This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change" by Shortform. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What’s your conscious mind designed to do? What problems come as a result? Why and how should you tap into your subconscious mind?
It’s possible to rewire your subconscious mind to create lasting change. You can align your subconscious mind with positive habits by tuning into it via relaxation.
Keep reading to learn how to tap into your subconscious mind through relaxation techniques.
Tapping Into Your Subconscious Mind
We’ll look at advice on how to tap into your subconscious mind from Maxwell Maltz, Joseph Murphy, Joe Dispenza, and Bruce Lipton.
When your mind is relaxed, it’s more receptive to affirmations and visualizations. According to Maxwell Maltz (Psycho-Cybernetics), practicing physical relaxation will enable you to consciously control your imagination and, subsequently, your subconscious mind. He explains that, when your mind is alert, your negative thoughts create tension in the body that makes it difficult for your subconscious mind to accept new ideas or possibilities. On the other hand, when you’re in a state of relaxation, negative thoughts tend to disappear and your positive suggestions have space to thrive.
Joseph Murphy (The Power of Your Subconscious Mind) adds insight into why Maltz equates being alert with having negative thoughts: When you’re awake and alert, you can’t help but think about and judge everything around you—this is what your conscious mind is designed to do.
This creates problems when you’re trying to tap into and retrain your subconscious mind because you can’t change your habitual conscious thoughts and beliefs instantaneously; your mind needs time to get used to your new way of thinking. During this time, your conscious mind questions and contradicts the beliefs you want to change. This conflict between what you want to believe and what you do believe confuses your subconscious mind because it’s not receiving clear instructions.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change summary:
- Why the only way to change a bad habit is to rewire your subconscious
- Methods from experts such as Tony Robbins, Charles Duhigg, and Nicole LePera
- Why it's so important to take time for physical relaxation
