A human brain works on ‘thought patterns’, which are nothing but ‘programming’ that has been indented into its neural network. You can easily observe a definite “pattern” in some of the thoughts that are produced in the brain.
For example, it’s possible that your brain is presently in the habit of creating a pattern of negative thinking, where it seems to give a negative flavor/connotation to all its interpretations. In this case your brain is subconsciously in the habit of looking at reality in a negative manner and at the root of all its negative thinking is a negative subconscious belief.
The problem with subconscious patterns, is that you take it for granted and believe that it’s the truth of who you are. However, the truth is that “subconscious” patterns are simply thought patterns that have been thought so many times that they’ve become ingrained as an “auto” mode of functioning.
You can become free of negative subconscious patterns in your mind, by becoming aware of them and dis-identifying with them through lack of interest/attention.
Identifying subconscious patterns in your mind
You must understand that subconscious patterns are always running in “auto” mode in the brain.
This is because at some point you took these patterns to be the truth of your life and invested belief in them to the point where they became “ingrained” patterns.
When you think a thought long enough, it automatically goes into “auto” mode because the neural pathways for this thought become strongly embedded in the neural network of your brain.
For example, when you learn to drive a car it’s a very conscious effort initially, but after a few months the patterns become so embedded in the brain that the whole action of driving becomes subconscious or “auto” mode.
Certain negative thoughts are running in “auto” mode in your brain, and these negative thoughts are usually the root cause of many negative perceptions and interpretations that you come up with in your daily life. Unless you identify and let go of belief in these subconscious negative thoughts, you will constantly be struggling with the negativity in your brain.
A simple awareness of the subconscious negative patterns is enough to start becoming free of them.
Subconscious patterns are not hidden from your consciousness
“Subconscious mind” is simply a term used to point to thought patterns that are running on “auto” mode due to past attention/belief.
These subconscious thoughts can be observed when you deepen your awareness of the mind. You can observe how these core thoughts are underlying many of your perceptions and interpretations. The only challenge is that because subconscious thoughts are running on “auto” mode, you may start taking them to be the truth of your life and make it a part of your identity. But remember that every subconscious thought was once a “new thought” that you ingrained and believed.
Some example of subconscious negative thoughts are as below:
- Good things never happen to me.
- I need to compete with other people to succeed in life.
- I cannot trust anyone.
- Life is never easy.
- It’s tough to make money.
- I am an incompetent person or a bad person.
- I am always exploited by others.
You could’ve taken in these thoughts at any point in your life, and they may be running on “auto” mode in your brain presently. These “core” negative thoughts end up coloring your perception of reality and hence create new negative thoughts constantly.
There is no truth to these negative beliefs
Remember that there is no truth to negativity because life does not support it. Negative thinking only serves to impede and resist the movement of your life towards well-being.
Allow your awareness to deepen and start seeing through all the subconscious negative patterns in your brain. Once you become aware of them, you can then start dis-identifying and dis-believing them.
Also, you should start allowing yourself to align with thoughts of your desired reality. When you keep thinking a positive thought about yourself, or your life, it will soon become subconscious in your brain, and will start running on “auto mode”.
Thank you for this info, I have always thought of myself as a positive person, and I am for the most part. I have been looking into thought patterns and the subconscious mind as I have been struggling recently and this really helps draw awareness to the power of the subconscious and what is defined as negative thought. 3 of the thoughts from your list are current to me and this really helps me identify my root problems!
Thank you 🙂
Quick question, my thought patterns about that damn ex are still pretty consistent, but the intensity behind them has waned, so I don’t “care” about her. However, there are still physical symptoms like anxious butterflies in my stomach or the tugging feeling like I should cry or feel terrible about that loss if I see her name or happen to come across an old email or something. When that happens, I am quite curious why this longstanding issue hasn’t gone away yet.
If I am at 50-60% done this release, shouldn’t this have gone away or are the physical symptoms just kinda here and there up until this point and then the intensity skyrockets until dissolution?
