What are you telling yourself?
“I am so clumsy.”
“I screw everything up.”
“I’ll never be good enough.”
“I don’t sleep well.”
“I can’t lose weight.”
“I have anxiety.”
“This is just how I am.”
We call these “self-identifying” statements. When you hear yourself say statements like this over and over again, your subconscious mind hears them as a direct suggestion, and it does everything it can to make sure that they stay true.
Now, you may have tried to tell yourself the opposite is true. You may have tried telling yourself that you are good enough, that you don’t have anxiety, or that you have an easy time losing weight. But you probably didn’t believe it. That’s not your fault. Your subconscious mind is programmed to resist change.
Resistance to Change
The subconscious mind, that part of you that controls everything you don’t have conscious control over (including your habits, bodily functions, emotions, and inner dialogue), likes everything to stay about the same. That’s one of the ways it keeps you alive.
The subconscious mind maintains the balance in everything about us. Your blood pressure and heart rate stay about the same because when something happens to change it your subconscious mind directs your body to correct it back to normal. The same is true for your eating habits and emotional states. This balance, or homeostasis, keeps us running efficiently.
Opposing ideas threaten that balance, so they are often ignored by the subconscious. There are a few magic words that you can use to get through to your subconscious mind and begin to change your inner dialogue once and for all.
Magic Words
There are two words that you can put at the beginning of any statement that let the statement stay “true” enough to make it through to the subconscious and allow changes to begin taking place.
“Used to…”
Putting the words “used to” into that negative self talk moves the ideas from something that is happening right now to something that happened in the past, putting some distance between you and those negative thoughts. These two little magic words also, maybe more importantly, allow for the possibility that things are different now.
Don’t take my word for it though - try it for yourself!
“I used to be so clumsy.”
“I used to feel like I screwed everything up.”
“I used to think I would never be good enough.”
“I used to not sleep well.”
“I used to not be able to lose weight.”
“I used to have anxiety.”
“That was how I used to be.”
Notice how the impact of each statement changes. Now try it with your own self talk.
First, make a list of all the negative things you find yourself saying throughout the day. Then, rewrite your list using the phrase “used to”. Hang up your “used to” list somewhere you’ll see it throughout your day and read it often.
When you catch yourself using negative self identifying statements, correct them using your new magic words.
The more you use this technique, the faster your thinking, your habits, and your behaviors, will change. Now that it knows it has the option to do things differently, your subconscious mind will use the new information to automatically create positive changes.
The Role of Hypnosis
Whether you use self-hypnosis techniques or work with a professional hypnotist, you can learn to reprogram your inner dialogue, improve your self confidence, and lower your stress in just a few sessions. Using hypnosis is like having the owner’s manual for your mind, allowing you to easily and permanently program in changes to habits and behaviors.∎
Click here for your Free Hypnosis audio program: “Stop Negative Thinking”
Click here for your Free “Abdominal Breathing for Anxiety and Stress Relief” tool
Karen Gray is a Certified Hypnotist, Registered Nurse, and Director of Green Mountain Hypnosis.