How Do I Create Positive Change? Start with Transforming Your Mindset
There is always one key factor we have to face to achieve or grow in life, and that's change. No doubt, when you see the word 'change' your mind is already directing you towards the problem that needs rectifying. Does this sound familiar?
If you are sitting there now reading this and thinking, why is nothing working, I keep trying to work through the problem but seem to end up back at the same result, why can I not make a life-long change, it is because the problem is your mindset approach. So let’s explore how you can change your mindset to bring about change for the better.
Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind and Unlock it’s Power
The first and most important thing we have to do to bring about positive, life-long change is work with our subconscious mind. You may be reading that thinking, hang on, isn’t the theory about our subconscious mind from Freud and wow didn’t he have some far-fetching beliefs. What if I told you research shows 94-96% of our daily thought and behaviour patterns are guided by our subconscious. When I first read this it made me change my whole perspective on the power of our subconscious mind. It truly puts it into perspective why we need to work with our subconscious to bring about change.
How does your subconscious mind do this? We know our subconscious mind holds all our inner beliefs and values we have created through past experiences. Imagine your subconscious mind like the engine of the car, whilst we don’t see it on the surface it is constantly working in the background guiding multiple different mechanisms. Your subconscious mind is your minds engine. Like a car uses fuel to run, your subconscious mind absorbs all your daily experiences and interactions and runs these past your internal beliefs and values about yourself and your capabilities to guide the way you think and behave.
Sounds good doesn’t it, well in a sense it is. Like a car when it is functioning at its optimum it provides you with safety and security. When it comes to bringing about change however this is where the challenge lies. Like a car engine when it senses something wrong it quickly jumps into limp mode to protect itself, your subconscious mind does the same because it likes repetition, consistency, and comfort. As soon as you try to bring about change that goes against your pre-held beliefs and values of how your mind functions, it creates conflict between what you consciously want to do and what your subconscious is shouting at you to do. When this happens it is merely a case of who has the strength to win. In order for you to bring about change, your conscious thinking needs to win this fight. Why? When we strongly focus on our goals, and the benefits of the success of our future goals it reprograms the pathways in our brain, changing or working in line with our subconscious beliefs, values, and our way of thinking and behaving, so our subconscious mind can guide us towards change.
Sound complex. It doesn’t have to be. Here is how you can begin to work on your mindset to bring about a subconscious and life-long change.
Change the Way You Talk to Yourself
The main priority has to be the way you talk to yourself. We all have those self-limiting or negative thoughts like I can’t, it is impossible, I am not smart enough, I am not strong enough, or I am not as attractive. Now imagine waking up every morning and saying this to your partner, a friend, family member or colleague. You just wouldn’t because it would be harsh, belittling, and soul-destroying.
So why do you allow yourself to talk and think this way about yourself? The way we think and speak to ourselves guides our internal monologue of our self-beliefs, but most importantly, our self-perception of our abilities. What this means is, when you say to yourself, “I can’t do this because… you are training your mind to think this is true, and this is how your mind will guide you. In comparison, if you repeatedly say to yourself, I can and I will when you face the challenge, your subconscious mind is programmed to believe this is the way you want to think and can quickly turn to your inner cheerleader. Your subconscious mind then gives you the confidence to just do it, achieve, get all those feelings of pride and happiness, change your self-perception of your abilities, and guide you towards change.
A great way to work on this is to write positive statements or affirmations about yourself. If this seems difficult, get friends or family to write out positive traits they like about you. Note down your affirmations, read them aloud to yourself every day, or have them somewhere like your work desk or on your phone to act as a constant reminder when negative self-talk kicks in. I repeatedly say ‘I can’ each time before a heavy set in the gym. It certainly changes my performance and pushes me out of my comfort zone. It can be for you to.
To Change Your Life, Change What You Give Attention Too
The shape of our mind changes depending on what we pay attention to. Another interesting fact about our subconscious mind, it is like a sponge. Every second of every day it is absorbing all the information we expose ourselves to, whether this is what we watch on TV, listen to on the radio, read on social media, the people we interact with and listen to, and the environments we expose ourselves too. Yes, we need to focus on our mindset, but we also have to focus on the external information we give attention to.
If you are struggling to bring about change, look at what you give attention to each day. Taking time out to reflect and decide, 'is what I am exposing myself to helping me move towards change or playing into my negative self-beliefs which are holding me back?' For example, if you have negative beliefs about your self-image but constantly look at models and slim or muscly women and men in bikinis and briefs on social media, you train your mind this is the acceptable norm and compare yourself to this image, creating a negative self-image. Another example is if your opinion is constantly questioned by others or ignored, this can stop you from giving your opinion/being assertive, resulting in anxiety and low confidence.
