The Power of the Mind – How Our Mindset Programs Our Cells
Happy, confident people create their happiness and confidence. They use the
power of their mind to create the outcomes they desire. They believe in
their true self, which includes the power to achieve what they set their
mind to. Irrespective of their current circumstances, they believe in
themselves. They have identified what they want in life, they feed
their mind with positive, correct information, and they keep company with
others that are likewise focused. It is this way of viewing that allows for
the doors of opportunity to open.
Miserable people imprison themselves, creating walls and dead ends. Their
perspective is shadowed with incorrect information. Their thoughts and
attitudes have them play out the broken record of being acted upon. Their
lives are filled with scarcity as they recall all the reasons why they
haven’t led a happier life. They just can’t seem to get beyond
their negative feelings and it is this verity that doesn’t allow for
change, because they can’t think beyond their emotions. They are
imprisoned by the memorized self.
The memorized self is formed through repetition of the associations we are
making between our thoughts, their meanings, the emotions we experience and
the behaviors growing out of our emotional states. The ongoing repetitive
internal conversation becomes stored as IMPLICIT MEMORY or IMPLICIT BELIEF.
This type of memory is stored largely in two areas, the first being neural
pathways in the brain and secondly in DNA. What wires to together plays
heavily upon self-perception and what gets encoded onto DNA likewise heavily
influences our view of self.
IMPLICIT MEMORY is comprised of unconscious cognitive and emotional patterns
of relating to ourselves and others. It’s the kind of memory you
access without any high degree of awareness, because it has been learned so
well. It’s what makes you feel characteristically you. IMPLICIT
MEMORY guides your ongoing experience, cognitively, emotionally and
behaviorally; all on automatic drive, without thought or effort. You can
think of IMPLICIT MEMORY as a set of instructions
or procedures encoded in the brain and on your DNA.
However, a procedure can’t easily be described in words or contained
in images; it forms as a general template where we continue to get our
bearings. This template is below the threshold of awareness and so we are
not fully conscious of the thoughts, meanings, and negative core beliefs
that are driving that template. IMPLICIT MEMORY begins its formation early
on in life. From in-utero up to about age 7 or 8, the IMPLICIT MEMORY system
is online establishing the basis of our character. These are the years where
theta brain wave patterns are dominant and it is when we are in theta
dominance that we easily receive suggestions from our environment in how we
should see ourselves.
When we begin by looking at the child’s developing neural system, it
should become evident quickly that these processes are not just coming
together due to some genetic blueprint alone, no, it should be clear that
the environment we are providing is acting on the development, sequencing,
and strong associations being formed.
Because of the sequential development of the brain and its tremendous
malleability early in life, early life experiences play a remarkable role in
shaping how the brain functions; how IMPLICIT MEMORY functions. Early
experiences create a cascade, or sequential set of cognitive, emotional,
social, and physiological templates that we carry around with us, and use as
we go through life. If you have traumatic experiences early on when the
neural systems that are responsible for the fear response are developing,
this will create pervasive hypersensitivity to threats, to challenges, to
all kinds of things. We certainly know that high risk children, who come
from chronic chaotic environment’s literally change their baseline
responsivity to every single cue. These patternicity responses form into
IMPLICIT MEMORY that results in reactivity to any cue. These are state
memories not cognitive memories.
The developing neural associations that are occurring in our young children
are a product of “signaling” that each of us is so sensitive to.
Signaling is that process either genetically or environmentally that
continues to impose itself on us throughout life and in doing so strengthens
our self-concept or weakens it, depending upon how well we are observing the
signals. Children lack the capacity to view things from a mature
adult’s perspective; hence the reason personal belief about
one’s identity is so largely attached to the formative years. Children
make too many incorrect observations of their experiences. Parents know this
because many times as their children turn into adults and begin to share
their perspective of their growing, developing years, parents are surprised
by how their children perceived so many events differently than the parent
did.
After an infant learns to identify their mother’s face, voice, touch
and smell, they learn how to communicate their needs to this
“person”, all based on trial and error. Successes and failures
are recorded, with particular attention given to memories of interactions
with caregivers, and gradually a patterned and predictable way of responding
to the world evolves. If there appears to be a lot of unsuccessful emotional
communication in these early, formative years an unhealthy template or
IMPLICIT MEMORY begins to become the companion of that child, which likely
hangs on, even carrying well into adulthood.
This kind of memory is necessarily implicit because the newborn has no
cognitive, conceptual or verbal ability like that of an adult and must
depend on its inborn capacity to learn what it needs quickly and
non-consciously, in an environment where survival itself depends on
emotional connection. IMPLICIT MEMORY is procedural. This
means IMPLICIT MEMORY, if it is going to be changed requires a strategic
approach. That strategic approach is found in Quantum Theory. You just
can’t tell yourself, “Don’t be stubborn” and hope
this will change you permanently. This is like the left brain telling
the right brain what to do. It is not going to happen this way. This is
not how our brain works. It may take hundreds of hours of deliberate
practice and constant repetition to turn a desired behavior; including
the behavior of changing our self-talk into a habit.
