We all have days and moments where we put everything into the tasks we need to complete to get us to where we want to go, but it is just not happening for us. On those days, sometimes it feels like no amount of positive thinking, manifestation, or meditation can get us to where we want to go.

Stem cell biologist and the author of The Biology of Belief, Dr. Bruce Lipton has explained that if you are working so hard for something and it’s just not happening for you, it’s likely because your programs and subconscious mind don’t support what you want - and your subconscious is actually holding you back from getting where you want.

In today’s article, we get into the subconscious mind, the power it holds, and how you can rewrite your subconscious pathways to better support your big goals, dreams, and visions.

The conscious vs. the subconscious mind

When you are thinking, you are thinking with your conscious mind. Wishes and desires drive this conscious mind - "I want this" or "I wish I had this".

When you are fully immersed in an activity, your conscious mind does not pay attention to what is going on around you and your subconscious mind kicks in (for example, when you’re deep in conversation on the freeway with someone and realize you’re driving without paying attention). When the conscious mind steps back from being in total control, this is when the subconscious mind is in control and it drives you without you realizing.

Scientists believe that 95% of your life comes from the subconscious point of view. I.e., 95% of the time you are being driven by the wiring of your subconscious mind, not the wiring of your conscious mind at all.

What is subconscious programming?

Your subconscious mind starts being programmed in the last trimester of pregnancy until you are around 7. This period is the most intense part of our programming and is why kids are like sponges and pick up everything around them in these years. 

As you grow into an adult, your wiring and programming becomes more fixed because we (and our brains) become less malleable. We start to function at a different brain wave state than we did in those first 7 years and this makes it harder for us to absorb as much information and/or be as impacted by it (from a subconscious perspective). 

Dr Lipton explains that your adult life becomes a printout and roadmap of your subconscious programming at this point. What he means is that the limiting beliefs that have been wired into us in the first 7 years then start to hold us back in adulthood. Our subconscious mind and its wiring starts to come to the forefront and drive the way we show up in the world, often unconsciously.

So, I’m held back by my subconscious programming. How do I know what my beliefs are?

Some of the beliefs you might be aware of (think ‘I can’t do this, I’m not good enough, I’m going to fail, I’m not attractive enough’ etc.) but there will also be a ton of subconscious beliefs that you might not be consciously aware of. 

To work out what your personal limiting beliefs are, Dr. Bruce Lipton says that all you have to do is look at the life you are living. He says that your life is an expression of your own wired programs, and this will show you where your limiting beliefs are.

Can’t get the job or raise you want? Can’t start your own business? Can’t find a deeply loving and satisfying soul mate? Look at your programming. The problems in your life will show you where the gaps and challenges are and what is holding you back.

And once you understand what is holding you back by your subconscious wiring, you can then start to move forward into rewiring.

So, can I rewrite my subconscious?

Yes. 100%!

The holistic health world talks a ton about nootropics and neural wiring and working with your brain to make it work for you. Subconscious rewiring is not dissimilar.

The end goal is that you can effectively rewire your subconscious so that all of the thoughts and wishes, and desires in your conscious mind match up to the wiring of your subconscious mind. This means that both your subconscious mind and conscious mind will be working on the same page, and no limiting beliefs from your subconscious will be holding you back.

Is there a book I can read to do that?

Not really. It doesn’t work like that - because books educate the conscious mind.

The conscious mind can read a self-help book and, after one reading say, "oh yeah, I understand this, I get it"- but we all know that reading a book doesn’t change our life that easily. 

The reason is that the self-help book you read educated and enhanced your conscious awareness but didn’t touch any of your subconscious programs that are wired into your subconscious mind.

Even though you read the book and change your conscious mind, you will still have the same behavior afterward as you did before (even though it might change consciously for a couple of days or a couple of hours).

So what?

The subconscious mind is driven by repetition, so to take control of the mind that is in control of us, we need to rewire it by repetition - and by working with the brain waves and states that allow us to program and reprogram. 

