The human mind is a complex web filled with emotions, memories, and strategies involved in everyday life. It controls all the essential functions of the body, such as behaviour, learning, cognition, it regulates basic survival functions, such as breathing, moving, resting, and feeding, it also creates our experiences of emotion. Given the volume of information, decisions, and emotions we process on a daily basis, not to mention the incessant mental chatter, it’s largely assumed that understanding the mind might well be beyond comprehension. But looking at a timeline of psychology throughout the ages to more recent breakthroughs in neuroscience it has become easier to identify how the mind functions.
The following are the rules of the mind as proposed by Marisa Peer. These rules are easy to digest and give us important context around why we ‘do what we do’. Understanding the rules helps us make sense of the thousands of thoughts, decisions, actions and reactions we have every day at a subconscious level.
Rule 1 – Every Thought or Idea causes a Physical Reaction
Our thoughts create chemical/hormonal reactions in our body which can affect the function of the body over time. Research suggests that not only are positive thinkers healthier and less stressed, they also have greater overall well-being and a much stronger immunity, optimists are both psychologically and physiologically healthier. On the contrary, negative thoughts can cause dis-ease. Worry is associated with migraines, stomach ulcers, infections; anger stimulates the adrenal glands and the increased adrenaline in the blood can cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease or liver problems; anxiety and fear affect your pulse rate and are related to illnesses such as heart disease, gastrointestinal issues and respiratory illness. Thoughts and ideas that have a strong emotional content are stored in the subconscious mind, because it is the feeling mind and become a program we run. Once accepted, these thoughts and ideas continue to produce the same body reaction over and over again. In order to eliminate or change chronic negative thoughts and bodily reactions we must reach the subconscious mind and change the ideas responsible for the reaction.
Rule 2 – What is Expected Tends to be Realised- The mind responds to 2 things: the pictures we make in our head and the words we say to ourselves
The brain and the nervous system respond to mental images- the pictures we make, and the word we say. It does not matter if the images or words are self-induced or from the external world. The mental images and words formed become our blueprint, and our subconscious mind works to create the plan. Worrying is a form of programming a picture of what we don’t want. But the subconscious mind acts to fulfil the pictured situation, which means that the things you fear will usually occur because you create them in your subconscious programming.
Many people suffer from chronic anxiety, which implies a subconscious mental expectancy that something terrible will happen to them and they therefore live in a fear-based reality. On the other hand, if we practice positive mental expectancy we can have the power to be abundant and positive things tend to happen in succession as if by magic. If we have a strong belief that we deserve to be successful, well then, we usually become what we think about.
Our physical health is largely dependent upon our mental expectancy. Research has recognised that if a person expects to remain sick, lame, paralyzed, helpless, even to die, the expected condition tends to be realised. RTT and hypnosis works to reprogram despondency and negative attitudes and facilitate positive change – the expectancy of health, strength and well-being, which then tends to be realised.
Rule 3 – Imagination is more powerful than knowledge when dealing with your own mind or the mind of another
Emotion is more powerful than logic. Emotion can only be defeated by another emotion and reason is easily overruled by imagination. We are all guilty of blindly rushing into some unreasonable act or situation because our emotions over ruled our logical thoughts. An over-active imagination can cause reactive responses. We can allow our imagination to overcome our reason and we are often blind to our own superstitions, prejudices, and unreasonable beliefs. Any idea accompanied by a strong emotion such as anger, hatred, love or our political and religious beliefs usually cannot be modified through the use of reason.
Rule 4 – Opposing ideas cannot be held at one and the same time
The mind cannot hold conflicting beliefs or thoughts, they cancel each other out. This does not mean that one idea cannot be remembered or stored in our memory, but it refers to the conscious mind recognising an idea. Many people try to hold opposing ideas simultaneously, this splits their energy which can cause chaos. Someone might believe in integrity and honestly but engage in dishonest practices. They may try to justify their behaviour, however, they cannot escape the conflict within the mind and the effects upon their nervous system that is caused by trying to hold opposing ideas.
Rule 5 – Once an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind, it remains until another replaces it. The companion rule to this is, the longer the idea remains the more opposition there is to replacing it with a new idea
Once an idea has been accepted, it tends to remain. The longer it is held, the more it tends to become a fixed habit of thinking or programmed belief. This is how habits of action are formed, both good and bad. First there is the thought and then the action. We have habits of thinking as well as habits of action, but the thought or idea always come first. Hence it is obvious if we wish to change our actions we must first begin by changing our thoughts.
We accept as true certain factors. For example, we accept as true that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and we accept this even though the day may be cloudy and we cannot see the sun. This is an instance of a correct fact of conception, which governs our actions under normal conditions. However, we have many thought habits that are not correct and yet, are fixed in the mind. Some people believe that at critical times they must have a drink or a cigarette to steady their nerves so that they are relaxed. This is not correct but the idea is there and is a fixed habit or thought. There will be opposition to replacing it with a correct idea. It is possible to alter fixed thoughts that are ingrained in the subconscious mind through hypnosis.
