I’m out shopping and I’ve bought a few things, pair of shorts, a new bikini, a small journal and a couple of make-up essentials. I toddle along to Coles to get my groceries. I already know what I need to buy, so mission one accomplished! Grabbing a trolley I hang my precious purchases on the bag hook and wonder around the store picking up everything I need. So far so good J I’m feeling good that I’ve not only had a successful “shopping spree” but also a nice and easy grocery shop.
All checked out and I grab my bags, and it begins…the all too familiar “shop shuffle”. Swapping bags from hand to hand, shoulder to shoulder. Trying to find a balance, feeling lopsided, handbag sliding off of my shoulder – arghh! (First world problems, but at the time it was my only one!)
I get to me car, and I know what you’re thinking right now – “you daft cow, why didn’t you take the trolley to the car?” – answer “I don’t know but I do love some good hindsight” :p (If you read my blog on making mindful decisions last week, you’ll know that there’s some interesting learning here for me to do).
Anyway, I start to wonder…if your physical body is so easily fumbled what about your mind. Now, I know you already know that we have our conscious and subconscious minds, right? What if these two layers weren’t working congruently together.
Just imagine for a moment (please note this is not scientific fact, simply an analogy) that the left side of your body were your conscious mind and the left your subconscious. Firstly one side would be vastly bigger if measured in processing capability and we’d all look quite strange, but humour me if you will, and overlay the “shop shuffle”. It becomes a constant battle to gain fluid, stable and focussed forward movement.
Okay, to cut to the chase here’s where this all matters. When you’re planning, goal setting, organising, meeting people, working, sorting out your finances, having relationships, connecting with your spirituality…basically, whenever you’re doing anything in your life, it matters that your conscious and subconscious are working in harmony…why? Because it makes everything soooooooooo (soooooooooo) much easier.
Here’s an example, let’s say you’re trying to quit smoking, the only time you really smoke is when you go out and your with friends, who also smoke, and through the evening you go out for a social smoke or two. Whilst you’re out there you have a giggle and some good banter. This whole activity is associated with smoking, so reverse engineering if you gave up smoking, you would not go outside of the bar and therefore not enjoy that part of your evening having a giggle and banter with your friends. If you experience a sense of missing out it makes your goal to give up smoking much harder to achieve because at a subconscious level you are gaining something else through the act of smoking.
I hope you followed along with that – simply put, when we have a secondary gain that put’s us in conflict with what we are trying to do then it makes that ‘thing’ very hard to do – our subconscious and conscious are not playing well together.
How can you create cohesive playfulness with these two parts of your mind? With goal work that works with both parts.
I use a process called Psych-K for myself and with my clients. I’m a hypnotherapist, having trained over 5 years ago, and the biggest difference I see and experience between Psych-K and hypnotherapy is that it’s a ‘do with’ rather than ‘do on’ approach. You are conscious through the process - you are an active participant and I am the facilitator. The benefits are great! You’re empowered by the work that you do and the change that you experience. Best of all you sit in the driver’s seat of your life.
Psych-K process recognises the efforts of both the conscious and subconscious mind and works with both to create congruency – alignment to whatever it is that you want to do in your life!
I invite you now to think more about what you’re doing in life and how much of you is balanced towards actually doing it.
To find out more, or to book a Psych-K coaching session call me on +61 451649591 or email info@apakula.com.au.
Be your best!
Bhav xx
