What stops you from changing an aspect of your life? I am looking to find out what is blocking people from changing their life in some way. This could be from losing weight, changing their exercise routine, starting a business, starting a relationship, ending a relationship etc. Question by Steven Aitchison
I came upon this question from LinkIn a network I am involved in on the Web. Steven is a well-known blogger in Great Britain and also works in addiction as I do. Be sure and check out his real great blog.
So the question fit perfectly with some ideas I have been exploring. Just this morning I was reading a wonderful little book called Hypnotizing Maria by Richard Bach. This book would be of interest to anyone interested in ending their own suffering by creating the life they want.
My answer to his question is: That we shape our own experience of life much more so than we imagine. It begins with our birth or maybe even before. As we come into the world we get many suggestions from those around us. We then decide (mostly unconsciously) what suggestions we think are right and affirm them by thinking them over and over again.
The suggestions we make come from our conditioning both from the outside world and then our own affirming by repetition of thought. So when we suggest to ourselves that: I am too fat, I can't do it, I am afraid, I don't know how to be in a relationship, I don't deserve etc., we plant the seed of suggestion. The mind first makes the suggestion, then affirms it over and over and then commits to it. Example: I am too fat, each time I look in the mirror I confirm it and soon I am fully committed to it.
The power of our suggestions and then our affirmations totally and completely shape our experience of life. The limits we place on ourselves are like super solid walls that hold us in and keep so much of the possibilities of life out. These walls of suggestion are simply made of the construction of our thoughts. They are not real.
The really exciting good news is that positive suggestions and affirmations are very powerful. We can knock down the walls of past suggestions but we first must become conscious/mindful of that we may have over a million (just a guess) suggestions already piled up in us. If by chance there are any old familiar patterns that are limiting us then there is a good reason to believe that some powerful suggestions have been laid in some serious concrete.
(I feel like I am so excited about writing this that I may seem all over the place but I will get to the point about how we can get the suggestion train on the right track toward being more of our expanding possibilities than the limits we had in the past placed on us.)
Moving past the old suggestions, which have solidified into rock hard beliefs and limitations involves: one, a clarity and deep understanding that we are the creators of our life experience by the suggestions we make. This consciousness will expand and with mindful awareness we can begin to see how all the walls have been constructed. The more we see, the more we take back our lives.
Two, with consciousness we have choice. The choice is to begin to reprogram ourselves by making new suggestions but they must not be placed onto the top of the banana split of our mind like nuts. (I must be getting hungry.) The point here is that positive suggestions on top of a million limiting ones will not make much difference. So what will? That question is right at my edge of growth so I am exploring it in my life today.
This is what I am exploring now: I do self-hypnosis in the morning and at night to go into a deep receptive state and suggest that the suggestions I am making now will replace the earliest of suggestions in my life with the new more empowering ones. I am also writing in a journal my affirmations. I sometimes feel the weight of the old rock pile of beliefs but lately I feel the lightness expanding. I will write more soon.
Be well and suggest only what you really want to realize.