Stress and Stress Relief
States of consciousness
Have you ever sat in a car waiting for a friend or family member to run in and make a quick purchase or run an errand? It may be a warm, sunny, spring day. The window is open and you can feel a gentle breeze caress your cheek and fluff your hair. The sun feels warm and cozy on your face.
Before you know it, your eyelids begin to droop as you sit and enjoy a moment of oneness with your surroundings. Not awake and not asleep, you are totally relaxed and content to drift along quietly enjoying the sensation of the warm sun and the gentle breeze.
If you have ever had this or a similar experience, you were in that Alpha state. Close your eyes and see if you can recapture the same sensations you had while you were in that state.
Take a few moments to do that, then imagine a car door slamming and pulling you instantaneously back into the Beta state. Wow! What a rude awakening.
Alpha level is where you can do the best work for yourself on a subconscious level. This is also a state of meditation, and the level you work with using self-hypnosis.
The truth is that you are actually in this state every single day at least two times. Those times are the fleeting moments just before you drift off to sleep and just as you awaken.
Your conscious mind has the ability to reason out a course of action that would be helpful to you. However, the conscious mind needs the cooperation of the subconscious and will send its energy out to implement the decision.
Your energy source is the subconscious mind. No matter what you consciously do to instruct the subconscious mind to do something there is no way to permanently override what the subconscious mind has been programmed to do.
Examples
Let’s take a look at some examples. If a very young child is told by a parent, teacher, elder sibling or anyone else in a position of authority:
“You never do anything right.”
“What’s the matter with you?”
“Why can’t you be more like Billy?”
“Don’t you have a brain in your head.”
“Why are you so stupid?”
“You will never amount to anything!”
This child will often be a failure in life. The reason is that this child’s conscious mind is not developed enough to block this type of information. Therefore, it becomes a fact in his subconscious mind.
As he/she grow to adulthood, his subconscious will be a very good student and apply everything it has learned. Remember, the subconscious is not right or wrong, good or bad, it is merely a computer just like the one you are reading from now.
The subconscious will force the conscious to act in exactly the same manner that was programmed as a child.
The subconscious mind will only accept what the conscious mind believes at the time the suggestion is offered. However, if the conscious mind changes an opinion on a given matter after it has become embedded in the subconscious the subconscious will not change with it.
These factors are important to understand before you begin your work. There are certain “tapes” in your subconscious mind that will not be changed. What you can do is create “new” responses. Thus in this way the stress can be relieved.
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