Here’s my story:
You may be wondering why I’ve decided to set up this Website.
Many of us are striving for success in one form or another because underlying it all we have a picture in our minds that it will bring us the happiness that we all desire. I know I did. However, after many years in the wilderness, I now truly believe that only happiness in life counts, but that you have to be happy first irrespective of the current circumstances of your life. A happy state of mind is what will allow every human being on the Planet to fulfil our true God given potential.
I used to feel constantly anxious, worried and I can’t say I ever felt heart felt happiness. So in pursuit of happiness I’ve read every self-help book going, attended seminars, even bought the t-shirt with the inspirational quote and I’m still wearing it, etc… and quite frankly having spent all that time and money I still couldn’t find that heartfelt happiness I’ve been looking for. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s going down this road. Exhausted from all this endeavour I began to focus on the idea there must be a simple way to just get happy now. Ironically, I was inspired to just dance to a few happy songs every day. Guess what! I began to get happy and the happier I’ve got the more magic is happening in my life.
This is was a significant turning point in my life because I saw at first hand that the mind (my mind) had to be in a positive state before I could start to realise my dreams. From this experience I could only conclude that my mind must have been in a negative state of mind to start with. As I in looked into this further I began to understand my thinking to date was responsible for the current ‘state of my life’.
So how do we think? We think with the ‘brain’. So what does this major organ we house in our skull actually look like?
Probably the easiest analogy is to picture an iceberg where the visible tip is the conscious mind, and the invisible part underneath the water is the unconscious mind.
Freud (1915e) described the conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware. For example, you may be feeling thirsty at this moment and decide to get a drink.
The unconscious mind is like the unseen bulk of the iceberg under the water, which contains all of our lifetime experiences, our beliefs, our mind-sets, and our past learnings both good and bad. Examples include how to walk, how to talk, our fears, our phobias, etc. Once such learnings have reached the unconscious mind, you run on ‘automatic pilot’, which really is good news since you don’t want to have to learn how to walk every time you need to go from A to B. However, if you have a fear of spiders and you spot one in the bath, you may be liable to run out like a looney from the bathroom. Truth is, you can’t help it because your spider phobia has a grip on you in the form of your unconscious mind. Your unconscious mind is really far stronger than your conscious mind. Trying to go against your unconscious mind is like swimming against the tide—you’re fine for a short period of time, but gradually your strength/will begins to crumble and you just finally give in and go with what’s already programmed inside of you. In reality how you feel as a person moment to moment / your state of mind is governed by a number of unconscious thoughts that rule your world.
The unconscious mind is not a seat of reasoning or creative consciousness, it is strictly a stimulus-response device. When an environmental signal is perceived, the subconscious mind reflexively activates a previously stored behavioural response . . . no thinking required. For example, if I ask you the question – are you happy? In response to this question your mind will trawl though the filing cabinet of your mind (the unconscious mind) and will pull out all the examples of why you’re happy or unhappy. Thees memories will then either leave you in a positive or negative state of mind and you’ll answer either ‘yes I’m happy’ or ‘no I’m not happy’.
So what does this all mean to you reading this Website? The key is to not go against the unconscious mind; instead, work with it to let it give you what you want.
Getting the mind working with you requires you to learn what you want to be. In my view the first thing that we all need to learn to be is happy now irrespective of the circumstances of life we currently find ourselves in. From my personal experience once you have acquired a positive / happy state of mind you are better placed to realize your goals if you so desire and discover to your true God given potential.