Michael, if there is a momentum of emotional/mental energy to be released it will come up (it will get unearthed through some events or situations), there is no way around it. The attitude of thinking “why am I not free fully yet” comes from a place of fear towards this momentum and is the opposite of the attitude of total allowing/openness. All the momentum does get released eventually in this state of allowing, and the intensity will keep ebbing away, but until it does it will keep coming up and you just need to ride it through.
maybe, u still have anger deep down u that u thought ur done releasing. (anger)
or u may have guilt in way back in your mind of what u should’ve done or didn’t do (guilt).
maybe u feel cheated n feel idiotic n like a piece of crap and feel bad about urself or hate her.(shame)(blame)
maybe u feel like u wouldn’t be able find the love u had..(lackful thinking) (feeling abandoned)
idk ur story but these were mine.
I still feel powerless with these emotions and I get lost in these thoughts n emotions. but reading the latest article about “inner power” has helped me a lot. I stand firm towards angry emotions/shameful thoughts instead of getting carried away..
my reply is very simply stated that I can’t describe the depth of the feelings n sensation felt.. but recently Ive been able to feel these avoided ‘negative’ sensations in me.. it doesn’t feel good but in a deeper sense I feel more in touch w myself and feel actually alive.. not numb..
Michael,
That’s normal. I also feel like that a few weeks ago. I read one of Sen’s reply, when we are done with 50-60% release, the ego force will lose control, and so the release will be felt stronger in intensity. I still have some negativity about my gf , but the intensity is greatly reduced, who knows next week I will experience the high intensity release again. Relax dude, when it’s done, it is done.
God bless you
If life doesn’t support negativity, what is the explanation behind something like a kid getting bullied and beaten up at school every day? I’ve read on here that negativity is only a perception (or something along those lines), but it’s not like the kid would say “that punch to the face will help me grow as a person.” Nobody would say that, so wouldn’t the situation be inherently bad?
I also think about people who consider themselves ugly being only a perception, but what if nearly EVERYBODY thinks that person is ugly? That certainly sounds negative to me, because while it’s a perception, being thought of as disgusting by the world would probably solidify a person’s reality. Trying to “own” your ugliness and be cool with it most likely wouldn’t go far if you’re severely disfigured (hunchback, dwarf, missing teeth, and the like).
At the moment, I feel like saying nothing is negative is a cop-out/delusion to try and cover up a genuine reaction. I suppose the mind has to perceive everything before the body responds, but if getting made fun of creates a bad feeling in somebody (nervousness, nausea, etc..) how and why is it natural/logical to apply good vibes to that? It reminds me of “The Secret” telling you to imagine yourself driving a luxury car until you get it, even if you’re poor, yet still trying to defy reality. I’m not referring to “life will guide you to your desires” or any teachings that make a bit of sense. I’m talking about total suppression and denial, eg. a homeless man expecting a mansion to come his way for no reason other than wanting it, and/or convincing himself that eating out of dumpsters is guiding him to enlightenment.
Jim, You are currently operating from an energy of “cynicism” or some form of “righteous indignation”, and so I am not sure if you would have the patience or the openness to understand any of this explanation. There are lot of people who exist in this mindset of “righteous indignation”, and they feel some sense of superiority over people who exist in the mindset of wearing “rose-tinted glasses” (gushing light-nature), however both these mindsets are equally imbalanced in their own way. So I would suggest that you first let go of being so identified with your current mindset and read this explanation from a place of openness.
The movement of life-energy has two aspects – light nature and dark nature, yin and yang. The terms “light nature” and “dark nature” are just two terms that I use to indicate the two contrasting movements that are inherent to life. I use the term “positive” and “negative” in a different manner that commonly used in self-help literature. When I use the term “positive” I use it to indicate the state of balance, where one has come to understand the light and dark nature of life and has allowed a balanced integration of both aspects in him/her – when I say “life’s movement is positive” I mean that the movement of life is always towards this balance (just like how a bowl of water naturally moves towards being settled when you agitate it). What I mean by “negative” is the state of imbalance, it could be an imbalance in light nature, or it could be an imbalance in dark nature – to be overly light-natured becomes negative, and to be overly dark-natured also becomes negative. In the example you use of a kid being bullied, the one being bullied would have aspects of meekness and thus has an imbalanced of light-nature, and the one bullying would have aspects of arrogance, or aggression, and thus has an imbalance of dark-nature. Imbalances tend to attract each other, until they get balanced.
