can probably imagine we had some explosive arguments as I tried to assert my independence as a
hormonal teenager! I love my mother dearly and we get on great today. I also recognise that her fear for
my safety and wellbeing was because she cared and loved me so much that she didn’t want anything
bad to happen to me. In fact, her over-protection probably served me well at the time considering I was
pretty hyperactive as a kid! However as I became more self aware in my mid twenties, I recognised how
I had inherited my Mum’s belief that I had to be overly cautious in order to remain safe. So the result
was I found it very challenging to venture out of my comfort zone and embrace new experiences.
Subconsciously I was worried about my ability to remain safe and look after myself; I was running an
outdated belief system. Of course being overly cautious was never going to serve me as an adult or an
entrepreneur. Once I recognised where this outdated belief had come from I worked on updating it to “I
can handle myself in any situation”. Every so often I get echoes of my Mother’s voice saying “Be
careful!” But on the whole I now believe I can trust life and handle the things it brings my way.
For us to create an internal life that supports what we want our external life to look like, we need to
increase our awareness of our core belief system to see whether it is helping or hindering us. You can
start by reflecting on the 4 questions below:
1. What beliefs and ways of being have you inherited from your parents and childhood upbringing?
2. What areas of your life are currently not as you would like them to be?
3. What behaviours do you have a tendency to adopt in those areas?
4. What must be the beliefs that are driving those behaviours?
Our Conscious and Subconscious Minds
As our core beliefs are held in our subconscious
mind, we can only update them when we become
conscious of what they are and how they are limit
us. Generally speaking we can define our
conscious mind as the thinking part of ourselves
that is associated with our personal identity.
Typically it involves our logic, intellect, rational and
decision making. It is the version of ourselves we
show to the world on a daily basis. Our
subconscious mind on the other hand is where our
programmed / learned behaviours, responses and
actions reside. The majority of our mental and emotional reactions are processed in the subconscious
mind which subsequently drives how we engage with the world.
To understand how susceptible we are to programming during our earlier years, it is helpful for us to
understand how our brain functions, this will also help you to understand the powerful belief changing
technique I will share with you shortly. The image on the next page shows you four brainwave patterns
which are associated with varying levels of consciousness. We spend most of our waking lives in the
Beta brainwave state, it is our active consciousness. It has a high electronic frequency (14-30Hz) and is
associated with our ability to concentrate. Unfortunately, it is also linked with some undesirable
qualities such as stress, anxiety and dis-ease in the body. Alpha is a lower frequency brainwave (8-
13.9Hz) and is associated with a more relaxed state of being and our ability to learn. It is the first of the
3 programmable states of mind; at this level we begin to access the unconscious mind. Theta
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