How your Self-Image Controls You?

You have a self-image ingrained from life experiences during childhood. People around you play a massive role in how you become who you are today. In fact, around the age of 5 it is said that you are using about 80% of your creative potential but by the age of 12, this potential can drop to about 2%. This is because we are educated to live in a world of conformity. We have to follow certain rules and certain ways. From school to university we are advised to think a certain way and to give the answers that will allow you to pass your grades. And not to ever question authority and use our own wisdom and intuition.

Studies say, by the age of 18 you’ve been told NO around 145,000 times. Do you think this would have some impact on your self-image?

This is why certain projects/decisions you undertake in life fail. Not because of the mechanics of the project or that you made a bad decision, but because your self-image rejects it subconsciously, even if it is a profitable idea. It is therefore so crucial in the development of your life’s success to understand the implications of your self-image.

As Jim Rohn once said, your self-image can dictate your bank balance, behaviour, knowledge, career, relationships and most aspects of your life. So whatever results you’ve been getting are directly proportionate to your self-image. And you can certainly do something about changing your results by changing and understanding your self-image.

You are born to win because your spirit is not limited by form or physicality. You might have heard the popular statement that ‘you are a spiritual being living a human existence’.

Your brain cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined. Which means, all you need to do is feed yourself better software if your current software isn’t serving you. Your software is your thoughts, your habits and your rituals. Change these and you change your life and your new self-image becomes the new you as it gets imprinted in your subconscious. Your subconscious mind controls almost every aspect of you and your life. It operates at around (estimation only) 20-40 Million bits of data per second (some say the whole brain processes 400 billion) whereas the conscious mind operates at around 40 bits of data per second (so approximately 500,000 times more than the subconscious).

So if you think you are actively and consciously making most of your decisions, behaviours and emotional experiences, you need to think again. You’re on autopilot about 95% of the time. Which means only 5% of the time you are cognitively conscious of your actions. And guess what, 5% is generous and is more related to people who are more self-actualised, which means the majority of the population may in fact be operating less than 5% of their potential.

Can you see how much of your actions, emotions and decisions are programmed by your previous choices and behaviours? These were in fact set in your physiology before you reached 6 or 7 years of age?

Science now shows that not even your genes dictate your traits, but rather they are controlled and manipulated by how your mind perceives and interprets your environment and the experiences around you (check out Dr. Bruce Lipton’s work on Epigenetics).

Here’s a common example of Self-Image controlling you:

No matter how hard you try to lose weight, you just can’t seem to shift it. Did you know until your brain (cybernetic mechanism) can see you visually being skinny or slim or the weight of your choice, you will not shift your weight. You need to change your thoughts on how you see yourself before you can change the outside because your self-image only see’s an overweight or obese person (for this you might want to check out Bob Proctor’s work)

So if you’ve been living a life of worry, depression, anxiety, fear, failure and low self-esteem, you now know there is a great deal of positive reinforcement that you can implement to which can help you change your current state and achieve new results. Some of the best ways to help you start changing your subconscious beliefs are writing down your goals, writing a gratitude journal, mindfulness activities (such as Meditation, Qi Gong, Tai Chi) and see your local acupuncturist and find out how they may be able to help you.

“You cannot outgrow the limits you impose upon yourself”.

Change your thoughts, change your life.

Regards Dr Sohial Farzam (Doctor of TCM).

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