Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind in 5 Easy Yet Life-Changing Steps

What holds you back from living your dreams? Is it fear? Do you worry you can’t take the steps needed to reach your goals and find your happiness? Or worse still, maybe you know you can reach your goals, but you’re scared that you won’t find the happiness you were looking for.

Whatever is holding you back, the answer and solution lie in your subconscious mind. It’s the belief system at your core that dictates your habits and behaviours.

So it makes sense that if you truly want to spread your wings and reach for the stars, you need to tackle your subconscious so that you can thrive. 

Why your subconscious mind is so powerful 

According to a 2015 study by Morsella et al., our subconscious brain makes up almost our entire brainpower. Quoting the work of George A. Miller, they highlight that: 

“It is the result of thinking, not the process of thinking, that appears spontaneously in consciousness.” 

And if you think about it, you can see this in action throughout your day. For example, when you stand up, do you consciously think through the body movements or do you just do it? When you see a snake, do you rattle through the reasons why you are scared or are you just afraid?

Our subconscious relies on habits and processes to make life easier for us and stop us from using all our energy on brainpower so we can focus on other things.

Let’s look further in to how you might reprogram your mind.

How long does it take to reprogram your subconscious mind? 

So how do you preprogram your subconscious mind? Well, to borrow a well-used phrase, how long is a piece of string? We’re all unique with different drivers that fuel our subconscious mind, and as such, there is no fixed timeframe.

Reprogramming your subconscious mind is all about replacing unhelpful habits with better ones. And as such, subconscious reprgroamming can take months, maybe even years, to fully work. But that doesn’t mean you won’t start to see a change from the moment you begin your journey. 

One thing is for sure, though, anyone promising you success in 21 days is selling you an impossible dream – real work takes time and trust me, it’s worth the time!

 

Five easy steps to reprogram your subconscious mind

1. Challenge your beliefs

Your beliefs drive your behaviour, so if you want to do something different, you have to believe something different.

The best way to do this is to challenge your self-limiting beliefs and gain a deeper understanding of how you are holding yourself back. So, ask yourself a lot of questions and lean into the uncomfortable reality that drives your unhelpful self-beliefs.

And once you have uncovered your subconscious belief patterns that are holding you back, you can start to challenge them and change them.

2. Be willing to see change

It’s not enough to want to change. You have to be open to it, too. That means allowing yourself to investigate your beliefs in an attempt to challenge and change them. 

For example, if you want to practice a new language but your subconscious mind tells you that you can’t because people will laugh at you for your poor skills, put yourself in a situation that will challenge that belief. For example, find a native speaker and strike up a conversation, find a language exchange buddy, or post a comment on a message board in your newly learnt language.

You’ll feel absolutely scared out of your mind the first few times because it goes against everything you believe about yourself, but it’s essential to be open to seeing that your beliefs aren’t always correct.

Usually, the anticipation of challenging your inner-most beliefs by doing things that scare you is much worse than the result.

3. Practice gratitude

Perspective is everything. Two people can look at the same situation and have two very different thoughts about it. 

Actively reframing how you approach life by finding the happy moments and appreciating them will result in a paradigm shift in your mind – your subconscious will start looking for the good instead of being hypervigilant of the bad.

So make it a habit to write three to five things you are grateful for at the beginning or end of every day. 

4. Stop worrying about the “how” 

Self-help psychology talks a lot about SMART goals and mapping out your journey to success. And for some people, this is a valuable tool. But for others, it results in avoidance, fearing they cannot possibly live up to their own expectations.

You see, often, we become so focused on each steppingstone and getting it right that we convince ourselves there is only one path to success. And if we don’t get every step right, we will never reach the summit. And if the steps don’t align with your core values, you will find it hard to get going.

In reality, there are a million ways to get to the same result. So don’t focus so much on how you are going to achieve your dreams and goals. Instead, work on believing that you are capable of finding the right solution that works for you, even if it takes a lot of trial and error to get there.

That deep level of self-belief and trust will help create a fundamental shift in your subconscious mind.

5. Repetition

One-off solutions rarely lead to long-lasting change. And that’s certainly true when it comes to reprogramming your subconscious mind.

Being active and diligent about repeating the above steps will allow you to completely change the way you think about yourself and navigate life.

So make these exercises a part of your daily life.

Remember… 

It’s difficult to reach the dreams you’ve always wanted when your core self-beliefs hold you back. 

But the great thing about our minds is that they are constantly evolving, and with intention and practice, we can shift our mindset so that we no longer stand in our own way.

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