However, I stopped using the term “positive” (since the older posts) most people are attached to some imbalanced perception of what it means (usually some idea of “pure light-nature”). Now I use the term “balance” to indicate the state of alignment/wisdom – and balance always indicates an alignment of light and dark nature in oneself.
Balance and imbalance are relative states – you can only define balance through the reference of imbalance. Balance is the absence of imbalance. To know what balance is, you must also know what imbalance is. To know what light is, you must know what darkness is – if light is all that you know, then you can’t know what light is. So I hope you understand that it’s the dark nature that allows the experience of light-nature and vice-versa, and both are needed for the sake of experience. Also, to know balance one has to go through a state of imbalance, all forms of imbalances, all ranges of imbalances, imbalances in light nature and imbalances in dark nature – after going through all forms of imbalances one can have the awareness to find a conscious balance. You can call this a limitation, but in truth it’s just a requirement. This is just the reality of life, there is no way around it.
Also, growth is the nature of life-energy. It cannot ever be static, it always is in a movement towards growth. You are made of the same life-energy and hence growth is an inherent nature in you. Even after you reach a state of balance, you still have to keep growing in aspects of expression/contribution/service etc – growth never stops because it’s just the nature of life-energy. Taking the example you gave of a kid being bullied, well if the kid continues to repeat the same pattern of meekness he will keep getting bullied/punched-around, because he’s not growing from that experience, he’s not learning – lets say that he decides to grow and understands that he has to find a connection with power (letting go of identification with imbalanced meekness), he can find a solution to his current situation of imbalance. Some of the most mature people in this world, who are respected and considered a hero can recount episodes of severe hardships in their life, and how their current sensitivity towards the pain of others comes from their own experience of pain, how their resilience comes from the fact that they were able to ride through the challenges to discover their inner power – these are not people who are wearing “rose-tinted glasses”, they understand that life is challenging, and yet they are not sitting in a state of powerless indignation, they are focused on growth. No-one is born a hero, no-one is born will all solutions, no-one is born challenge-free, we all have challenges and will always have challenges, the spirit of life is to find growth, to find solutions, to evolve – you have the right to complain about your challenges, and you can sit in a place of powerlessness and cry about it all, but eventually you need to answer the call of growth, it’s inevitable.
The problem with movies like “The Secret” is that they pander to the “rose-tinted” imaginations of deluded people who have this sense that once they manifest xyz they would reach a place free of challenges and can dwell in some state of permanent bliss. These kind of teachings give an imbalanced view of “living”, and focus primarily on the joy aspect without giving an understanding of the growth aspect which is just as important as a part of living.
If you really understand what I just wrote in the above paragraph you will see the reality of life for what it is. You will neither feel good about it, neither can you feel bad about it – that’s when you know you’ve come to a balanced perspective.
“Jim” a.k.a. my brother – There’s no applying any positive vibes to anything, including the examples you gave. The main point is letting go of the victim mindset behind it. “That punch to the face will help me grow” is obviously a fake inner reaction to the situation and would be an attempt to blanket out the dark nature of what’s going on.
I can’t think of any and I know you can’t think of any instances where sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself about xyz accomplished anything. The past several years of us bellyaching to one another about how boring the day was or how suicidal we were didn’t solve anything and just made it worse with that constant fuel.
You can ask for answers to the hypothetical situations, but you’ll keep coming up with more because you don’t want to let go of the bitterness you’ve accumulated. As for the ugly man you suggested, there are surgeries he could get to fix the more nagging problems, but attractiveness is subjective, just like you can see an “8/10” girl walking with a fat guy and wonder how he scored that.
