Understand How The Mind Works

Once you understand how the mind works, you will be on your way to making major changes in your life.

The conscious mind is our short-term memory.

It is the logical, reasoning, decision-making part of the mind. It's the part of our brain that controls our will-power. In order to make positive changes and become mentally fit, we need to be consciously aware of the need for change, be motivated to get better, and believe we can achieve our goal. The conscious is the part of the mind that is in-charge. It makes up about 12% of our brain-capacity.

The subconscious mind is our long-term memory.

It makes up the other 88% and it always hears, always pays attention and is anxiously awaiting instructions on how to help the proper way. It is the most powerful computer ever created, capable of running multiple tasks simultaneously. It does not judge, criticize, analyze or reject. It simply records and reacts. It does not understand, does not have a sense of humor and it takes everything literally.

The mind is like a computer. The subconscious is like the operating system, always on, in the background, doing all the basic functions that we don't have to "think about" such as breathing, walking, etc. The subconscious doesn't know the difference between fact and fiction; it just stores information and reacts according to the information stored.

Everything to the subconscious, whether real or imagined, is a FACT.

The conscious mind meanwhile, is in the foreground executing our behavior. This is where we get our "will-power".

Between the conscious and the subconscious is a sort of filter, called the "critical mind". (You probably know it as "critical thinking".) This filter helps to protect us, keeping us from taking in information that is incorrect or negative, sort of like our own personal little Spam-filter. Sometimes, however, negative or incorrect information slips through this filter and goes into our subconscious. Once it is in the subconscious, it is locked in and is very difficult to change, at least on the conscious level.

If we want to change a behavior, we just need to "hack in" to the subconscious and modify the existing belief system (reprogramming the operating system).

We do this through Hypnosis.

How many times have you tried to do something that required Will-Power, only to fail? It doesn't mean that you're weak. You see, the conscious mind, where Will-Power and Reason come from, only uses up approximately 12% of our Brain-Power. The other 88% comes from the subconscious.

While in hypnosis, the critical mind gets placed in the background, allowing the subconscious mind to open up and accept positive suggestions (like turning off the spam-filter to allow a specific program to download onto your hard-drive). In this way, we can "download" new suggestions into your subconscious to change your way of thinking, therefore helping you to achieve your goals!

It's very simple really. Once a suggestion is "downloaded" into the subconscious mind, it is considered a "known fact".

We often use self-suggestion in our everyday lives, many times without even realizing we're doing it. You see, it all has to do with the way that we perceive ourselves to be.

Our subconscious mind is innocent and naive. It tries to protect and help us as much as possible, and tries the best way it knows how. However, having the intelligence level of approximately a four year old child, many times it does not help us the proper way and needs to be redirected.

This is where hypnosis comes in. Hypnotherapy is a highly effective means of achieving habit control to correct problems.

Edited excerpt from The Reason Diets Don't Work by Sheila Kharfaoui