And the Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Are you truly aware of how powerful your thoughts are? Yes, we’ve all heard the phrase “mind body spirit” before but perhaps you’re like me when I didn’t grasp a full understanding of what that meant towards a holistic approach to health until I began to learn more about it and experience it.
A few years ago, when I was reading and watching materials on mindset for business I came across a book that started to change the way I think about well, what I think. It’s called “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind”, by Joseph Murphy.
While there are definitely takeaways from the book on business success, there are also multiple chapters on applying the same principles to healing. While I may still be working on mastering these practices, What I learned from this book was truly eye opening and incredible.
In the Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy explains how the conscious and subconscious relate. Every day we breath in and out and our heart beats without thinking about it consciously. That’s because it’s controlled by our subconscious. Our subconscious is in charge of many aspects of our behavior, mental health and health but we can consciously program our subconscious to behave in a better way.
The truth is much of how we operate in life is coming from our subconscious mind. But with our conscious mind we can choose to tell the subconscious mind to change – we can tell it what we want and begin to re-wire it. Because of that, we have the ability through changing our thinking to rewire our brain and ourselves for better health. Now, let me side step here to explain that I have become a huge believer in holistic health – meaning looking at the whole picture of mind, body and spirit. So while I do believe that our thoughts can heal us, I also believe that even the most positive person may not heal despite this if say, they continued to eat junk food and sugar every day while not giving their body the nutrients it needs to heal itself. I personally know people who have found healing simply by having faith and changing their thinking about themselves but I also believe for others it may take a holistic health approach.
“As you sow in your subconscious mind, so shall you reap in your body and environment. Imagine your subconscious mind as a bed of rich soil that will help all kinds of seeds to sprout and flourish, whether good or bad. Every thought is a cause, and every condition is an effect. This is the reason it is so essential that you take charge of your thoughts. In that way, you can bring forth only desirable conditions.”
Joseph Murphy
This concept of staying focused on what is good is actually in the Bible in Philippians 4:8-9:
“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable 0 if anything is excellent or praise worthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me – put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you.”
When I began to wake up to these concepts in this book, I came to the realization the God has already given us the ability to heal. Science will tell you that our bodies are continually regenerating, that we are always creating new cells and that we have an immune system to naturally fight off illness. Health, is actually our natural state. It’s when we get out of alignment that we become ill so the goal is to let go of any resistance we may be holding onto and allow our bodies back into a natural state of health. When we choose positive focus and positive thoughts instead of clinging to the negative ones, we can access and activate that healing ability that God has already given us. Amazing, isn’t it?
So, what are a few ways to use our thoughts to promote healing?
There are multiple techniques and exercises that can be done to use the conscious mind to change the behaviors of the subconscious mind. Murphy covers methods such as using visualizations as a way to initiate the placebo effect, affirmations are another technique as well as meditation can all help in promoting healing.
In the book “The Power of the Subconscious Mind” Murphy shares multiple stories and examples of people using this technique to improve their lives but I do have one story close to my heart that I have actually witnessed. Spring of 2017 my Dad suffered a severe stroke. When I got the call my Mother told me she wasn’t sure if he was going to make it through the night. I booked the next flight out not sure if I would make it to see him alive. The next morning I sat in the hospital room next to him after his successful surgery to remove a blood clot at the base of the brain. The doctors came in and they said to him, “You will get a little better but probably not much.” He immediately rejected their analysis and said, “No, I’m going to get a lot better.” I said to them, “You heard him, we have God on our side.” To this day, I believe his rejection of that doom and gloom news, played a role in his healing. Believing something is possible, is a part of making it possible.
I mentioned this concept to Dad while he was in the ICU. I said to him at one point; Dad, you know how a lot of successful sports stars will imagine themselves shooting beautiful 3 pointers or winning a home run. I think it will help you take time to imagine yourself the way you want to be. Imagine yourself walking out of this hospital.
Throughout his therapy and even still today, Dad continually has said to us the phrase “Im getting better.” He’s said it even when we didn’t ask, haha and I took comfort in decided that this was an affirmation he chose for healing that I think has been quite successful. We weren’t sure if he would ever walk again, but today 2 years later he’s not only walking again. He’s playing tennis again. I credit my Dad’s amazing determination and positive spirit to a great deal of his healing. It’s really a miracle that I thank God for and I have to say I couldn’t be more proud of him.
For anyone seeking peace and healing through a blend of psychology and spirituality, I highly recommend reading “The Power of The Subconscious Mind” a 1963 classic by American minister Joseph Murphy.
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