Each morning you wake up to your daily life. Most of your activities will be on automatic pilot. You might not even remember doing some things, such as brushing your teeth, drinking your coffee or driving to work. Automatic pilot is a trance state that can be very useful for what is considered the habitual activities of life. After all, it would be exhausting to be aware of each and every moment that transpires. As one goes through life many new activities are placed on automatic pilot as their level of proficiency is raised. Learning to drive a car is a good example. In the beginning the student driver is hyper-aware of all aspects of driving. Once experience sets in, the driver may not be aware of driving from point A to point B. Of course, the subconscious mind is programmed to awaken the individual if danger is noted, or if the journey becomes rough for some reason. Perhaps new information or direction is needed.
Sometimes we forget to review habits, leaving them in their original automatic pilot mind file. It is a good idea to review these files, even before wake-up calls. This is a form of prevention, keeping free of many complications. Not paying attention to automatic pilot files can get you into trouble, especially if new information is needed or if the direction is off-course. Keep in mind that habits are re-etched in the subconscious mind each and every time they are performed. Some are very deeply ingrained, perhaps originating in early childhood. Some habits are triggered by emotional crayons, often as stress releasers, even if they are unhealthy. Smoking, sugar, food addiction, bingeing and alcohol fall into this habit category. If you think about how others manage stress, you will find things such as compulsive gambling and shopping to name a few.
It is especially important to review habits, especially those that are related to health outcomes. Once you begin to look in a focused way, many will come to your attention. Some may appear innocent, even silly, but that is an illusion. Take flossing your teeth for example. If a person does not pay attention to consistently flossing well, not only can teeth be lost, but the ongoing, often sub-clinical infections can lead to serious and even life-threatening diseases.
There is an additional benefit to paying attention to already formulated automatic pilot programs. They have self-discipline already ingrained through the continuous etching or repeating of the habit. Ingrained self-discipline is like gold waiting to be discovered, asking to be utilized in a creative way. You are now ready to capture this gold through the use of Pods. Pods are very special interactive self-hypnotic images that encourage the subconscious mind to participate in your life self-discipline.
Pods are like rooms that hold the particular discipline or activity. These can be automatic pilot activities or those that are especially important for initiating a lifestyle change, or for enhancing health and performance. They are particularly important for the management of disorderly eating and addictions. Health and performance Pods can include breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, teeth care, exercise, water, meditation. When you set and work with a Pod, the subconscious mind sees this as a very important focus and will work in a creative manner within the Pod. The inner mind will help program the mind for change, bringing forth details that might have slipped through the cracks. The subconscious will also make creative suggestions, some of which can be very serendipitous.
When Pods are properly set up for daily discipline, other areas of life will become disciplined as well, just as if the Pods were acting as role-models or active mentors for these other areas. Other activities seem to jump in between the daily discipline Pods, appearing to organize themselves in the same way as the neighboring Pods.
It is important to understand that the day is only "so long." The number of hours dedicated to awake activity are also limited. Most people build high levels of stress because they have too much scheduled, their "to-do list" is not properly constructed or both. It's not uncommon for someone to sit down with the daily to-do list and then to begin major procrastination. Some people read their list with an unfocused mind. Their eyes do the seeing, but the mind is simply not in residence at the same time. Goals that are not clearly defined or actively motivated seem to stay on shelves forever, leaving many wonderful and prosperous opportunities sitting lost in the shelf-dust. However, once the daily self-discipline Pods get going, they can dust off those lost gifts, working to bring them forward in new ways.
While everyone's Pods will be different, I highly suggest that you place your most important lifestyle needs in place on the time-line. Some of those suggestions are listed above. It's important to write these out in a similar sort of chart. Once the Pods are in place, it's important to know how to work with them in order to creatively activate the subconscious mind. The image below will help your own creative mind to get in tune with mine.
MIND EXERCISE
Take a moment to relax deeply. Remember, you want to slow your brain waves, turning off and releasing all stress chemicals. This is centering, making yourself ready for new mind programming.