Procedural memory, this memorized self is the basis for our character. The
procedural memory system stores the instructions for our habitual responses.
In other words it patterns how we do things. More profoundly, it is
about who we are. Procedural memory is the basis of our character, those
aspects of our self that make us unique.
When we learn a behavior or an emotional response it becomes part of our
procedural memory. Once it’s been “programmed” into the
procedural memory system we don’t need to decide how to respond to a
specific situation because it has now become automatic–after all,
that’s the whole point. You see these “over-learned”
patterns are the “behind the scenes” kind of memory that frees
up our attention for more important tasks. For instance, I can drive my car
and carry on a conversation at the same time. The ‘driving’
behavior is encoded in procedural memory. Since I’ve over-learned the
skills needed for driving I don’t need to be conscious of every detail
in order to keep my car on the road. We can form a procedural memory of how
we view ourselves, because we have practiced, for many years, a negative
internal conversation. That negative internal conversation is what encoded
an unhealthy view of our self into procedural memory.
When procedural memory kicks in, it’s like being “on
autopilot”. Procedural memory is important in counseling because many
of our emotions and behaviors that accompany them occur
‘automatically’. These automatic responses are what allow
insight for the counselor in helping his or her client in becoming a better
observer of their memorized self. In order to change self-defeating patterns
we need to bring those into conscious awareness and ‘out of
procedure’. Forming a new “procedure” or IMPLICIT MEMORY
takes a while to learn but once we can clearly see the distortions of the
memorized self that are driving the patternicity struggles and then learn
how to develop a healthy IMPLICIT MEMORY; it makes life a lot easier. If our
IMPLICIT MEMORY is formed with a truthful and healthy view of self, of
course it is going to make life incredibly easier.
An important feature of procedural or IMPLICIT MEMORY is
that it tends to persist; it’s resistant to change. This is a good
thing because you don’t want to have to keep re-learning behaviors or
have to give high focus to everything you do. But this also means that you
can’t change a procedure, unless and until you pay attention to
how and when it operates. And procedural patterns take a while to unlearn. I
found this to bit a bit true when playing golf. I was a self-taught golfer.
My swing, the way I held the club, my stance, and so on was developed to
compensate for a slice. I had played golf like this for years. I finally
decided to go and take some golf lessons and now I was up against it because
I had learned my old swing so well, the change did not come automatically;
it took concerted effort to learn the better way. The old neural pathways
interfered with the new ones I was trying to create. It’s hard to
interrupt a well-established procedure. In fact, those original neural
pathways, though weakened, may continue to show-up at times, until the new
neural pathway becomes so well learned that the old learning dissipates. In
other words, the new, regulated pathways will eventually override the old
ones.
Once you unconsciously trigger very well established neural pathways,
it’s difficult to stop yourself from completing it. That is,
it’s difficult to interrupt the procedure. This explains why
people repeat the same pattern in relationships even though these strategies
clearly don’t work. Once you understand how procedural memory, i.e.
IMPLICIT MEMORY works you’ll have a better handle on why people repeat
ineffective, even self-defeating, behaviors. Once a procedure is initiated
it acquires a forward momentum that is uncomfortable to stop. This is the
source of the desire to continue the procedure. Procedural
memory dances with our cortex which can always come up with a
“rational” explanation or justification for our
automatic patternicity struggles.
It takes many repetitions of a new internal conversation before it’s
ingrained, and once that procedure is established it, like the old memorized
self, would be difficult to change. In fact, it will have fundamentally
changed the memorized self. I actually think that once a very correct view
of our self is formed we will never go back to our old, distorted memorized
self. For the same reason, we can’t change our way of relating (i.e.
implicit memory) simply by telling ourselves to feel differently. It
requires special conditions for the change to occur.
Quantum Theory is the basis of change. Fundamentally, observing matter
influences how matter organizes, how it shapes and behaves. Our IMPLICIT
BELIEF is organized as matter. By observing the components of the internal
conversation that led to the organization of our unhealthy IMPLICIT BELIEF,
we can get our matter to organize in a way that has us see our self
accurately. Let’s review what we do know about physiological
functioning and how physiology acts as hardware which drives so much of our
experience.
The mind is a part of us that allows us to observe. Observation will produce thoughts and every thought we have is so powerful that the electrical impulses resulting from thoughts will release a host of neuro-chemicals and it is these neuro-chemicals that influence heavily our perception. Our body and brain respond to each thought in myriads of ways. Some things to consider:
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1) What, where, how and the length of time we give attention to
something in life, along with our repetitive thoughts forms our
neurological wiring. Concentrating on pain that exists
within your body, sends electrical currents to your mind that
continues producing the pain. We now know that thoughts create
epigenetic differences upon the human genome.
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2) Repetitive thoughts create connections in the brain that quickly become
iron clad. These thoughts move from conscious to unconscious
ways of thinking and being. That is how we act on auto-pilot.
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3) The process of change requires forgetting what we know to
discover new ways of being. Better observing practices
accelerates the achievement of this goal and produce visible
positive results.
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4) Learning something new requires considerable energy and our
undivided attention. Consider when you first learned to drive a
car, the level of attention you possessed compared to that of an
experienced driver who is primarily operating on auto-pilot.
