Your Nonconscious Brain: Part 4

If you can see it, you can change it!

I've successfully used Dr. Caroline Leaf's step-by-step method and materials to "rewire" my nonconscious mind for several years. It's based on neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural pathways throughout life and in response to experiences. The brain usually does this in response to injury or disease. But humans can intentionally rewire these pathways themselves provided that they focus their attention long enough. If you are serious about cleaning up your mental mess (we all have issues!), I recommend that you try some of Dr. Leaf's materials. I found her app to be essential for the 1st year. But after that I was able to fly "solo." The following is as simple as I know how to make it. Her methods walk the line where religion and psychology overlap. The underlying principles are as follows:

1. From Scripture we know that dysfunction and sin are rooted in what the Bible refers to as the "Heart"
2. From Scripture we also know that by nature we are unaware of what is in our "Heart."
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3. The physical manifestation of the "Heart" is in our subconscious mind.
4. There are ways that will allow us to see what is in our subconcious mind.
5. And if you can see it, you can change it."

The subconscious mind is not as completely sealed off from the conscious mind as some suppose. But life moves so fast that we rarely stop long enough to notice when our subconscious mind is open to introspection. Dr. Leaf's method teaches you how to be attentive to the subconcious mind. In particular, if you can see a dysfunctional trait, generational sin, or ungodly belief that is rooted in your subconscious mind, then you don't have to put up with it any longer. You can change it. The step-by-step process is as follows:

1. Pray - Invite Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts. God is on your side in this endeavor. If there is anything negative or harmful hidden in your subconscious mind, only the Devil wants it to remain hidden. God wants you to know about it so you can deal with it. He wants you to be free!


2. Get Quiet - Remove all distractions and quiet your mind. You've got to silence your noisy conscious mind before you can hear the soft whispers of your subconscious mind.


3. Observe - For the next 1 or 2 minutes, simply observe the thoughts and feelings that bubble up to the surface without analyzing or judging them. Some of these thoughts and feelings are from your subconcious mind. If you prematurely attempt to analyze them you will sabotage the process.


4. Write - After a minute or two, write down anything that seems significant to you. The process of writing clarifies things. Conversely, if you can't articulate it you probably don't understand it.


5. Did You Identify a Toxic Thought? If so, good work! Because if you can see it, you can change it!


6. Implement a Strategy - Don't worry about the details. Just get started in the right direction. You can refine your strategy as the days go by. Your strategy doesn't have to be "spot-on." It only needs to be reasonably close. Your nonconscious mind is "programmed" to deconstruct old thoughts that stress your brain and strengthen new thoughts that make it happy. This is how your brain suppresses unpleasant memories and trauma. You are going to exploit this built-in behavior to rewire your brain. It's as simple as training your pet by persistently praising ("Good dog!") and scolding ("Bad dog!") You were probably expecting something more complicated, right? The bad news is that your subconcious mind is extremely resistant to change! Therefore, detoxing your brain is a slow process that requires time and persistance.
   
   The pix shows my cue-card from a time when I was "rewiring" 3 toxic thoughts. You can work multiple issues if you stagger the start times by 3 weeks. But I wouldn't advise this if you are just starting out. It takes approximately 9 weeks (63 days) for your nonconscious mind to fully "unwire" a toxic belief and replace it with a stable new healthy belief. It takes a small amount of time each day: typically 1 - 2 minutes repeated half a dozen times per day. The objective is to repeatedly trigger your subsconcious mind to fire the brain neurons associated with the old toxic thought vs. the healthy new thought that you want to replace it with.
   
   The next part is crucial! When you think the toxic thought, you must to associate it with unhappy emotions. Conversely, when you think the healthy thought, you must accompany it with happy emotions. This is how you take advantage of the automatic behavior of your subconcious mind. Eventually your nonconscious brain learns that firing the old group of neurons feels bad" and firing the new neurons associated with the healthy replacement thought "feels good." That's when your nonconscious mind will begin to destroy the old and replace it with the new - the desired outcome. Keep your strategy short and succinct because you will need to go through this process multiple times per day for many days - somewhere between 300 - 400 repetitions over a 9 week period. If you are consistent to do the drill, your stubborn subconcious mind will eventually cave in and rewire things the way you want them to be. Goodbye low self-esteem, fear, orphan spirit, rejection, . . . . Hello peace and wholeness!

Strategies to rewire the nonconscious brain are not new; they have been sucessfully used in the non-Christian "self-help" business for decades. Before neuroscience nobody knew why these methods worked. Now we understand the "why."

Caveat - You didn't acquire your toxic thoughts in a single day. So don't expect to get rid of them in a single day. Rewiring your brain is paced by the time it takes to grow new neurons and assemble them into a functional "ready-to-fire" myellinated thought or belief. You cannot accelerate this process by pushing harder. Brain growth moves along at the pace of a flower garden.