How Our Minds Are Programmed

Take a moment to think about any of those negative thoughts or unwanted behaviours you’d like to get rid of. You’ll quickly realise that you don’t consciously set out to indulge in them. Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides they want to be unhappy or anxious or depressed.

Those attitudes and feelings come from your unconscious mind – that part of your thinking behind the curtain of your conscious awareness - and usually when some memory or experience or event triggers them off.

And if you think further about them, you’ll realise they mostly follow a similar pattern.

The reason for this is simple. It means that over the years you’ve programmed these behaviours into your mind as automatic responses to certain triggers.

Even behaviours like smoking or over-eating are mostly automated responses. The phone rings and you automatically reach for a cigarette. You get halfway through the morning and you automatically think of a cream cake or chocolate bar.

And there are plenty of other self-limiting behaviours we perform without even thinking about them.

You try to make conversation with someone of the opposite sex and you find yourself becoming suddenly tongue-tied.

You find yourself getting overwhelmed with work piling up and problems to solve, and it all seems so much easier to put things off until another day.

A memory comes to mind of some sad or bitter experience in the past, and you find yourself becoming miserable and depressed.

None of these things mean there’s anything wrong with you. Simply that you’ve taught your mind to run bad programmes on yourself.

We all have a personal ‘behind-the-scenes’ identity which we call our unconscious self-image. This is the part of our mind that, through years of conditioning, computes how we should act and feel in all kinds of different situations.

Most of the responses were developed back in childhood, to cope with what seemed then like demanding or threatening situations.

And though now we can evaluate those situations with our mature, adult minds, the child-formed responses are still there – and they’re anything but rational.

Most of the time they happen before you know what’s going on. An event triggers off the response, and the automated behaviours take over your mind.

So what’s the answer?

Easy. Most often it’s a simple as changing the link between the trigger and the old behaviour.

Through hypnosis and other techniques, we help you programme in vivid sensory representations of a new “you” - a you that’s bold, confident, assured, in total command of the situation and absolutely free of the old behaviours.

That way, you “overprint” the old behaviours. And then, when the trigger happens, instead of going down the old route you automatically switch over to the new behaviour.

But can it possibly be that easy – and that fast?

Well, yes and no, depending on the situation. But most likely a lot faster and a lot easier than you might ever have imagined.

At the Milton Clinic we have a whole choice of proven solutions.

Generally, we’ll settle you into a comfortable and relaxing light trance state. (Don’t worry, we won’t get you acting like a chicken – it’s just to distract and quieten your chattering conscious mind.)

And then we’ll use one or more techniques to help you encourage your own imagination to create the new positive imagery for yourself. Sort of like day-dreaming with a purpose.

Then after a few days, the new positive imagery filters right through your inner unconscious mind, bit by bit changing those old responses.

This might sound absurdly simple, especially if some of those behaviours have been causing you real problems.

But the fact is, once you change your internal mental imagery (and your expectations about the way you respond to the different triggers), you really can start to take control of your mind and begin leading the kind of life you’ve always wanted.

And it’s as easy as sitting back and relaxing – and letting your unconscious mind do the work.