Have you ever wondered why you have recurring issues, either physical or emotional?  Have you ever wondered why they have such a strong hold over many of the things you do each day?  Do you know how powerful and influential your subconscious or unconscious mind actually is? In this week’s blog, we are going to consider these questions.

Groundhog day

In recent times, many of us have had a change in routine.  Maybe it is working from home, a reduction or no work at all.  These episodes have provided many challenges to our emotional and mental health.  However, as a regular reader of my blogs and maybe you are a member of Total Somatics online, you know that as an individual our emotional and mental health have a huge impact on our physical health.  We cannot isolate or separate areas within our amazing mind and body, they are all heavily intertwined.  

Have you considered what your subconscious mind is doing during this time?  I can hear you saying, “of course not, that is why it is subconscious, we are unaware of it!”  You would be correct, however, would you like to know how you can actually become aware of your subconscious?

Your habits, personality and beliefs

Everyday, the vast majority of humankind are having the same thoughts, conversations, worries, resentment and stress levels.  They may be spending time with the same people, who likewise are having the same experiences, conversations, beliefs and behaviours.  As a result a person’s energy levels, their contentment, wellbeing and happiness levels may not change considerably.  As a result, they continue to view the world through a lens which has been conditioned through habits and behaviours, at times passed down by family members or other influential people. Granted, some of these habits can be healthy, whereas others can be holding them back from releasing conditioned actions, habits, behaviours and beliefs which are creating issues in their life.

Why are you and many others re-living thoughts, emotions, conversations, maybe distorted perceptions of an innocent situation (and punishing yourself for it by reliving it all.the.time) and daily habits?  It is because you actually think the same thoughts every day over and over again.  Experts say that we think as many as 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts per day.  Of these thoughts, 95% of them are repetitive, highlighting we have thought them before.

Let’s consider a thought that I hear with new clients, “I am in pain and stiff.”  When we continue to repeat this negative, dis-empowering statement, we continue to heighten our brain to the pain.  We are unable to decipher between pain and other sensations.  Pain scientists have referred to these negative stories and statements as 'neurotags.'  To read more, check out my blog entitled How our mindset influences the perception of pain.  

I would like to delve deeper though.  You may start to make changes. However the changes may be short lived because the focus has been on the external approach, rather than looking somatically or internally. The decisions that you are making and the mindset approach to these decisions may still be under the influence of the original 95% subconscious actions.  You think you are aware of them but they are so instilled and “normal” that you cannot see it.  The reason for this is due to self preservation, organised by your amazing brain.  It is designed to prevent overload, so the more repetitive the actions are, the more likely they are to be stored away in your subconscious.  This amazing mechanism allows space for you to handle decisions fast that may be dangerous.

Interestingly, even stories, conversations or events that you may be prone to re-living from the past begin to alter when they are in your subconscious, according to how you condition your mind.  You begin to delete, distort or generalise information according to what you believe, allowing what you think is correct and “relevant” to be held back and used for future reference.  Your thoughts may be “I’m too old to change” or “my issues are complicated and nothing can help me” or “why isn’t this working for me and yet it is helping others?  What am I doing wrong?  This always happens to me.”  These expressions have a belief behind them.  Often when we are challenged, it can be quite confronting and as if a mirror has been put in front of us.  We can either take on that feeling and notice how it feels within or continue our conditioned behaviour of pushing it down, staying busy and trying to control everything.  These statements above can be associated with beliefs of frustration, fear, anger or loss of control.  When we pause and allow ourselves to feel the emotions and beliefs bubbling up, it stops us from reacting with negative or dis-empowering thoughts or actions.  For instance, did you know that over 70% of people have fear and not being good enough programmed into their subconscious mind for various reasons.  So trusting yourself to sit with feelings that are uncomfortable are tremendously powerful and allow you to start delving deeper into how you actually “tick.”

Within the Total Somatics online program, we delve deeper into these areas because Somatic movement is only one portion of our daily practice.  Within the online program and additional workshops for members, we are able to create focus and clarity, creating actionable steps to move forward.

Moving from subconscious to conscious

As we have considered, there are many times in our day that things happen automatically.  We don’t have to think about them.  Consider the daily habits you have each day and how at times you have to really consider if you did them that day! For instance, did you turn the iron off?  Did you lock the door?  Did you set the house alarm?  Or in the case of my friend, did you take your wallet off the top of the car (when juggling a few things into their car) before heading on to the motorway?  In that instance, it was No!!

Within Total Somatics Online, we begin to unpack these habits and behaviours because they play a huge role in the repetitive and recurring pain, movement and postures we hold, for instance.  Within the program and ongoing support, we dissect many areas to consider how they interrelate.  In a recent workshop, the online members started to understand how to create a conscious awareness practice to something that has become subconscious for so long.  After developing this awareness practice into their daily practice and lifestyle, they start to gain a deeper insight into their default habits.

For members:

If you are a member and to watch the recording back and to view or print out the workbook, follow the steps below to access it:

Log into the online program
Click on “Part 2”
Click on “Support”
Click on the tab “Recordings”

If you are a member, look out for an upcoming Q&A session with me, I’ll send details to the email that is linked to your Total Somatics sign in account.

For non members:

If you would like to learn more about Total Somatics online, join our wait list by clicking HERE.  We will let you know the next time we open the doors to our membership enrolment.

If you would like to learn more about Somatics, CLICK HERE for your free eBook.

For everyone:

If you would like to learn more about recovering from health events, recurring injuries and exploring different areas of mindset, listen to my podcast entitled Recovering from health events (season 2, episode 5) at www.ReallyWellWomen.com.

Have a good week.
Take care,
Heidi Hadley xx
www.TotalSomatics.com