“The Devil Makes Me Do It!”

By Gayle North, CH
Positive Change Coach

"I've described the power of the subconscious mind, but I want to emphasize that there is no need to consider the subconscious a scary super-powerful, Freudian font of destructive "knowledge."  In reality, the subconscious is an emotionless database of stored programs whose function is strictly concerned with reading environmental signals and engaging in hard-wired behavioral programs, no questions asked, no judgments made. " -  Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief

Do you wonder why it is so difficult for you to change your unhealthy habits with food, tobacco, gambling, shopping, internet pornography, or alcohol?

Do you find yourself repeating unhealthy patterns over and over even though you know that you are hurting yourself physically, emotionally, and/or financially by the behavior? Who is pulling your strings?  Who is pushing your buttons?  What makes you sabotage your good intentions?  I have had clients tell me it's almost as if, "The devil makes me do it." 

Look first to your mind. You know that your mind has two aspects: your conscious mind and your unconscious mind.  Together they are a dynamic duo! The conscious mind can think forward and backward in time while the subconscious is always operating in the present moment. 

If you are using your conscious mind to daydream, or create future plans, or thinking about something from the past, then your subconscious mind is on duty managing your behaviors without the need of conscious supervision.  You can count on it.

Bruce Lipton gives this example in his book, The Biology of Belief: "  Operating together, the conscious mind can use its resources to focus on some specific point such as the party you are going to on Friday night.  Simultaneously, your unconscious mind can be safely pushing the lawn mower around and successfully not cutting off your foot or running over the cat—even though you are not consciously paying attention to mowing the lawn."

Even though the two minds together are truly a phenomenal mechanism, here is how it can go awry.  The conscious mind is the "self": the voice of our own thoughts.  It can have great visions and plans for a future filled with love, health, happiness and prosperity.  However, while we focus our conscious attention upon those happy thoughts, who is running the show?  It is the subconscious that manages our routine affairs—precisely the way it was programmed to perform.  When we are not paying attention, the subconscious mind's behaviors may not be of our own choosing because most of our fundamental behaviors were downloaded during childhood and adolescence before we developed discernment.  

The behaviors and beliefs acquired in your past may not support your conscious mind goals or health.   Imagine what life would be like if our subconscious minds had been programmed in a culture of highly evolved, conscious, loving parents as well as a community of teachers and people who served as exemplary life-models who always expressed the most humane win-win philosophy.

Unfortunately, this happens for very few if any of us—and you can kick the jukebox when it doesn't play what you want it to, but it won't help.  And you might as well realize that the subconscious mind will not change a pattern or habit just because the conscious mind yells, or criticizes, or pleads for a change.  Engaging in any kind of a battle with the subconscious mind is as pointless as kicking the jukebox to "make" it change its play list. Your Unconscious Can Only Replay Your Old Habits!  That is its job!

Habits with food: When you were small, did your Grandma console you with cookies? Did some authority figure make you clean your plate before you were allowed to have desert?  As a consequence, years later, you continue to look for those cookies when you feel hurt or frustrated. You still clean your plate even though it may no longer be a good thing for you.

Let's look at smoking:  Most people try smoking when they are young.   Some of us persisted through the coughing, sputtering, dizziness, burning eyes—not to mention the awful taste—and repeated this behavior until the unconscious mind said, “OK, let’s download it and make it an automatic habit.”  From that moment you have become a “smoker”.  After it gets "downloaded" to the subconscious, even if you swear to yourself that you will no longer smoke, odds are that you will still find yourself wanting to reach for another cigarette because the conscious mind is no longer in control.  

The good news is that empowerment technologies are available today that make it easier to change the programs in your subconscious mind.   Some of the methods can be self applied and some require the assistance of a trained practitioner.   


Visit  www.PositiveChangeInstitute.com  for other articles. Call Positive Change Institute at (406) 837-1214 or to schedule a free consultation.

YOU CAN! Make Up Your Mind Now

By Gayle North

If you are still smoking or chewing tobacco, you probably do plan to stop in the future. Most people do stop, sooner or later.

Maybe you are waiting for a vague “something” to help you make up your mind. I hope this article will assist you to do just that – make up your mind. Because you can use your foresight and stop now before you burn up any more of your precious money and before the tobacco poisons do any more damage to your body, --- or you can wait for hindsight.

Ray Price waited until his hindsight took over. You may have seen his picture and the article about him on the front page of the Daily Interlake a few years ago showing him with the oxygen tube he had to wear all the time. Ray waited until his lungs were irreversibly damaged by emphysema to stop smoking. He said at one point he was using a nebulizer and puffing away on his cigarettes at the same time! His friend "the cigarette” cost him his beloved golf game, his breath, even the ability to shower himself, -- and then he made up his mind.

It’s was too late for Ray to recover his health but he stopped the poisoning and use the last three years of his life promoting programs to help people to stop smoking.  Appearing at schools wherever he could, his health permitting, he’d show kids what smoking did to him.

Johnny Carson’s death has been in the news, too, with a lot of commentary about his smoking habit. Even fame and money couldn’t provide an escape from the ravages of the habit. He had everything a person could want in life – except the health to enjoy it. His friend "the cigarette” slowly took it all away.

Smokers in denial about the dangers of their habit may point to elders who have used tobacco their entire life with, seemingly, no ill effect. But people who smoke into old age and die a natural death are extremely rare. The general consensus from 20 years of studies and research is that cigarettes are killers.

More Americans will die prematurely this year from smoking than all the Americans killed in 24 years of battle deaths from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War combined! Talk about chemical weapons of mass destruction!

The Center for Disease Control now says that on average, adult men and women shorten their lives by 13.2 and 14.5 years of life, respectively, by smoking.

The CDC also says that each pack of cigarettes results in $3.45 in medical costs down the road and another $3.73 in lost productivity. If we combine these costs with the $5.45 you pay at the local store, the cost for a pack of cigarettes is actually a whopping $12.63! And you already know about the other hidden costs of increased insurance premiums, damage to clothing, furnishings, and risk of fire.

If you smoke one pack a day for another month, you’ll be another month older, you will have wasted another $215 of your money, and you will have poisoned yourself with 600 more cigarettes - and your excuses will probably still be there. In a year that’s $2,400 and another 7,200 doses of cigarette poison.

If you smoke two packs a day, you can double those figures. Why not make candles out of your dollar bills and burn 10 of them each night? You could have some fun - and you won’t be poisoning yourself or suffering the high hidden costs.

Or you can wait until you earn the right to say “I wish I could have a second chance – I wish I would have known what I know now.” The cost of smoking can be computed financially, physically and emotionally, and your costs grow with each passing day.

Whatever your reasons for waiting – you know they are just excuses. Your loved ones who are increasingly concerned about you wish they could make up your mind for you – but they can’t. Only you can do this for yourself. Why not make up your mind and stop now?! Help is available. There are lots of ways to go about it – as we will explore in the next issue.

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Gayle North  offers Personal Coaching for Positive Change using recently developed empowerment technologies to clear mental and emotional blocks that keep people stuck in unhealthy habits and prevent them from performing at their highest potential  in school, sports, relationships, work and finance. Call 406-837-1214 to learn how you can STOP SMOKING IN ONE HOUR and for coaching in person or by phone.