MENTAL DIET: HOW TO DEAL WITH WRONG THINKING (2)

We are not our thoughts but we are the product of our thoughts. The sum of our thoughts is the sum of the product of our lives. What we are thinking shapes what we are becoming.

How did we get to think and respond to situations the way we do? What drives or determines our actions and the choices we make through life?

Let’s explore the conditioning of our minds.

The theory of the tabular rasa or blank slate states, “each person came into the world with no thoughts or ideas at all and everything that a person thinks and feels is learned from infancy onward”. I hasten to add because I believe that vibrations could be pcked up by the foetus in the womb. In other words, the baby in the womb responds to and is affected by the words of his or her mother and also the sound from the environment the mother is in.

VERBAL CONDITIONING

From childhood, whatever you heard spoken by those around you had been impressed in your subconscious mind. Probably, these suggestions or words were filled with negativity. The majority of the people have been given negative suggestions such as: “You can’t”; you can’t trust a soul”; “You will not amount to anything”, It’s not what you know but who you know”; “You never do anything right”; “You are too slow”; “You are stupid”; “You will fail” the list can be endless.

During childhood we were vulnerable; we did not know how to reject those negative suggestions and these were impressed on our subconscious mind, forming our self-concept and beliefs. And these negative suggestions developed in us fears of all kinds especially the fear of failure and the fear of rejection.

 Travel through memory lane; write down the suggestions that were made about your abilities and you. Write down the verbal utterances you heard about money, relationship with people, marriage, work, and life itself. Were they positive suggestions? Or were they negative suggestions? If it is full with negativity, then you must get to unlearn, learn and relearn by reconditioning your subconscious mind to work for you, producing successful results in your life, if not the past conditioning can cause self-sabotage leading to failure in your life experience.

MODELING

 The powerful tool of modeling can be used for good or for ill. If our parents or whoever raised us in our childhood years had positive habits; behaved wisely and were great examples to us, then we grow into adulthood with a balanced and positive personality leading to a great outcome in our destinies.

We tend to take up the attitude and character of our parents or whoever raised us subconsciously. That is the reason most likely; a child raised in an abusive or dysfunctional home grows to also have a dysfunctional or an abusive home or goes into one abusive relationship to another.

High self-esteem parents tend to raise high self-esteem children. Whatever attitude or behavioral pattern you saw in your parents in regards to marriage, parenting, finances, work, habits, relationship with people had been impressed on your subconscious mind, unless you have deliberately changed the pattern by reconditioning your mind to live better, these impressions will be manifested in your life.

EXPERIENTIAL CONDITIONING

The experiences you had while growing up had been impressed on your subconscious mind. If you had experienced unconditional love while growing up, then as an adult you will have positive self-esteem and high levels of confidence, producing peak performance in life. If you had experienced the feelings of joy, encouragement, peace, hope, acceptance, approval and excellence you will manifest a wonderful personality and positive outcome in your destiny.

However, if you experienced conditional love, hatred, abuse, criticism, rejection, intimidation etc you grow into adulthood with a sense of insecurity based on fear, low self-esteem, and personality dysfunction. This, of course, can be changed by re-programming your mind..

Until the mind is free, the man cannot be free. Until you gain knowledge of the timeless principles governing each area of life you will be held in bondage in some or all the areas of your life. Nobody can stop us permanently rather it is only our thinking that stops us permanently. Until we understand the workings of our minds we will be unable to grapple with life. And to understand the workings of the mind is to understand how life works for us or against us.

The buildup of negative or false thoughts in certain areas through the years produces a life of bondage in certain areas of life. When  a mind has been conditioned it produces the condition of life. And until the mind is reconditioned it is held captive by past conditioning. That’s the reason to make the most out of life you must become highly intentional about making the most of yourself and live in self-awareness.

Never allow how you were raised to erase the freedom to live a fulfilling life. Never allow the past to control your present and direct your future. Life may not be fair but never justify misbehavior if you want life to be just with you; life may not be fair but life is always just.

 Facing the truth about ourselves and taking up the responsibility to effect changes in our thought processes may not be an easy pie to chew in order to kick-start the process of changing our entire lives, producing a worthwhile life.