How To Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind

A Step-By-Step Guide

by George J. Ziogas

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition

and emotion will one day become a reality” — Earl Nightingale

Your subconscious mind has immense power in controlling your life

experiences — from the types of food you eat to the actions you take each day,

the level of income you earn, and even how you react to stressful situations.

Every bit of it is guided by your subconscious beliefs and interpretations.

In short, your subconscious mind is like the auto-pilot feature on an airplane.

It has been pre-programmed to follow a specific route and you can’t deviate

from that route unless you change the directions programmed into it first.

What Is The Subconscious Mind?

The “subconscious” is the part of your mind that operates below your normal

level of waking consciousness. Right now you’re primarily using your

conscious mind to read these words and absorb their meaning, but beneath

that mental focus, your subconscious mind is busily working behind the

scenes, absorbing or rejecting information based on an existing perception

when you were an infant. With every experience, your subconscious mind

soaks in information like a sponge. It rejected nothing while you were young

because you didn’t have any pre-existing beliefs to contradict what it

perceived. It simply accepted that all of the information you received during

your early childhood was true. You can probably see why this becomes a

problem later in life. Every time someone called you stupid, worthless, slow,

lazy, or worse, your subconscious mind just stored the information away for

reference. You may also have received messages about your potential in life or

limitations you’ll face based on your physical abilities, skin color, gender, or

economic status. By the time you were 7 or 8 years old, you already had a

solid foundation of belief based on all that programming from people in your

life, television shows you watched, and other environmental influences.

How Does This ‘Old’ Programming Affect You Now?

Now that you’re an adult, you may think that you can simply discard the

hurtful or untrue messages you absorbed during your early life, but it’s not

quite that simple. Remember that all of this information is stored below your

level of conscious awareness. The only time you become aware of it is when it

limits your progress in creating a balanced, successful and productive life.

Have you ever tried to achieve a goal and kept  sabotaging yourself at every

turn? Maddening, isn’t it? It’s important to know that you’re not defective or

doomed to fail no matter what you do. More likely you’ve got some  old
programmed messages  that conflict with the new conditions you want to

create. This is excellent news because it means, you can achieve just about

anything if you first take the time to reprogram your subconscious mind!

The Programming Is Still Going On

Before we discover how to reprogram your subconscious, it’s important to

know that, the programming still continues to this day. With every experience

you have, you draw certain conclusions and store the messages that will guide

your future actions. For example, what kind of message do you think would be

stored if you were rejected by someone you cared about? Your subconscious

mind — that clever detective — would immediately go hunting through your

memories and find other examples of rejection — like that time your best

friend dumped you to hang out with the more popular kids — and draw a

conclusion that you’re somehow unworthy or unlovable and deserve to be

rejected.

Now, here’s the interesting thing: if you have an experience that conflicts with

an already established belief, your subconscious mind will either reject it or

reframe it so it goes along with your existing view of reality.

Here’s an example, let’s say you have an underlying belief that you’re

unattractive, and an attractive person expresses an interest in getting to know

you better. Most likely the first thing you’re going to think is that it must be a

joke or a cruel trick. You won’t believe that this person could find you

attractive because you already believe that you’re unattractive. Beneath the
surface of your conscious awareness, your subconscious mind is

screaming, “No way! This person is way too attractive to be interested in me,

something isn’t right here…” Then you’ll either reject that person before they

can reject you, or otherwise do something to sabotage what could have been a

great relationship. The same thing happens when you struggle to achieve your

goals. Eventually you start to believe that you aren’t capable of success, so you

come to expect failure and end up doing just that over and over again. You

can probably imagine many other situations where your subconscious mind

limits you, but reprogramming it is a simple matter if you know how.

How To Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind

There are many different ways to overwrite the limiting or damaging

messages that are stored in your subconscious mind. You could work

simultaneously with all of these strategies, but it’ll be much more effective if

you pick just one or two methods to start. You want to give them your full

attention rather than skipping around and diluting your efforts. Remember,

you can always incorporate additional techniques over time.

Environmental Influences

Have you ever considered the effect of your environment on your

subconscious mind? Remember that your subconscious mind is  absorbing

information constantlyand drawing conclusions and forming beliefs based on

that information. If your daily environment is filled with negativity and strife,

imagine what kinds of messages are being absorbed into your mind. Your first
action is to strictly limit the negativity you’re exposed to from this moment

on. Avoid watching the news unless you absolutely must, and avoid spending

too much time with ‘toxic’ people. Instead,  seek out positive information to

read and watch, and spend most of your time with positive, successful

people. Over time you’ll find that more encouraging messages are being

absorbed into your mind, which will alter the way you see yourself and your

potential.

