* Credit: Derrick
At the moment I am reading a book called Do what you love and the money will follow by Marsha Sinetar. I have found it interesting to read about how the actions have an impact on the internal pictures we hold in our minds. One of the things I have always assumed was that it was a matter of positive thinking to focus your mind on a goal. Perhaps though (as I am sure most of you already know), there is a deeper reciprocal relationship between what we think and what we do. One that we may never fully comprehend. In particular, how do actions influence our unconscious minds?
If we have positive thoughts and our actions don’t match…
What fascinated me about what I read was that the symbols we hold to in our mind are confirmed by the actions we take (so the author said). So if we have a certain perception of business for example, our actions should reflect this inner belief.
When they don’t match we experience a form of what we call cognitive dissonance. When we act against our inner beliefs we feel a churning in our gut or at least we should. If we do this for long enough… what happens? Our hearts become hard and we lose ourselves. Here is an example that might help:
Say you you have a goal to be a leader. You visualise that goal, you see yourself doing it and being what you want to be. Most self-help (Christian or otherwise) will tell you to do this. You take confirming actions to line up with your vision and eventually you begin to move towards ‘realisation’ of that goal. Apparently, it’s a one way process that’s ‘intentional’. But what if it isn’t? What if the visioning process works both ways? Images float into our unconscious to and fro and whether we like it or not we are always doing it!
What if we get these goals from other people?
What I think the author is alluding to which I didn’t realise was this: I can be brainwashed to the point where I can believe unconscious things about myself that other people are affirming. No big revelation is it? However, it does mean that visioning could very well be a two way process. Thoughts can come to me from the outside and build a nest in my unconsciousness! I have received external information, which I can process into a belief that resides on the inside.
People who have ‘visioned’ have often reported this process. A process by which they suddenly realised and begin to expect something to happen to them based on a vision they created. Delusional? Some of the greatest achievements started this way. This external confirmation is mysterious. I have experienced moments like this myself. There is however something I think we have ignored in western culture that involves an inner knowing. Even scientifically we have a code (DNA) that guarantees we have certain biases.
The other problem we have is that our unconscious minds also contain our desires
So while we may have desires programmed into us we can actually know our desires. The things that stir us and the things that are natural giftings to us. As Billy Joel says… you just recover when another belief is betrayed. The world has conflicting beliefs running through it… beliefs that people are adjusting too constantly. As these beliefs intersect and create new ones which are adapted, maintained and developed (or destroyed) newer beliefs emerge. For example, my parents believed in getting married early and having children. Most people today have a different belief. Therefore the confirmation through actions is entirely different.
We confirm our beliefs through our experiences the author of this book argues. That is, the actions we take send a message back to our unconscious that we are serious. In the same manner that an ‘affirmation’ sends a positive thought out… actions send the thought as a received symbol back into the unconscious that, “hey I am really doing this”. So there is a reciprocal relationship between the unconscious mind, the mind and the actions we take. We knew that. What I didn’t realise, because I am a very slow person, was this: the actions act as symbols to my unconscious mind that I am prepared to act on unconscious thoughts. That is, the real me deep down there that’s trying to get out is looking for confirmation. You will feel this when you do it… it’s like nothing else I have ever known.
Therefore, as I find something about myself on the inside and begin to develop it… I am developing the real me and I will find a level of joy in what I am doing. If I don’t do it… I will find a level of discomfort, depression and perhaps even sickness. I found a similar out by watching my children.
They often play and do things they want to do. You hear them making their own little worlds and building realities to engage in. They will pick up a pen and draw, they will paint or sing. Who told them to do that? Nobody. It came from their inner being. I encourage my children to be creative and follow these inner desires (now) because I have begun to realise that we already know what we want… the problem is it’s buried under layers of wrong thoughts and teachings. Now to get the bugger out… that’s the trick 
isn’t it?
Where there is no level of unconscious awareness the conscious mind begins to build maps
So where no unconscious belief is found… your mind goes about building one. If you say, “I am agnostic about God” that is your map… your belief. If you value science over religion… your mind will affirm as much. The opposite is probably the case. That belief can be thought of as a castle that sits in your mind dominating your conscious thought. Try and change it. Make yourself say things you don’t believe and notice what happens. Something on the inside gets you. You start getting shirty! Why? The map you have in your mind is now attached to the unconscious you and is seeking confirmation from the outside world.
That thought you had might have been fed to you from books, television, people and/or whatever. The question I always ask is this: how did that perspective form itself? Another post for another day! These things are the hidden assumptions we shape our lives with. And as much as we know some beliefs are clearly bad for us.
In closing this rather obscure post I would like to say this: I am starting to think that my relationship with myself and the world around is non-linear and bi-directional. So much so that when we speak of ‘intentions’ and the desire to manifest new realities for ourselves we are almost always speaking of a shift in belief first leading to action that confirms to our unconscious that we are serious about it. I am not a psychologist… but I have noticed that when a belief changes in someone’s life (a deep seeded belief) people’s actions almost always change… at least for a while. So, action taking is important as it confirms that you are prepared to live from your true desires. The question is: are we as people prepared to begin walking down this path?
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