How to hack your unconscious mind to make you happier.

Before I get to the juicy tools for altering your unconscious mind, let’s look into some details about some areas of the brain that are responsible for our habits and behaviours.

The default mode network (DMN) is essentially your brains autopilot. Let’s dive into what exactly that means.

The DMN is a collection of brain structures who’s function is to detect patterns in your life and program these patterns into your brain. By automating certain tasks, it allows for more brain efficiency.

Are you consciously thinking about every step you have to take to brush your teeth? Or does just the whole process unfold effortlessly without much thought? More likely than not, it would be second nature (I’d question your hygiene habits if it wasn’t).

The DMN picks up on both repeated physical actions and thought circuits so that they can be encoded in your brain for easy retrival in the future.

Think of your DMN as your web browser remembering your history, so when you start to type in a site this triggers the site to auto fill in so you don’t have to type it all out.

So why should we put much thought into the thought patterns encoded in our brain? Well my friend, these unconscious thoughts are what steer your automatic thoughts and resultant behaviour. This is what creates your perceived reality.

Don’t like what you see in your reality? Unhappy at your job? Unsatisfactory relationships? Battling anxiety or depression? Hard to pull yourself out of negative states?

Well similar to how repeated actions like brushing your teeth can become encoded in your brain to become second nature to you, so can your thoughts. So this means that we can consciously program our unconscious.

How you ask?

1. Basic way: Affirmations
2. Advanced way: NLP — Neurolinguistic Programming

AFFIRMATIONS

• Affirmations are not a new concept. It has been used as a staple in the self-help/self-improvement imdustry for decades and with good reason. When used repeatedly and consistenly they work.
• Affirmation definition: positive statements said with confidence about a perceived truth.
• How do they work? An affirmation can work because it has the ability to program your mind into believing the stated concept. This is because the mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real or what is fantasy.
• How to do them?
• FIRST — write out a positively geared statement about yourself starting with I (your name) am. Example: I Megan love eating healthy food.
• SECOND — Repeat your affiramtions (I recommend only 1–5) 5 times 3 times per day. So 3 times at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Affirmations really are the perfect sidedish.
• It’s important to note that when you say these affirmations, that you want to embody the quality you are saying. So really try and FEEL it as you speak. This will serve as a catalyst for hardwiring these thoughts into your DMN.
• When you evoke positive feelings and sensations as you say it aloud, your body will believe it EVEN more and it will be hardwired into your brain more quickly. This will lead it to faster manifesting in your life.

NLP — NEUROLINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING

• Essentially it’s a way of altering your unconscious mind by adding new more positive habitual thoughts, feelings, beliefs and reactions which will ultimately change behaviour and results for the better using your neurology and words.
• NLP offers a vast library of methods to change our mindset once we identify the limiting beliefs and strategies that are ultimately not serving us. Transforming the inner communication so that you feel better is the Programming aspect of NLP.

I hope this shed some light on some ways to help enhance your mindset!