Visualization

Your subconscious mind responds well to pictures. Visualization is a great

way to program your mind with positive, empowering images. Try spending

10–15 minutes a day visualizing positive scenes that feature you and your life

experiences.

Here are some things you may want to visualize:

• Fulfilling relationships

• Passionate work

• A beautiful home

• Exotic vacations

• Anything else you wish to draw into your life

As you do this consistently, you end up redrawing the negative pictures stored

from your past experiences, fears, worries, and doubts. To boost the power of

visualization even further, be sure to emit strong, positive emotions while you

picture these wonderful things in your mind. Allow feelings of love, joy,
gratitude, and peace to flow through you as if you were truly having these

experiences. Your subconscious mind will absorb the messages as if they’re

real! This is the true beauty of visualization — the power to bypass limiting

messages and focus on pleasing images, all of which are being absorbed right

into your subconscious to be replayed later.

Affirmations

Affirmations are another effective way to install positive messages into your

subconscious.

They work best if you follow a few simple rules:

• Word them positively, in the present tense.  Say  “I am confident and

successful”  rather than  “I will be confident and successful” because

focusing on a future condition doesn’t compute with your subconscious

mind — it knows only  this moment. Also, use positive statements.

Saying “I am not a failure” is computed as “I am a failure” since your

subconscious can’t process negatives.

• Call up the corresponding feelings. Saying “I am wealthy” while feeling

poor only sends  conflicting messages  to your subconscious. Whatever

words you’re saying at the time, strive to feel the corresponding

emotions because your subconscious will be more apt to believe it.

• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Affirmations don’t work if you say them just

once or twice. Recite them many times throughout the day for the best
 results. The good thing about this is that you can say affirmations to

yourself, so they can fit seamlessly into your routine.

Brain Entrainment Binaural Beats

Another popular method is the use of audio recordings that deliberately alter

the frequency of your brainwaves. It may sound like something out of a

science fiction movie, but reports from people who’ve tried these audio

programs are overwhelmingly positive. Your brainwaves fall into a specific

frequency depending on what you’re doing at any given time:

• Gamma when you’re engaged in certain motor functions

• Beta when you’re fully conscious and actively concentrating

• Alpha when you’re relaxed

• Theta when you’re drowsy or lightly sleeping

• Delta when you’re in deep sleep

“Binaural beats” result when two tones are played at differing frequencies,

triggering your brainwaves to follow a different pattern. For example, if you

wanted to shift from stressed to relaxed you would listen to an audio that

triggers the alpha state. These audio programs can help you reprogram your

subconscious mind by, creating a more receptive forum for installing positive

messages.

Research has shown that your subconscious mind is more receptive to new

information when you’re very relaxed, such as in the alpha or theta states.

Using brain entrainment audio programs along with affirmations or

lets down its defenses so it can easily absorb any message you wish to

program in. Simply relax and focus on positive images!

Hypnosis

Hypnosis can be effective in much the same way as brain entrainment

programs, except without the use of brainwave-altering frequencies.

Instead, the hypnotist gradually talks you into a more relaxed and receptive

state and delivers empowering, positive messages to your subconscious mind.

Self-hypnosis is another popular option — you simply use pre-recorded audio

programs instead of a live hypnosis session. You can even record your own

self-hypnosis CDs so you’ll hear your own voice reciting positive affirmations

while you’re in a relaxed state.

How To Know If Your Reprogramming Efforts Are Working

One of the most challenging aspects of reprogramming your subconscious

mind is that you can’t peek inside and see what’s still there that might need to

be changed. Instead, you’ll have to develop a strong sense of self-awareness so

you can catch self-sabotaging behavior before it gets out of hand.

Even so, there are still some clear signs of progress that you may recognize:

• You begin feeling stronger, more confident and happier.

• You find yourself more willing to take risks and face challenges.

• Your dreams and goals don’t seem overwhelming anymore — just

exciting.
 • You feel a deeper sense of inner peace, as if inner conflicts are

dissolving.

• You attract more opportunities to expand and grow in every area of your

life.

In short, you’ll know when changes are taking place in your subconscious

mind because you’ll notice a shift in both your inner and outer being. The

evidence is usually undeniable!

Consistent, Persistent Reinforcement

It’s important to give this reprogramming process time to work. Don’t expect

to see immediate changes — occasionally that can happen, but more often it

takes time. Be very consistent and persistent with the methods you choose to

install more positive messages into your subconscious mind. As soon as these

transformations become apparent, you’ll feel motivated to keep moving

forward, but until that happens, stick with it and know that these changes are

lifelong, powerful, and well worth waiting for!