BELIEFS & EATING DISORDERS ~ SCIENCE MEETS SPIRITUALITY
We have come a long way towards understanding how the mind works and as the basis of everything originates in the mind we need to work with it in order to let go many of the beliefs that we have that no longer serve us. Your Beliefs about yourself, your body, the world, etc reside on a sub-conscious or unconscious level so it is helpful if you understand how the mind works as you can’t change what you don’t know. Until you make the unconscious, conscious then you can’t transform it. Beliefs are conclusions derived from information or experience. They determine our biological and behavioural reality. We filter everything we experience through our beliefs. As the saying goes… if you hear something often enough, you start to believe it !
I will try and keep this as simple as possible!
Here’s the science bit….
- The basis of all healing involves letting go beliefs that no longer serve you.
- If you change your mind, you change your biology.
- For the purpose of this piece we are going to look at the Conscious mind and the Sub-Conscious mind.
The Conscious Mind
Emerging science is telling us that we only use our conscious mind 1% to 5% of the day! So what does this mean?. Basically it means that we are only consciously aware or present for one to five percent of the time and the rest of the day is governed by our subconscious mind. Unless the conscious mind’s focus is on Now, the subconscious takes over. When the conscious mind gets busy, the subconscious mind takes over.
So what does this mean? This is where it gets interesting!
The Subconscious Mind
Cognitive Neuroscience now says the subconscious mind starts to become programmed as the foetus is developing in the womb and from then up until age 6 approximately. Our Self Identity, beliefs, habits, learned behaviours (conditioned responses), past experiences, memories, all reside on this level of the mind.
So if you experienced fear, anxiety or illness in your formative years then this gets programmed into your subconscious. You may then believe that you are not safe or perhaps you are anxious all the time when there is nothing to be anxious about. The down side is, the job of the sub conscious is to create a life that reflects the programming. So basically 95% of the time your subconscious shapes your life!. Oh Dear!
So it’s like playing a dvd over and over again. You are not consciously aware you are doing it, but it keeps happening! Sound familiar?
So when your life isn’t panning out the way you want it, it is because your physical reality is a reflection of your programming. Your subconscious shapes your life and your decisions. Your subconscious is not creative. The law of the sub conscious is compulsion. If you repeat a negative thought or habit over a period of time, you will be under the compulsion of the habit. There is no obstacle to healing a bad habit, except your own belief that you can’t. So if you self medicate with alcohol, food or drugs to cope with challenges you encounter, or negative beliefs that you have about yourself, then that’s what you will keep doing until you re programme or let go of the beliefs keeping you stuck. If you believe you are not deserving of happiness or love then you will unconsciously sabotage your relationships to reflect this belief.
The irony is then you feel justified because people keep rejecting you so you must be right!.
So what has this got to do with Spirituality or being Soulful?
I have referred to our ‘Spiritual Curriculum’ a few times and this is basically what we have come to earth to learn. Remember we are Divine Beings, (Soul), having a human experience (Ego) , to awaken to our Divinity. Our spiritual curriculum predisposes our developing ego to make certain interpretations of early experiences so the beliefs, and patterns we are here to work on are programmed into the subconscious. So if an infant perceives she/he wasn’t sufficiently held and cuddled at birth, they may interpret the experience to mean they were un wanted. This perception could sow the seeds for unworthiness or insecure attachment issues later in life. Another infant may have a different curriculum so they could have the same experience but perceive it in a completely different way!.
So how do we transform our programming ?
- The good news is we can change our software once we understand the nature of the conscious mind and how important it is to learn to be present, and become aware. The more present you become, the less you play your dvd! Awareness involves knowing Life is unfolding so your unresolved issues can come to light. This creates the opportunity to release all that does not serve you.
- Next Autosuggestion which means suggesting some thing specific and definite to yourself.
- To change your subconscious you need to make statements a 6 year old can understand as it’s up to that age approximately when the programming takes place.
- The new statements or mantra’s need to be in the present tense.
- Visualisations are a very powerful tool to change the subconscious mind also.
- Awareness of the present moment coupled with the fact that the ‘issues’ arising from your beliefs/perceptions are what you have come here to learn, is vital in transforming the way you relate to yourself.
Cognitive neuroscience also tells us that the common denominator for people who go into spontaneous remission from life threatening illness’s is a profound change of belief about who they are!.
If you want to free yourself of any destructive habit, you are 51% there already when you have a greater desire to give up the habit than to continue it.
If you learn a habit, you can unlearn it, but only if you become aware of the beliefs driving the habit, and then let them go.
So to sum up , the conscious mind is like manual control, the sub conscious mind is like auto pilot. We need to exert manual control of our daily lives if we are to evolve and become Soulful Beings. Otherwise we do the same thing over and over again.
‘The Prizes of Life we fail to win , because we doubt the power within.”
NAMASTE,
SUZANNE ~ 087 2056560