Being viewed as unattractive and being harassed for it are different things, the latter being an attracted experience. Then again, even with the first one, looks are like the “movie poster” but you will like the “movie” (girl/guy) for the experience it provides and not for what got you to go after it. A lot of people can say to their S/O “You’re so gorgeous” and then months after the breakup, they can go “Damn, she is ugly, what was I thinking?”. Obviously that would be the case because they were in love with many things besides looks, which appeared to be enhanced through the other qualities.
Judging by your post as well as all of the lip I have to listen to at home, looks are the main thing you want to criticize and defend at all costs. The way people perceive you and react towards you are just indicative of your own state. If you were to have your mind go on all day about how short you are, you will likely hear someone comment on it in public, perhaps even really often and then go “See, I am short and people hate it”.
The way you look has little effect on your life, that is if you weren’t so identified with the hatred of it, which society has helped ingrain a so-called “right way to be”. Due to being your twin, I am quite aware of how you think. You want to be taller so people can commend you for it or just to be free of the short-shaming. The hatred for being short would change to hatred for something else – there’s no such thing as a mind that has enough.
You make $3000 a month off of a website, you’d want $5000. You get 2 weeks off work vacation, you’d want 3 weeks. You amass a collection of 1000 video games, you’d want 2000. Stop thinking the problem is with yourself or that the problem is out there, it’s the attention you give that belief that makes it worse.
Life doesn’t support negativity. A 10/10 supermodel is not going to fall on your lap because you *feel sorry for yourself*. That bully is not going to go away if you *cry about being a victim*. In fact, the only reason why you defend these stances so firmly is because of how much attention you give them as well as taking the outside reaction as further proof of how “bad” things are.
You claim to not want to live like that, yet as soon as you are informed of your ignorance, you claim it as an “attack”, thus going back to the victim mindset and continual pity party. Like I’ve said to you many times, BrainEv is quite useless if you don’t know what you’re doing. It will bring up past patterns for dissolving, but you keep identifying with them, so they don’t go anywhere.
Michael, your reply is so raw n true. I guess we stay in that pity party mode because we think we are ‘helpless’. but its that exact mindset that keeps meek ppl in that state for 3,10, or 20 years where we’re always looking for a crutch (meds,counseling, alternative therapy, religion, a person, a goal, self-help books, etc). when in fact only ourSELVES are the only one who can get us out of this state by realizing we are not powerless.
and start facing the reality that life is not always gonna be ‘joyful’ or always have nice/good ppl around us (breaking free from deluded mindset) and face the reality of having to deal w ‘rude’ ppl or situations.
only when I understood this ‘inner power’ to face all that dark nature reality was I able to really ‘allow’…
I allowed feelings (momentum) that’ll stir up inside when I perceive that someone dislikes or hates me. and I am slowly able to deal/face w ‘rude’ ppl without being terrified and without avoiding facing rude ppl at all cost.
I also allowed momentum stirred up when I perceive that ppl judge me ugly or see me as an idiotic or retarded person.
these are my biggest fears… ppl rejecting me, mocking me, or hating/disliking me.
Jim,
I read this book by Laozi, called Tao Te Ching. He mentioned that, “when people see things beautiful, ugliness is created. when people see things good, evil/bad is created” Do you see the point here? Good, bad, pretty, ugly, amazing, awesome, monstrous, etc. all of them is called “label”, the mind created this label. Our mind is taught to give label to almost everything (almost, because there are many things that human being doesnt know in the world, yet). Eckhart Tolle said, when you dont see things and labeling them at the same time, that is the time when you see with your own eyes. But when u labeling them, you see them through the mind glasses. You can notice it, find something near you, and see it, the moment you spot it, the mind will put a word onto it.
I am quite thin for a guy, and eventhough sometimes my mind brag about this, I never took it seriously (maybe I did but I didnt do it until it becomes OCD). Until now there is this desire to gain weight, and I tried several times, it’s not easy, so I give it up. I still have confidence in myself. I dont care what people, especially women thinks about my thin body.
