because the doors of opportunity are opening in the here and now.
4. Do one thing at a time
Reprogram your subconscious to avoid multitasking. The stress of doing a hundred things at the same time will rise up and become a monster for your inner peace.
Furthermore, learn how to flow with each thing you’re doing in the present. That’s where you should focus all of your energy.
We think you may also like to read this article: 5 Questions to Find Your Way When You Feel Lost
5. Stop your mind from wandering
All in all, you have three main goals in mind: to be happy, to be yourself, and to become the person you truly want to be.
So, do you know who can keep you from getting there? You, with your wandering thoughts. No more should you think: “I can’t because I’ve failed in the past,” or “I won’t because I’ll surely be a disappointment to someone.”
Keep your thoughts in line and embrace a more confident, mature, powerful subconscious driving you where you want to go.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Stajkovic, A.D., Locke, E. A., & Blaire, E. (2006). “A first examination of the relationships between primed subconscious goals, assigned conscious goals, and task performance”. Journal of Applied Psychology. 5: 1172–1180
- Henri F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970)
- Laplanche, Jean & Jean-Bertrand Pontalis (1967). Diccionario de Psicoanálisis, Paidós, B. Aires 9ª. Edición 2007, p. 414
- Kasala ER, Bodduluru LN, Maneti Y, Thipparaboina R, “Effect of meditation on neurophysiological changes in stress mediated depression”, Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2014 Feb;20(1):74-80.
- Dahl CJ, Lutz A, Davidson RJ, “Reconstructing and deconstructing the self: cognitive mechanisms in meditation practice”, Trends Cogn Sci. 2015 Sep;19(9):515-23.
