The Subconscious Lens
and how quickly the brain can be rewired through consistent exposure to new ideas
I keep thinking to myself that I want to write, but then as soon as I think that I don’t know what to write about, and that immediately makes me feel blocked. So I am going to start typing in the same way that I always journal, just a stream of consciousness and see what wants to come through me.
My mind recently feels very foggy like I can’t see exactly what is in there. Like I can’t fully see what I am thinking. Yes I know it sounds odd to try to see our thoughts but I am a very visual person, my thoughts often are more images than they are words. Maybe because l always felt limited when it comes to language. For a long time I have told myself stories like: I am not very good at writing / I struggle to find the words / I am not very good at explaining myself. I have lived with these limiting stories for a long time, probably since I moved to England from Poland when I was only 12 years young, my Polish language was ok, but it was never complex or descriptive or anything like that, plus it is a pretty difficult language (I once read that it’s like number fifth on the list of most difficult languages to learn in the world). Anyway, after moving to London me and my twin were immersed in English language (school, friends, books, tv) so within 6 months of being here we spoke the language pretty fluently. We even started to speak English to each other during the day at school, and somewhere down the line we never stopped (now we only communicate in English with one another). For the first year or so, I dreamt in Polish, and then one night that stopped, and I never dreamt in Polish since. I vaguely remember the morning when I woke up and realised my dream the night before was in English, it felt like a relief, like it was overdue. English was simpler, easier on the tongue, plus it meant me and my twin could communicate with our parents not understanding what we were saying, as teenage girls it helped us to fit in at school, and it gave us privacy at home. In a weird way within a year it felt more like my first language than Polish ever did. I didn’t understand how that can happen, but now I do, it is simple: my whole brain was rewired with a whole new language, through repetition and exposure.
Funny concept “rewiring your brain”, but damn the most powerful thing we can do for ourselves. That was my first lesson in truly how powerful and possible it is to change our brains, and how quickly it can happen too. I mean I dreamt in Polish for like 13 years, and within a year my dreams which are run by my subconscious mind upgraded to a whole different language. It is freaking incredible, especially since our subconscious minds start being programmed when we are in utero in the last trimester of pregnancy until we are around 7 years of age. 7 years of operating in one language, and then it was replaced within a year. What does that tell us? That change is not only possible, it is probable when it is consistent. That our minds are so mouldable, incredibly mouldable, they just need to be exposed to something regularly, until the new becomes the norm. And it can be such a quick process.
Imagine trying to paint a dark wall white and all you have is a paint brush and white paint - it would be a very repetitive process, but the wall will eventually become white, you just gotta keep applying more coats of paint.
The dark wall is your subconscious mind,
and the white paint is the new idea, new thought pattern, an affirmation, a new belief that will brighten your life if you operate from it every day,
the paint brush is your desire for change,
and the daily painting motion is the repetitive action you take every day to create.
Our subconscious mind influences 95% of our live, of how we think, react, and behave, the actions we take, and way we perceive life, and all of that directly impacts the sort of life we can create for ourselves. If you think your glass is half empty, then you will see scarcity everywhere, not just when it comes to money, but when it comes time, people, love, relationships, experiences, yourself. Everything in your life will be through the lense of not enough, the lense of scarcity, which means your brain is wired to always see what is missing instead of what is already there. Those are the glasses that you are wearing and looking at the world through. So when we are talking about rewiring our brain, our subconscious mind, we are literally talking about changing the lense through which we look at the world. We are creating a whole new lense, a more conscious pair of glasses. And as human beings we have so many different lenses that we see the world through, which are formed throughout our childhoods, through our care takers, experiences we had - all of that shapes how we see this world. Which means everyone’s reality is different, as it is impacted by individual lenses that we have inherited and created and reaffirmed through our life’s experiences.
The first step to rewiring our brain is to become aware of the lens that we are currently looking at the world through. For me that process started with journaling and meditating. Meditation taught me to pause and pay attention to how my brain thinks for itself all the time, becoming aware of the fact that I am actually not my thoughts was mind blowing. Like what do you mean I am not my thoughts? My thoughts are mine, therefore there are me right? Wrong. Meditate for 5 minutes and see how many times your mind will go off on a tangent thinking about something random trying to busy itself, even though you are consciously trying to empty your mind and not think. So if your conscious self is trying not to think, but you loose yourself in thoughts, then how can your thoughts be you? Lost in thoughts…an interesting phrase that holds so much depth. Our conscious selves, who we truly are, our being, our awareness is lost deep within those thoughts. This is why your thoughts cannot be you, because your thoughts are not your awareness. That is why you can become “aware of your own thoughts”, because most of the time that awareness is lost in the thoughts that run your mind. That is why the process of becoming more conscious is often called “an awakening”, because you are awaking to the fact that you have been lost deep within your own mind for a long time…hope you’re still with me?
So first step is to become aware of our thoughts. By becoming aware of our thoughts we are becoming more aware of the programs that are running our mind. Where do we start? The best way to unravel and start to understand our own programming is through journalling, there is a technique called stream of consciousness journalling, literally how I ended up writing this which is kind of hilarious. The best way to start if you have never done it before is with a journal prompt. Usually it can take a moment before your logical mind switches off and your stream of consciousness starts to flow through you, something changes and a gate opens up, literally. But I am not going to get into this now, as there is lots of amazing tips and prompts online for this (if you followed me for a while then you know that is what inspired my old business The Living Workshop: journalling and prompts, and its ability to change your life). It is a very simple tool, but I often find so many feel blocked from doing it because it takes time and consistency. Writing for 5 minutes is not going to reveal to you the complexity of your subconscious mind, but writing for 30 minutes every morning for a few months will reveal treasures you never knew were within you and it will change your life in ways you can’t even imagine. Another famous way of journaling is doing Morning Pages (writing minimum 3 pages first thing in the morning), which was orginally created by by Julia Cameron, I learnt about it by reading (and doing) her incredible 12 week spiritual path for creatives “The Artist’s Way” which I highly recommend.
But anyway back to our subconscious mind, I think the key to everything is to not overcomplicate it. I spent years exploring tools, paths, and modalities in the name of self betterment, self growth and healing. And one thing I have come to realise is that the simplest tools are the most powerful ones, and it does not take a lot to change your life. It is actually very simple, and very repetitive, like painting that dark wall white. And you already hold all that you need within you to do it. We hold all the answers within ourselves. We just have to start paying attention to the stories that we are telling ourselves, and consciously choose to start telling different stories. Because our “logical” mind likes to run the show and tell us that certain stories are facts, certain stories are the truth…And if that is your story then you do you babe. I much prefer to live in a reality where everything is a story that I can change, I just have to choose to change it. Ownership over my own life, I never want to be a victim to my stories. Victim to the lens through which I see this world through. I am a creator of my own stories, consciously crafting and sculpting my subconscious mind to work for me, not against me. When Michelangelo was asked how he carved the statue of David, he answered: "It's simple. I just remove everything that is NOT David”. That is what we are doing, remove everything that is not you, remove everything that you inherited as a child that does not work for you, remove the lenses that do not help you live the life you want to be living. You want to live in abundance but only ever see scarcity? Retrain your mind to see abundance, start a gratitude practice in your journal every day. Focus on what makes you feel sparkly and good, and REPEAT. Tell stories in your head that make you feel amazing, and REPEAT. Repeat until the new becomes the norm.
Until next post xx
This resonates so much. Thanks for sharing Monika x