Manifestation can happen only if we do something about it, take actions and it will happen when time comes. Life will never give you a mansion or a luxury car if all you do everyday is just sitting there, thinking about the mansion and the car, because the reality is, we need money to buy a car and to buy or build a mansion. And 2nd, if you have desire to have something, from which place is desire came from, any desires that comes from imbalances, are likely can’t be manifested, some can be manifested through hardwork or struggling, but once you get it, you will still feel the emptiness feeling. It’s totally different when your desire is come from balance state.
Growing up is a choice. Being bullied is one of the growth call. Before I was being bullied by a guy who was 3 times bigger than me, he kept punching me until I said stop, but he didnt listen, so I was consumed with rage and hit him in his face, he stopped. That time, I had 2 choices, stand up for myself or keep crying and accept being a punching bag. Every events that happen in our life has purposes, to make us a better human being. If that kid that being bullied can not see this 2 choices, then he will keep getting bullied till one day he can’t take it no more and stand up for himself.
Hope this help.
Thanks a lot for your two replies to me, Mark. Since I posted that comment, the intensity towards her was 0 then it picked up a tiny bit of steam. I started talking to some girl that watches my YouTube videos and I was like “No, no, not this damn online crap again” then tonight she told me she lied about her age, so I was like “Bye!”. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that, it was kinda odd how there wasn’t a big pull of anger, there’s just the pull of “why no pull of anger” from the ego.
Also, there’s a weird thing going on with food. Sen has said that your appetite may shift while you adjust to a higher vibration, so I’m not too concerned, but food is a little bit gross, I eat cause I have to, not really forcing myself, but when I’m done it’s like “bleh”. I feel you on being skinny, I definitely want to gain weight. The split used to be like 60/40 for gaining weight for myself and other people, but now it’s about 90/10. The past few weeks especially have given me a selfishness (not an egoic one) about making it all about me.
Like me tolerating lying from that girl wasn’t going to happen (it also conveniently gave me a way out of having to continue that chat), not having to please other people, not acting fake, etc. I can’t wait to see what else is gonna happen. Thanks for all your replies over the months, Mark, much appreciated.
Hello Sen,
I’m a teenager and a very positive person and I truly believe that by changing our negative thoughts inside our subconscious mind, we can achieve anything we want in life.
By the way, thanks for the great article you wrote there! I wish I could make my mother read this but I think she still wouldn’t believe me.
My mother is a very negative person and interferes a lot in my positive thinking since the subconscious mind seems to absorb easily the negativity than the positive thoughts. She doesn’t really seem to support me in my life dreams and keeps telling me that life isn’t like how I think and that I just dream too much and that I’m always in the clouds. “Life is hard and you have to work for it”, “Don’t dream too much, life isn’t like how you think”, “I’m not being pessimist, I’m being realistic” (when I tell her she’s being too pessimist)… These are some of the quotes she always keeps telling me and it really gets on my nerves. I try to avoid talking to her like I do with other negative people to not interfere with my positive thinking but sometimes it just seems difficult to avoid her and hear her saying those things.
What should I do when I’m with someone who always says this kind of negative stuff? I just tell them to keep their negativity for themselves and if it’s to talk about that, I quit the conversation but they just seem to not hear me. It’s really annoying!
Lara
Lara your mother is not negative, she is only expressing her particular views based on her experiences, and obviously her experiences made her feel that way. Life is hard for some people and smooth for others. Age also matters as older people usually have (or think they have) more and more obligations (which in most cases they put upon themselves). If you want my advice don’t go down that path – the quarreling, avoiding her, trying to push her away because of the effect she has on you, this will lead to further conflict and disappointment.