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5) We have the ability to alter who we are with every new piece of
information that we learn. By combining this new information
with practical application, a new experience is brought to life. We
invoke greater levels of change, the more we repeat this process.
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6) Our life-long repetitive negative thoughts are significant
contributors to stress and disease within the body. Stress
causes us to live in 'survival' state which negatively changes our
internal state and exhausts our body, in turn, generating
adverse responses including: anger, depression, misery or confusion. When
we are in this state, it can be likened to behaving like a bird trapped in
a cage or a prisoner held captive, we fail to see the possibilities for
our life. This is how people become 'stuck' for their
consistent emotional state is highly addictive as a result of
the production of neurochemicals generated by the thought that become
the compositional medium in which our cells bathe.
As mentioned in Item 1 above, our formed neural pathways are not the only
thing driving IMPLICIT MEMORY. Our genes impact our ongoing view of our
self, which likewise influences ongoing patternicity behavior or struggles.
Both parental inheritances, as well as environmental, epigenetic signals can
and do shape self-perception. If that self-perception is faulty, it will be
through highly observing and filtering epigenetic signals that will allow us
to alter unhealthy views of self to healthy, truthful beliefs. Research
demonstrates that we can produce positive changes. The project of
“Mapping the Human Genome,” with all of its related, advanced
technology is what allowed a clear understanding that ongoing environmental
signals really do affect DNA functioning.
Since epigenetic signals catalyze DNA function and expression, anyone that
has achieved success in changing their IMPLICIT MEMORY, both in relation to
neurological connections and DNA alterations did so by observing correctly
what epigenetic signals they would allow their cells to absorb. Through
correct observing, people develop new thoughts and create new ways of being,
literally modifying genetic performance.
Visualization or Observation is a powerful tool used to stimulate the brain
to generate strong mind-body connections. The brain is not the mind. The
brain wires in correspondence to the mind. How the mind observes things is
the very force of how the brain wires. Therefore, neural pathways may form
which may contain incorrect information. Likewise, neural connectivity can
also be filled with correct information. The difference is what the mind
observes.
Our state of being, or memorized self consists of our repetitive cycle
of our constant thoughts combined with the production of chemicals
within our body which generates our emotions. This repetitive cycle has a
direct impact on our behavior.
To change our reality and heal any ongoing negative pattern, both physically
and emotionally is found in the secret ingredient in making up our mind to
do so. We have the ability to fully recover and change our internal and
external circumstances exactly like those patients who are told
they would never walk again yet do so, sport stars who suffer from
irreversible injuries yet fully recover, or those who have
suffered a life-threatening cancer and a few months later it is no
where to be found, or those that no longer struggle with anxiety, depression
or mood dysregulation. They understand the secret is having a powerful
intention, believing they have the power to change their circumstances,
loads of determination and the will to create what they want in life.
There is a partnership between acquiring knowledge and our life
experiences. Our mind is supplied with the knowledge of eternity as we
each existed for eons of time; and while there is a veil drawn over our mind
of that past existence, yet eternal experience is written therein and can be
regained to a considerable degree while here in mortality. We are deathless
souls in a physical realm, each having a physical body, a physical-energy
body to gain experiences here on earth. The body is the vessel used by the
spirit (Job 32:8) that allows our eternal learning to continue, as there
were many, many things we never could learn by remaining in the spirit form
or as spirits only. Secular research is saying the exact same thing. The
mind is the emergent and relational energy that influences internal and
external processes. It is not simply an emergent property of neural
activity. In fact it is the exact opposite. The energy of the mind is not
limited to the physical structure of our body. It has the ability to send
out energy into the surrounding energy field and effect changes as a result.
It has the capacity to embody all truth and knowledge of the universe.
The most important memory to be regained while in our mortal sojourn is an
understanding of who we really are. That memory cannot be accessed through
knowledge alone; it also requires practicing the truth of that identity.
'Knowledge without experience is philosophy, and experience without any
knowledge is ignorance. The interplay between the two produces wisdom'.
Wisdom is sealed in us as a gift from the Godhead.
Wisdom stems from one's intelligence to comprehend light and truth and live
in it. Correct thoughts bring emotions of happiness, peace of mind,
assurance, hope love and joy. Such emotions encourage behaviors of
cooperation with each other as we are part of one large family.
Anyone that experiences ongoing emotions of depression, fear, doubt,
sadness, hopelessness, loneliness, cynicism, anger, and the like, or people
who deal with ongoing relationship conflict, addiction, and can’t find
direction in their life is evidence that they don’t know who they
really are. To change your current identity or reality, you need to shift
your state of mind by aligning your thoughts to the truth of who you are.
The correct emotions that emerge from the new and correct thoughts merge in
a way that increase confidence, hope, direction, better relationships and
the rest.
Many of you readers are experiencing all sorts of patternicity struggles,
which may be a direct result of parental inheritance, but irrespective of
your genes, it is possible to create a brand new you. Believe that you can
and most importantly make up your mind with absolute conviction that what
you want, though a process, will come to fruition.