Harnessing the Power of the Subconscious Mind
Did you know that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between an imagined and a real event? It's true, and we've all experienced this before, during a dream that seemed so real. Or how about when your heart begins racing during a scary movie, or you become emotional when reading a good book? All of these scenarios demonstrate that the subconscious mind treats imagined events as real. Otherwise, why cry during a sad movie? Of course in some cases, the reason we become emotional during the telling of a fictitious story (in book or movie) is that the story reminds us of something that happened in our own lives, but not always. When that happens, it's called emotional resonance, and a good topic for another post.
There are reasons athletes and entertainment professionals practice visualization techniques, because they know the power of the subconscious mind, and practice performed through visualization really works. By the time they're up on stage or out on the field, they've already practiced the perfect execution of their desired event hundreds of times.
Knowing the power of the subconscious mind, how can we take advantage of it?
Using the Power of the Subconscious Mind You can take a few minutes right now to utilize the power of your subconscious mind by imagining a future event. This builds expectation for success in our lives, and builds confidence. This is a great, and fun technique to use with your kids too.
- Think of something you want to happen, maybe it's remaining calm during an important exam, improving your 5k time, or delivering that presentation to your management team flawlessly.
- Close your eyes and listen to your breath entering and leaving your body. Focusing on your breathing is one of the easiest ways to put you in the right state of mind for any type of work with the subconscious mind, including hypnosis and visualization. Do this for a count of about 5 breaths before moving onto step 3.
- Next ,imagine the scenario exactly as you want it to happen, including as many senses as possible - what does it look like? is there a specific smell associated with the event? What about the sounds around you? What will you be wearing? What will you be feeling inside? Use all 5 senses if possible. Do this as often as you can leading up to the event.
The most important thing to remember is to only visualize things you actually want to happen, never visualize negative events, or what you don't want to happen.This is because the subconscious mind tends to think in the positive, and it doesn't really understand concepts like "not" or "don't", many of you may be aware of the "don't think about a pink elephant" phrase - we can't help but think of exactly whatever is suggested NOT to do. So make everything you imagine positive.
This is a simple technique that you can use anytime to prepare for an event, or to just feel better. Because when you feel better, it all of a sudden becomes easy to make the good, healthy decisions in your life that you know you should - the decisions that support your goals and dreams.