Don’t try to achieve the opposite either, like trying to understand her and feel compassion about her ‘pessimism’. Simply realize that everything in this life, is based on relationships. Furthermore family is the ultimate relationship that nourishes not one but all it’s members. Parents want to provide a secure environment for their kids, so it is natural (in a way) to feel overprotective and to want their kids to see things ‘realistically’. What is reality anyway? Isn’t it obvious that each one of us (billions of us) lives in his own reality? Some live beautiful lives and some live ugly lives. If you want to go deeper into it, ask yourself this: “why am I not affected by what a stranger says about me, or from the negativity of a person next to me in the subway”? Because I don’t carry it with me for more that two minutes. But with your parents and your loved ones, you spend together your whole lives. Pick the most positive person in the world… if you spend 30 days with him non-stop believe me you will end up in conflict.
What is important in every relationship is space. Like in meditation, you create inner space. But outer space is equally important. What is that part of ‘you’ that feels annoyed? Why do you feel annoyed? Is it perhaps because subconsciously you are being affected by what they say? Is there perhaps a part of you that feels that they may be true somehow? That life is hard after all? Because really, for them it may be true, it is their reality. So what is it that makes you feel bad, what is it that makes you accept their reality? Does their opinion violate you? Are you afraid that they are going to spoil your luck, your shine? Are you affected because perhaps deeply you are afraid? You see their opinions are merely a reverberation of acoustic waves travelling from their vocal cords to your ear … no word can make you feel bad, if ‘badness’ or ‘goodness’ is not within you. You see, your reaction to what you call ‘negativity’ is whining you, a part of you. It is like someone calling you ‘loser’. If you are a loser then most likely you’ll be offended, but if you are a successful person you’ll be deaf to the insult. Same applies to compliments, but that is another story.
Being affected by another person’s mood or opinion is not a bad thing. Listen to it (especially if it comes from a parent) and then don’t quickly accept it or reject it. Just let it be there, inside your mind, allow it to peacefully co-exist with all other thoughts of yours. See it like someone just asked you to hold a crying baby – yes it’s being negative, crying and all, but what do you do with it? Do you dump it and run away? Or do you nourish it in your arms? All this is about sensitivity – being able to communicate and take from others. It naturally evolves into compassion which includes ‘giving’ to others. Thought tends to be exclusive – to accept certain things and exclude all others that seem to pose a threat to that particular belief. But all conflict rises from troughs battling among themselves. Let life move on, naturally, and you’ll see that there is so much space, both within and without. You talked about ‘changing our negative thoughts inside us’ – truly you can do that and it may be a very uplifting experience, but what you can also try out is this: Do not change anything at all, simply let all your thoughts co-exist without identifying with some while you reject the others. Live in peace within and without, otherwise your subconscious mind will be like a big ‘concentration’ camp, where all negative thoughts are put to ‘be changed’ into ‘first class thoughts’. Truly, all thoughts inside your mind are ‘you’, be in peace.
I wish you all the best.
Lara- If you can look within side yourself your external reality is telling you something that you may be in denial of . If a person has the capacity to effect your thinking it shows that you still need to connect with you inner power. Their is a sense of lack on you part and this automatically reflects back to you in your external reality. What I pick up from your words is that you are trying to win your moms approval of you by wanting her support, when you are truly trusting of life you realize that your well being is not effected by one human being, hence you will not be shaking up by their non support of you. If you do get disturbed by how some one thinks it just means it is time to grow in that particular area. also you may be imbalanced in light nature thinking, this type of thinking has its roots in a rose tinted view. your mom probably is not being as negative as you think but is bringing in a dark nature perspective, which is already present in you but you may be suppression due to your fear of this nature. The negative feed back that you receive is to help unearth these dark nature traits that are within you and to accept them by not seeing them as negative, then you will be in a position to use your awareness to release them, then you can become whole and wont attract these negative responses from people on the outside . This balance will also help you not identify with victim thinking that ” everyone around you is out to hurt you because they are negative and you are the positive one”, actually these people are being used by your lifestream to help you grow . You can think any way you want that is you right, however try too to understand that you live in a shared reality were some people will naturally oppose to your way of thinking. This it is not a flaw on their part it just indicates that they are not compatible with you .Also when you become whole their is a wisdom operating in you will sense who to share you dreams with and who not too. Peace