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The Belief-System Battle
Recently I spoke with a woman who was using affirmations to make changes in her life. She related that several days into this practice she experienced emotional upheavals such as moodiness and depression. Her question to me was this: "When you use affirmations, do you create conflict within yourself, like a rebellion?"
Yes! It's a strange phenomenon, but it makes sense. Anytime we begin to reshape our lives by using affirmations, trigger devices, and the impeccable eye (for more on these, see our last three newsletters and tape #5 in the series, The Pursuit & Practice of Personal Mastery), we set up the possibility of creating a conflict between our conscious and subconscious minds. Putting ideas into our conscious minds that differ from our subconscious belief systems can cause quite a clash. Our belief systems will fight for their very survival.
We already mentioned mood swings and depression. What are other ways our old belief systems protect themselves? Anything that causes us to back off of our commitments.
Some people get headaches or other physical ailments. They fall asleep at inopportune times. Others suddenly experience relationship or financial problems, or become angry. In our office at Klemmer & Associates, when someone cancels attendance to an upcoming seminar due to this conflict, we call it the seminar flu. One of my co-workers, Steve Hinton, coined this phrase after talking with a woman who suddenly cancelled her attendance, even though she had airplane and hotel reservations booked for an upcoming seminar that was only days away. Her reason? She had to help a friend who was experiencing emotional problems.
Suppose I'm working on losing weight and all of sudden my wife, Roma, and I have relationship problems. Then I might say, "I can't handle everything at once!" So, my weight goes up. But my goal is to lose weight, so I get back on track. But then I create a financial problem, so I think, "I need to get my finances in order and then I'll start losing weight again. We need to be aware that the relationship and financial problems are just symptoms. The real problem lies in the subconscious mind that can only see me at 184 pounds, not the intended 171 pounds, so it must fight back. In order to reach my goal of 171 pounds, all the beliefs tied to 184 pounds have got to end. Otherwise my weight will fluctuate.
What is the best way to deal with this rebellion? First, recognize that this battle between the conscious and subconscious minds is part of the process. Then, continue reading and working with the affirmations, trigger devices and the impeccable eye that you began. If you've made a commitment to go to a seminar, keep that commitment, too. With time, the subconscious mind will become aligned with the beliefs you desire in your life. |
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