How do I do that?

Here are Dr. Bruce Lipton’s top six tips on how to rewrite your subconscious programming through the act of repetition and through understanding your brainwaves.

1. Start with understanding the frequencies of your brainwaves - in the first 7 years when children are easily ‘programmable’, they function a great deal in their ‘theta’ brain waves. This ‘theta’ state of brainwaves are around 4 - 8 Hz. This theta stage is a deeper state of mindfulness that, in adults, is associated with creative insight, memory enhancement and feelings of deep connectedness. For children, functioning in these states is why they easily switch between reality and imagination.
   
   
2. Identifying your own Theta brain waves - when you are asleep, you are experiencing Delta brain waves (around 1 - 3 Hz). However, every day when you wake up, you come from Delta brain waves and back to reality. In the immediate period when you wake up, your brain will start to emit and function at a frequency of Theta brain waves (4-8 Hz). So, this time before you go to sleep, and right as you wake up, is when your imagination and reality start to interlink and mix in a state of self-hypnosis. Anytime you are in a Theta brainwave state, you can more effectively download into your subconscious mind.
   
   
3. Take this understanding & create a daily practice - now you know when is best to rewire (before you sleep and just when you wake), you need to understand how to rewire. Repetition is key here because this is how the subconscious mind gets programmed. Listening to the beliefs you want to reprogram is where you start. It’s actually as simple as finding programs on YouTube that rewire for your struggling beliefs. If you put earphones on and play a video with the beliefs as you’re going to bed, or just when you’re waking up - and you do this with repetition, you can develop a new element of subconscious wiring over time. It might feel weird, foreign, and strange at first, but with subconscious reprogramming, even if it doesn't feel accurate at the time, it will become real as it becomes downloaded and converted into your subconscious programming. It's the truth of faking it until you make it.
   
   
4. Keep the programming simple - when looking to reprogram, you need to be very accurate with the statement you want to put into your subconscious. It needs to be simple, so Dr. Bruce suggests you should think of something that a five-year-old could understand. It also has to be in the present tense because if it’s in the future tense, it’s conflicting for the subconscious mind to understand and comprehend. So, for example, a belief would be "I am successful" rather than "I am going to be successful". Once the program has been put into the subconscious mind, the function of the body and mind is to do everything in its power to match the statement that it holds as the truth.
   
   
5. Understand that programming is most effective when both hemispheres of the brain are working in harmony together (the right and left). This is known in science as ‘whole brain synchronization’ and when this balance in hemispheres is achieved, the brain experiences additional blood flow. The brain is more likely to work for you at this point. Meditation works to move you towards whole brain synchronization, so consider meditating before listening to your subconscious downloads.
   
   
6. Work with a practitioner to work with muscle testing to truly find out what is limiting you. It’s fascinating to understand that because 90% of the brain is a computer that controls our whole body and movement, it controls our muscle coordination and action. Muscle testing works on the basis that you can make a statement with your conscious mind, and the subconscious mind will hear the ‘data’ you input and will respond either saying yes (because the statement is in harmony with the beliefs) - or no - because there is a weakening and a conflict of the two minds, which causes a weakening of the body’s muscles automatically. This weakening happens so much that you can use this to verify what is going on in your subconscious. Working with a practitioner can help you specifically identify which limiting beliefs you might be experiencing, and that might be holding you back so that you can rewire more effectively.

So, yes, you’ve been programmed. We all have. And the bad news? In today’s society, most of the programs are negative, disempowering and limiting. But the good news?

You have the power to rewire and rewrite your life.

So, no matter how big those dreams, ambitions, goals, and visions are? You can get whatever you want - you just need to take control of 95% of your day and the subconscious mind that is keeping what you want away from you. 

***THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN APPROVED OR REGULATED BY THE FDA.  WE ARE NOT DOCTORS, THEREFORE ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST.