Your unconscious mind holds the key to many of your quandaries. You may be faced with career choices, decisions to make about relationships, whether or not to try for another child, and so on. These life questions are often easier to answer once you understand your emotional needs, and these can become clear through accessing inner wisdom – via your unconscious mind.
How Does the Unconscious Influence You?
When you over analyse a situation, logically, you can think yourself into a corner that can be hard to get out of. You may end up more confused than when you began. Sound familiar? But when you allow your unconscious mind to step forwards, as is what occurs in hypnotherapy, you can see the big picture. Then you may simply come up with the answers once you reach a mental state of relaxation. You not only sense how things would work out functionally, but also how they feel. Does it feel right? Or does it feel off?
But how do you know that the answers you come up with, in that nice relaxed state, are actually coming from your unconscious mind? We ask the body to answer, not the mind. The unconscious mind can impact your body in many ways. It can influence you in a positive or a negative way. The negative is essentially a result of your unconscious mind trying to help you, but not knowing how. Think panic attacks – a symptom of anxiety – that your unconscious mind has created and developed. It is probably doing the panic attacks to protect you – to stop you from a perceived threat. (In this case, we need to change that perception.) Perhaps its just a faster heart rate or a nausea in the stomach, for example, yet the doctors tell you that there’s nothing wrong, physically. Perhaps your body is talking to you via food cravings, even if you are not hungry, trying to get you to feel comforted. Perhaps you are experiencing alcohol urges, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Any physical manifestation of your unconscious mind is a form of communication. But you don’t seem to be listening, so it just keeps getting louder. That’s a snap shot of how your unconscious mind might influence you.
So we ask the body to answer the questions that you put forth, because the body doesn’t lie. Your conscious mind, on the other hand, is so very clever it can convince you of anything. Your unconscious mind works with feelings and urges, however it can coordinate and cooperate with your conscious mind. It is no maverick – only when you don’t listen! So accessing inner wisdom needs to be a coordination of your conscious (the part of you with all those questions) and your unconscious (the part f you who knows how different scenarios will work out, based on how it feels, and whether or not its need are being met).
How Does Accessing Inner Wisdom Work?
One of my favourite techniques is the Six Step Reframe. This is where we develop a conversation with your unconscious mind. We ask your unconscious mind to give its responses via a sensation in the body, that serves as a ‘yes’ signal. So it doesn’t matter if you consciously really want a certain option to take the winning place in your quest in making the right choice, for example. What you consciously want doesn’t matter at all in fact. If your unconscious mind does not agree, it means that your desired option will not bring you what you seek. Because the unconscious mind understands deeply what it is that you need.
Ashley’s Dietary Choices
Ashley was overweight and binging on carbohydrates and sweets. Throughout her life she had tried all types of diets – vegan, wholefood, vegetarian, gluten and dairy free, meat based, pescatarian, you name it. We had done some great work in killing those carb cravings in the previous two sessions, and now she wanted to determine which type of diet would suit her body best, long term.
Time for the Six Step Reframe! I asked Ashley’s unconscious mind to provide her with a ‘yes’ signal in the body if she was interested in helping Ashley to find the right kind of diet. Almost immediately Ashley’s whole body began convulsing. Just so you know, this is unusual. Mostly people will get a slight pressure, or a warmth or a tingling for example, but Ashley was writhing from head to toe. It was an impressive response – her unconscious mind was definitely in the mood for a chat and very open to Ashley accessing inner wisdom.
I ran through the list of options that Ashley and I had discussed – Vegan, Vegetarian, Carnivore, Whole Foods Unprocessed, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Intermittent Fasting, Daily Vegetable Juicing. Ashley’s unconscious mind was very clear in its responses. The result was either no movement at all, or whole body convulsing. There was no confusion here. She ended up responding ‘yes’ to Vegan with Daily Vegetable Juicing and Gluten-Free.
I brought Ashley back into a conscious state and we discussed the results. At first Ashley was surprised that her body chose vegan, as this is not what she had logically leaned towards. But after some reflection she said that she felt her best when she was vegan, 20 years prior, although back then she didn’t have access to good vegan options, unlike today. She was wholly accepting of the gluten-free, having just ended a good five years eating processed carbohydrates, namely wheat, and it had not done her any favours. She was also very happy to commit to daily vegetable juicing. This is what comes of accessing inner wisdom through the unconscious mind. Sometimes the answers will surprise you, but ultimately they make sense. This technique can be used on any number of issues and choices.
Perhaps your unconscious mind has a few gems to share with you. If you would be interested in accessing inner wisdom, I can help. Horizons Clinical Hypnotherapy Sunshine Coast.