Outside each Pod is a chair. I ask you to sit in the chair, inviting stillness to enter your mind and body. There are many ways to do this. A simple technique is to breathe from your lower belly, just as if it contained a balloon of any color you desire. I like to sense my body being gently pulled down by magnets. It is perfectly fine to be standing instead of sitting. The chair is simply a metaphor for centering before entering the Pod Room. I also like to enhance my centering by imaging a golden egg surrounding my entire body. As I tilt my eyes up about twenty degrees, I locate my mind screen. This is where I will communicate with my Inner Coach.
There are many different ways for me to communicate. I can choose images or place words or simply think word-thoughts or combine both. I can ask questions or ask for what I would like or need. I always communicate "as if " I already had what I wanted ", perhaps want to know more about it or how I obtained it. When working with daily self-discipline Pods, I might ask my subconscious mind how to make these better or how to highly motivate them. This works especially well when looking to re-program behaviors that are highly etched, such as disorderly eating or addictions.
Think of each Pod as a separate room that is only about the specific activity of choice. Everything in that room is related. While you will be familiar with many of the things in the Pod Room, there will be other things that are new to you, some of which you may not even be able to see clearly right now. You can also enter Pod Rooms just in the theater of your mind. This is especially useful when looking to highly create or to rehabilitate in a particular area that has been problematic in the past. Simply take some time to wander about, investigating whatever interests you. Allow your intuition to play out.
KNOWLEDGE HOOK
It’s time to replace old automatic pilot behaviors and patterns, many heavily etched in your subconscious mind. You will be placing new mind programs directly over these, etching them again and again. Some will be edited versions, others brand new, highly original multi-faceted patterns and behaviors. This etching action is called consistency. Perhaps you heard that word somewhere and have personally experienced how difficult it is to come by. That is only because you didn't know the four steps you are learning here. These new etchings will become your new automatic pilot programs.
In the beginning these will feel like new shoes, but after twenty days or so, they will flow quite easily. You already know about Pod Rooms and the communication chair that sits outside. You also know how to communicate with your subconscious mind. Below is a example of a daily self-discipline Pod Plan. Actually it's one of mine that I'm happy to share with you. When I design my plans, I have space for thirty days. I print this out and place it in my journal. Each day I enter the date and give myself a check mark after communicating and entering each Pod room. This is called focused re-etching. It is key to building a sound self-disciplined program.
My basic, daily self-discipline Pod Rooms are very well designed with what is needed for my high level health and performance. My subconscious mind often shows me new areas, as well as how to make things easier and better. This then connects to other areas in my life. The Pods are mentoring my other goals, building them into Automatic Pods.
It you have particular addictions, it is important to add Pod Rooms for these, for example for not smoking or not drinking. I happen to have a sugar free Pod Room. I may not put a check in it every day, but my subconscious mind knows that it is there and therefore motivates me in the right direction.
A NOTE TO NEW READERS:
This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" This book is not published as yet, but you have the opportunity to read it in it's unpublished state. If you are new to my writing, you might want to read the earlier mini-chapters. They are available on FaceBook, The PublishersMarketPlace & at the following link. Remember to scan down to find the earliest chapters & work your way up. http://beyonddisorderlyeating.blogspot.com/
A bit of background.... we are working with creative Interactive Self-Hypnosis imagery, planting suggestions directly into the creative subconscious mind as you read along. What appears like a story is a series of self-hypnotic sessions, designed to bring about desired lifestyle changes. The inner mind is creative & rather child-like, loving to play with images, especially when they are emotionalized. Just like the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", well-planted mind images, can be worth hours of therapy. We can actually change or motivate in 1/200th of a second. So come along & look forward to some lifestyle-changing events.
Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
May not be copied or reproduced without permission of the author.
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is author of Sugar...the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It. She is also the writer/producer of over 350 mp3/CD programs in the areas of medicine, health, prevention, addictions, self-development & sports for adults & children.
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