Rule 6 – An emotionally induced symptom will cause organic change if maintained for
long enough, this is called the placebo effect.
It has been acknowledged by many reputable medical men that more than seventy percent of human ailments are functional rather than organic. This means that the function of an organ or other parts of the body have been disturbed by the reaction of the nervous system to negative ideas held in the subconscious mind. We do not mean to imply that every person who complains of an ailment is emotionally ill or neurotic. There are diseases caused by germs, parasites, virus, and other things attacking the human body. However, we are a mind in a body and the two cannot be separated. Therefore, if you continue to fear ill health, constantly talking about your “nervous stomach” or “tension headache” in time organic changes must occur because you keep sending these signals to your body.
This is true also in a positive way, if you believe that you are healing yourself your mind will tell your body to heal. In medicine, a placebo is a substance, pill, or other treatment that appears to be a medical intervention, but isn’t one. Placebos are particularly important in drug trials, during which they’re often given to participants in the control group. Because a placebo isn’t an active treatment, it shouldn’t have a significant effect on the condition. Researchers can compare the results from the placebo to those from the actual drug. This helps them to determine if the new drug is effective. The placebo effect is when an improvement is observed, despite an individual receiving a placebo as opposed to active medical treatment. It’s estimated that 1 in 3 people experience the placebo effect proving that we are susceptible to suggestion. Trusted Source
Rule 7 – Each Suggestion acted upon creates less opposition to successive suggestions
Once a habit is formed it becomes easier to follow and more difficult to break. In other words once a suggestion has been accepted by your subconscious mind it becomes easier for additional suggestions to be accepted and acted upon. You can suggest that you feel a tingling sensation or a warm and pleasant feeling. When these have been followed you can move on to more complicated suggestions. This is how we access the subconscious mind. If you think about biting into a lemon as you imagine it you experience the sensation of salivating and reacting to that bitter taste. Suggestion has power.
Rule 8 – When dealing with the subconscious mind and its functions the greater the conscious effort, the less the subconscious response
This proves why “will power” doesn’t really exist. If you have insomnia you’ve learned “the harder you try to go to sleep, the more wide awake you become.” The rule is “When dealing with the subconscious mind, TAKE IT EASY.” This means you must work to develop a positive mental expectancy that your problem can be and will be solved. As your faith in your subconscious mind increases you learn to “let it happen” rather than trying to “force it to happen.”
Rule 9 – Your mind is hardwired to resist what is unfamiliar and to return to what is familiar.
Our default is to stay in our “comfort zone”. We tend to stick to what is familiar and shy away from the unfamiliar. This is ok if the familiar is safe and positive but in instances where the familiar was formed growing up in a dysfunctional environment and led to accepting toxic behaviours and knowing no better as a child we tend to subconsciously recreate these patterns as adults unless we break those patterns and make the familiar unfamiliar. This can be most prevalent in the relationships we form as adults. If our primary caregivers were narcissistic or abusive or we experienced childhood trauma we can find ourselves in unsafe relationships as adults unless we break the predisposition to trauma bond. To use this rule of the mind to your advantage, you have to make what is familiar unfamiliar and what is unfamiliar familiar. So if a sense of belonging and feeling lovable wasn’t your familiar growing up, make it your familiar now, train the subconscious mind to feel that feeling of security and love and we will draw the to us and deter the opposite. Challenge negative thoughts and change them to positive ones.
Rule 10 – The mind learns by repetition.
We can train our mind through repetition. Repetition creates long term memory by eliciting or enacting strong chemical interactions at the synapse of our neurons, rewiring neurological pathways (where neurons connect to other neurons).
It is scientifically proven that it takes 21 to 60 days to reprogram a belief system, we can change limiting beliefs that keep us stuck to beliefs that serve us better and help us grow. This is fantastic news to those who have been wired to believe they are unworthy or unlovable, victims of abuse, people who suffer from depression and anxiety. We now know that we can forge our own neuro pathways. This is called Neuroplasticity or brain plasticity which is the ability of neural pathways or networks in the brain to change, to grow and reorganise. The brain can be rewired to function differently from how it previously functioned. Neural pathways can make new connections and can be adjusted systematically to remap, reprogram and make new connections to how we learn new abilities, the dialogue we have with ourselves, how we deal with external/ environmental influences and psychological stressors.
It was believed that our brain could only be altered in childhood during the developmental stage but it is now scientifically proven that we can still alter our brain and rewire neural pathways as adults. The term neuroplasticity derived from this research and explains the brain’s ability to rewire and create new circuits at any age. We can consciously create a new level of mind through our intentions, the pictures we make and the words we say. We can activate new programming through repetition during hypnotic or meditative practice. By accessing the subconscious mind in alpha or theta state we can interject and reprogram limiting believes, we can rebalance and communicate with our cells and alter how our body functions. Check out Dr. Joe Dispenza and his ground breaking work for more on this topic. Love his stuff. Proving scientifically what all spiritual and energy workers taught for centuries.