It's your responsibility to put positive, empowering messages in your path.
Know your habits: To Control or Change it, we Have to Understand It.
They say it takes 30 days to create a new habit, but it takes over a year to create a life-long habit because habits make you who you are, reflect what you believe, and portray your personality. One of the main ways you test if you have created a new habit is when you face a challenge.
A prime example of this is changing your relationship with food. We’ve all been there; you smash healthy eating or a diet for weeks or months. You have one bad day at work, or someone or something stresses you out. Before you know it, you’ve raided the chocolate aisle at Tesco and ordered a takeaway. In this scenario, yes a new habit has been created in relation to how to eat healthily. On the other hand, you’ve not addressed other habits and routines which hold you back from creating life-long change. In this scenario, habits to address how you manage stress without comfort eating.
To do this we need to enhance our self-awareness, we need to know our triggers and obstacles, but what we commonly do is address the problem, which is the action, i.e. the food, rather than the thought or behaviour guiding the action which is knowing how to manage stress. To successfully do this we need to focus on the solutions. For example, what can I be doing more of at that moment? This could be doing something more positive to get the same gratification or happiness, such as relaxation, or going for a walk. What this is going to do is naturally allow access to your solution-focused, logical, and rational intellectual mind, which will program your subconscious to accept the new behaviour, or way of responding to stress, and gradually destroy the old pathway of comfort eating in the brain.
When I spoke about our conscious mind needing to win the fight this is why, so we can create life-long change. When you successfully change the way you respond you train your mind to behave in this way in a more automatic manner which guides you on that path to positive change.
It's about living, experiencing, learning, reflecting, and practising.
Chance or Change, which one do you choose?
Please do not leave it to chance. Opportunities can arise by chance, but you choose to make change happen. Creating change is a challenge and is much more than just changing actions and hoping for a positive outcome. It involves working on and practising the way you speak to yourself, what you give your attention to, what you expose yourself to, reflecting on situations when they didn’t quite go right, and identifying the solution. Here is why it is pivotal. Your thoughts guide your actions, your actions guide your habits, and your habits make you who you are. Just take a few seconds to absorb and reflect on this.
If you want to bring about change, it starts with your mindset. The change will then naturally radiate out into other areas of life.
How can hypnotherapy Cultivate a Positive Mindset to Bring about Change?
If you are sitting there thinking, wow, that is a lot! Where do I even start? Thankfully solution focused hypnotherapy can help you do all of the above in a time effective and efficient way. So how can solution focused hypnotherapy help you?
Hypnotherapy Can Help You Understand Your Mind
Hypnotherapy sessions can give you a clear understanding of your mindset. Above, I mentioned creating life-long habits requires self-awareness of potential triggers which can temporarily or permanently break new ways of thinking or behaving. Hypnotherapy allows you the reflection time and support to identify and understand your triggers. Reflection time to understand personal factor's holding you back from creating change, including some of the above, and how you can positively influence your mindset to function in a way that cultivates change.
Support You to Work Through the Barriers
Hypnotherapy sessions provide you with support to work through the barriers you face whilst bringing about change. I mentioned above making change creates a battle between our conscious, logical, solution-focused mind and our subconscious. Hypnotherapy supports you to strengthen the solution focused part of your mind. Before a competition, you would train for big race, hypnotherapy does the same by preparing you to successfully jump over these hurdles and win to create positive change.
Focus On the Solutions, Not the Problems
Rather than focusing on changing the problems, hypnotherapy helps you identify the solutions. Hypnotherapy allows you to harness your unique skills and capabilities to take positive steps forward. For example, focus on what you can be doing, adding to your life, rather than persistently taking things away.
Tap into Your Subconscious Mind
Hypnosis is one of the most effective and easy ways to access and work with your subconscious mind. In hypnosis, we can boost your subconscious mind with lots of positive suggestions to start challenging and changing how you think about yourself, the world, and your capabilities. Still sceptical about hypnosis? Why not follow my Instagram or facebook page, live_harmony_hypnotherapy, where this week I will be sharing the science and facts behind how hypnosis works.
Hopefully, this has given you the information you need to know how to create positive change. If this is something you still need support with, feel free to message me to find out more about how I can help you.
Remember your mindset is your home, nurture it properly and it will grow and prosper.
6th March 2022