Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

“With practice, this type of awareness can help you override what would otherwise be the predetermined destiny of your brain and body—the automatic, enslaving hardwired programs of the mind and the memorized emotions that have chemically conditioned the body.”

To fix something, you need to understand what is not working within you. You must know the problem before you can have power over it. As you develop the skills of contemplation and self-observation, you are cultivating the ability to identify the subconscious programs that have defined your old self. 

For the first time, you are becoming conscious of what was once unconscious. This is the first step toward personal change.

“Since memorized feelings condition the body to be the mind, these self-limiting emotions are responsible for your automatic thought processes, which create your attitudes, which influence your limited beliefs (about self in relationship to everyone or everything), which contribute to your personal perceptions.”

When you have a thought, the body releases chemicals that cause you to feel a certain way. This feeling then influences how you think and act. It is a repetitive cycle of thinking and feeling, feeling and thinking. 

For example, stress hormones stimulate survival-related states of mind. Most of our behaviors and choices then align with these feelings.

This is how the cycle goes: When you’re angry, you’re frustrated; when you’re frustrated, you hate; when you hate, you judge; when you judge, you’re envious; when you’re envious, you’re insecure; when you’re insecure, you’re competitive; when you’re competitive, you’re selfish. 

Alternately, elevated emotions stimulate elevated states of mind. When you’re joyous, you love; when you love, you feel free; when you’re free, you’re inspired; when you’re inspired, you’re creative; when you’re creative, you’re adventurous, and so on.

So, when you start to unmemorize an emotion that is a big part of who you are, it starts a cascade of changes. When you start unmemorizing anger, all the other self-limiting emotions will also decrease within you. You’ll be less frustrated, hateful, judgmental, envious, and so on.

“You develop a relationship with this greater intelligence, telling it who you have been and what you want to change about yourself and admitting what you have been hiding.”

Let’s say you want some joy in your life, so you ask the universe for it every day. However, you’ve also memorized suffering into such a state of being that you whine all day long, hold everyone responsible for the way you feel, make excuses for yourself, and mope around feeling sorry for yourself. In this case, your mind and body are in opposition.  

Being vulnerable by owning up to who we really are and asking to be accepted is challenging! But we can’t change what we don’t acknowledge. When we admit our faults and failures to our higher power, there is no judgment, punishment, or rejection as it is the energy of unconditional love and understanding. 

This higher power can be called chi, divine mind, spirit, God, quantum, universal intelligence, or something else meaningful to you. This spirit is an unlimited source of power within and around you.

“When you unmemorize the negative emotion of your personality, you eliminate the destructive unconscious behavior.”

To change an unwanted limiting emotion and state of mind, you must become completely conscious of the daily, habitual thoughts and actions that make up that state of mind and body. 

Then, you need to remind yourself about aspects of the old self that you no longer want to be. You need to become so familiar with yourself “being” the old personality, including the precise thoughts you no longer want to give power to and the exact behaviors you no longer want to engage in. This way, you won’t revert to your old self, finally freeing yourself from the past.

“Throughout your day, as limiting thoughts and feelings come up, observe yourself and automatically say “Change!” out loud; hear this—instead of the old voice(s)—as the loudest voice in your head. When that happens, you will be ready for the creation process.”

We form ‘associative memories’ over time; repeated exposure to something in our environment produces an automatic internal response in the body, leading us to perform automatic behavior. 

This explains why change is so difficult to make. If we see a person, hear a song, or remember an experience, our body immediately reacts to a past memory which brings us back to the same personality. Suddenly, we begin to think, act, and feel in old predictable, automatic, memorized ways. 

As you gain conscious control over your thoughts (even those triggered by an environmental cue), you move away from your predictable destiny of thinking the same thoughts and performing the same actions, which create the same reality. 

This redirection takes place at the moment to prevent yourself from behaving unconsciously. You stop yourself from activating your old programs, and you biologically change - weakening the connections between neural networks that make up your personality. 

When you master the skill of redirecting yourself, you build a solid foundation to create your new-and-improved self.

“..if you say to yourself, “I didn’t feel like it today; I’m too tired; I have too much to do; I am busy; I have a headache; I’m too much like my mother; I can’t change; I want to get something to eat; I can start tomorrow; this doesn’t feel good; I should turn on the TV and watch the news,” and so on; and if you allow those subvocalizations to take the stage of the frontal lobe, you will invariably get up as the same personality.”

It’s time to create a new, greater expression of you. Read or learn about great people who represent your new ideal. Reflect on the person you want to be and the life you want to have. You must practice creating a new mind by repeatedly rehearsing a new ideal self until it becomes familiar to you.

Over time, the new you will become natural, automatic, and subconscious. By practicing daily meditations, contemplations, rehearsals, a firm intention, and conscious attention, you will create a new state of being and a new future. 

Repetition will recondition your body to a new mind and signal your genes in new ways. You won’t have to think about being it; instead, you will become it. Emotionally rejoice in your new future before it becomes a reality and fall in love with the vision of who you are becoming.

“Surrender requires that you give up what you think you know from your limited mind, especially your belief about how this problem in your life should be taken care of."

What if you knew that the issues you’re facing right now would be completely taken care of? What if you were certain that something exciting was about to happen to you? If you knew it without a doubt, there would be no worry, no sadness, no fear, and no stress. You would look forward to your future, and your behavior would reflect your excited anticipation.

To truly surrender is to let go and trust in an outcome you haven’t thought of yet. To allow this loving intelligence to provide the best solution for you. 

It means joyously giving up the emotion we want to let go of. When we feel joy, we have already accepted the future outcome we want as a reality. When we do this, the universe will organize our life in a way that is just right for us.

“Bond with your future as if it is yours, without any concern other than expectancy and celebration.”

What do you want? Do you want healing in some area of your body or your life? Do you want a loving relationship, a more satisfying career, a new car, or a paid-up mortgage? Do you want the solution to overcoming an obstacle in your life? Is it your dream to write a book, send your kids to college, climb a mountain, learn to fly, and be free from addiction?

To achieve this new reality, you need an elevated state of mind and body with greater and more coherent energy; in love, joy, self-empowerment, and gratitude. Then, consistently make choices to match your behavior with your new state of being. See the future with certainty, without doubt, or judgment. Becoming a new personality produces a new reality; when you are someone else, you will naturally have a different life. 

When your life begins to unfold with new and wonderful events, you will be in awe, wonder, and utter wakefulness, especially when you realize your mind created them.