Your subconscious programming and the law of attraction

by Yvonne Ellis

If you have been trying to apply the Law of Attraction to change something in your life, but not getting the results that you want, your subconscious programming has probably been getting in the way.

Your mind is made up of two parts - your conscious mind which is basically everything that you are aware of (what we think of as the reasoning, thinking mind), and your subconscious which is all the mental activity that is below or out of conscious awareness (which includes memories, beliefs, values, emotions, intuition and all the automatic processes in the body that we are not consciously aware of like breathing, digestion, elimination, contracting and relaxing muscles and so on).

When you are born, your subconscious is like an empty sponge ready to fill up with feedback from your environment and the people around you. From birth until around age eight, a child’s subconscious takes on the beliefs and values of the important people in their life – parents, older siblings, aunts, uncles, teachers, religious leaders and even television characters that they watch a lot – all without any filtering or examination for truth or relevance.

At the same time, the child also continuously makes decisions about the world and their place in it based on what is happening around them which then also become beliefs stored in the subconscious. So, for example, if you were born into a loving household where all your needs were instantly met, your subconscious would likely have formed beliefs that ‘I am loveable, the world is safe and supportive, and I am always provided for”.

On the other hand, if you were born into a household where  your parents were sometimes stressed and arguing, and your needs were sometimes met and sometimes not met,  your subconscious would likely have formed beliefs like “I am only loved when … (conditional love), the world is scary and not supportive, and I am not provided for or I am only provided for when … (eg I am good enough, loveable enough, quiet enough, smart enough etc)”.

All these early decisions and unquestioning acceptance of others’ beliefs and values then form the subconscious programming that becomes the filters through which the child, and later adult, see and experience the world. So, if you have a subconscious belief that money is hard to come by, that will be your experience of the world. You will not notice opportunities to bring money in more easily, will not be attracted to, or will be suspicious of jobs that are not ‘hard’. You would probably not even notice, and therefore walk straight past, a $100 bill lying on the sidewalk – all because your subconscious programming has trained you not to see what doesn’t fit into your view of the world.

This happens because of the way that the mind is structured. Whenever you are not using your conscious mind to direct your thoughts, learn something new or handle complex tasks; your subconscious mind automatically takes over, like a faithful servant. As soon as the conscious mind masters a task, for example, driving a car, it hands it over to the subconscious mind who will replay the pattern whenever required, in this case, when traffic and road conditions are safe, we will slip into autopilot and maybe even arrive at our destination without being consciously aware of how we got there, or slip back into conscious awareness at some point in the journey and not be entirely sure where we are until we pass the next familiar landmark.  We seamlessly slip between the conscious and subconscious minds hundreds of times a day.

This slipping between conscious and subconscious is also why it can be so difficult to follow through with decisions such starting an exercise program or giving up smoking because as soon as your conscious mind stops focusing on the new goal, your subconscious mind will direct your behaviours back to the old established habits.

While the subconscious is excellent at handling all those tasks we no longer need full conscious awareness for, it is also an excellent multi-tasker, replaying all your old programming on an almost constant loop, in the background, including any disempowering beliefs that are no longer relevant or helpful. Scientists estimate that between 94% to 98% of all thoughts, on average, arise from the subconscious mind and, because of the looping effect, upwards of 90% of the thoughts that you think today will be the same as the thoughts that you had yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, which most likely means that the life that you are creating tomorrow will be exactly the same as today.

This is why people become disappointed when they first start using the Law of Attraction and don’t see immediate results. The Law of Attraction responds to our vibrations 24/7 and our conscious mind, even with the best intent and a superhuman level of focus would maybe influence only up to 10% of your thoughts and, therefore, vibrations. So, if your subconscious programming supports your Law of Attraction efforts - you will see results - fast! However, if your subconscious programming is disempowering and not in alignment with your desires, your vibrations in relation to that desire will be working against you and your results will be patchy at best and maybe even non-existent in the short term.

So, if you’re not getting the results you want with the Law of Attraction, don’t blame yourself – it’s the way you’ve been designed. But, before you get ready to give up and say “it’s no good, I’ll forever be a slave to my subconscious programming”, there are ways to change your subconscious beliefs and there are many ways to do it.

I don’t believe that there is any one method that suits everyone – we’re all individuals and what suits one may not suit another. Based on my experiences, however, here are the best ways to change your subconscious programming:

  •  EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and its more complicated cousin TFT (Thought Field Therapy)
  •  NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
  •  Hypnosis
  •  Kinesiology and other energy therapies
  •  Meditation – stops the mental chatter and allows you to access the subconscious mind
  •  Visualisation – repetition of a powerful image will gradually change subconscious beliefs
  •  Affirmations – expressed in such a way that they do not oppose the existing belief so rather than “I am slim” which the mind knows is not true, try “I am in the process of becoming slim” which is far easier for the mind to accept
  •  Challenging beliefs as they arise through psychological techniques like rational emotive therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy

Experiment with what works best for you and, no matter which technique you choose, persistence will be the key to success.

Yvonne Ellis is one of the authors of www.AttractLikeMagic.com

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