Two simple self-help techniques for peeling off small pieces of negative subconscious material
1) Formulate a feeling or a thought in a sentence.
The technique described below serves to discharge negative feelings, thoughts, incidents or situations. Discharging means removing mental pain associated with feelings, emotions, thoughts or images. For example, when you’ve had an argument with someone, you have a negative or painful feeling afterwards. When the negative or painful feeling is discharged, you feel better again. That’s because the mental pain caused by the negative feelings or emotions, or that was connected to the negative thoughts or persistent images that lingered in your mind, has been removed.
First a concrete example to illustrate this.
Suppose you are afraid to speak in front of groups. Try to clearly imagine the feeling of fear. You can try to arouse the feeling of fear yourself. Or you can try to recall an incident in which you felt this fear and then clearly try to picture the fear that you felt at that time. Or imagine that you give a presentation in front of a group and in doing so, clearly imagine the fear that accompanies this.
Next, put this imagined feeling into words, into a sentence, as you would formulate the sentence for yourself in your mind, in the first person (so, using ‘I’ or ‘me’). For example: ‘I’m overwhelmed with fear’. It is very important that the sentence formed is the right one, otherwise, nothing will be peeled off. The right sentence represents a copy of what is stored in the subconscious mind, and only when the contents of the sentence is an exact copy of subconscious information, small parts of it will be broken down. When you feel that it’s not the right sentence, then look for another sentence, until you feel that it is the right one.
The sentence should be repeated while the fear is clearly imagined. In this case, the sentence is ‘I’m overwhelmed with fear’. Continue to repeat the sentence until you feel a relief or you feel like forming a different sentence. For example, you might feel like forming this new sentence: ‘I feel tense and insecure’. Or: ‘I will fail’. Or: ‘They will judge me’.
Continue to repeat the new sentence, while clearly imagining the feeling or the idea that goes with the sentence. Continue to repeat the new sentence until you feel there’s a relief or until you feel like forming a different sentence.
When you feel that you have reached a final point, start all over again. So, again, imagine the fear you feel when speaking in front of a group. Make a sentence in the first person about the feeling as you would say it in your mind. Etcetera.
How to go about it in general.
Choose a topic you want reduce the negative aspect of. This can be a feeling, an idea, a conviction, a situation, an incident that happened, an image or a thought that keeps lingering in your mind.
Clearly imagine this topic in your mind. If it is a feeling, try to feel it really good. If it is an idea, an image, a situation, an incident, then clearly imagine this idea, an element of the situation or an element of the incident and look for a feeling linked to this idea or this element and clearly imagine this feeling. If it is an image, look for ideas and feelings that accompany this image.
If you find it hard to imagine the topic, try to recall a memory related to the topic. If this doesn’t work either, try to create an imaginary situation involving this topic.
For example, you want to tackle the topic of not getting much respect from others. Either imagine both this idea and the feeling that accompanies it, or try to recall a memory of a moment when you were not respected by others, or create an imaginary situation in which you are not respected by others in the hope that you can call up the right idea and feeling.
When a situation includes several elements, choose one to start with. If you want to discharge an incident that happened, then take one element to begin with. If you feel a relief with regard to this single element, then proceed to the treatment of another element.
If you have to repeat a sentence for a long time without anything happening, then you probably haven’t formed the right sentence. Try to find another sentence for the same topic or choose another topic. If you do it right, you’ll notice that the topic feels lighter after this technique has been applied (sometimes only temporarily, however).
Most people find this technique easy to work with. But others find it difficult. Some people experience that subconscious matter is being stirred up, without it being discharged, and as a result they are stuck with a negative feeling. If this happens only once, it’s not a problem. Simply leave the technique be for a while, focus your attention on other activities in your life, and the negative feeling will disappear by itself. But if a negative feeling continues to remain when applying this technique, then try it once more with a completely different topic, or abandon this technique entirely.
This technique is simple, but powerful. If applied in the correct way, it can discharge more negative subconscious material within a certain time than in an equally long therapeutic session with a therapist. So, certainly try to work with it, don’t give up right away. It may sometimes require some practice before you’ve mastered it, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you have a powerful, free technique at your disposal that can help you to fix problems in yourself and in your life.
2) Repeating a sentence regarding something that is going on in your life.
This is a technique that peels off small pieces of subconscious matter, but it doesn’t always work well for everyone. So, you’ll have to find out if this technique works for you.
The subconscious mind consists of negative, subtle matter (blockages), and the technique described below enables you to break down small pieces of it. This technique doesn’t peel off as much matter within a certain period of time as the other self-help techniques that I described, but it still peels off more matter than meditation techniques. However, this technique has the advantage that it’s very easy to do. Unless you have concentration problems, because then it’s more difficult to do. If you indeed experience concentration problems, then first choose sentences related to concentration. Another advantage of this technique: it can be applied for diminishing physical complaints and sometimes also pain.
How to go about it.
Think of a sentence related to an issue that is going on in your life or related to something that you are concerned about. The sentence can be neutral, it doesn’t necessarily have to express something negative.
For example:
I can’t keep my mind to it (concentration problems).
I can’t get this picture of that wounded animal out of my mind.
I have a lot to do.
I don’t feel like doing that work.
I want to achieve much in life.
I feel ugly.
I have a headache.
There is black magic on me, which causes me to have many setbacks.
She always has to have her way.
She handles it the wrong way.
He bits off more than he can chew.
He hurt me.
The car is red.
The only thing you need to do is to repeat the sentence attentively. Make sure not to do it automatically. Every time you repeat the sentence, you have to be aware of its contents. Thoughts will cross your mind, but don’t pay any attention to them, just let them pass by and keep on repeating the same sentence over and over again. Don’t say another sentence, unless a different sentence is strongly forcing itself upon you and it is very difficult to keep to the first sentence. Even then, before you change the sentence, try your utmost to stay with the first sentence.
While you are repeating the sentence, you may sense certain things. For example, a long forgotten memory may occur. Or you may see an image from your life or from a previous life. You may have physical sensations, for example a tension in your belly, or a light pressure on your chest, or a tingling in your neck. You may have mental sensations, for example a feeling of nervousness, anxiety, anger, … A certain thought may come to mind that has been activated by repeating the sentence (opposed to random thoughts crossing your mind). Don’t let these phenomena distract you, but continue to repeat the sentence. The sensations you experience are an indication that something in your subconscious mind has been activated. By continuing with the technique that brought these sensations about, the things that have been activated, will be removed from your subconscious mind. So, for example, when you become nervous when repeating a certain sentence, this is because a piece of subconscious matter that contains this feeling of nervousness, has been hit. When you continue repeating this sentence and don’t quit because an unpleasant feeling has come up, then this piece of nervousness will be removed from your subconscious mind and the feeling of nervousness will disappear. If another sentence comes up, this means that something in your subconscious mind has been activated. When you continue to repeat the first sentence, the contents of the second sentence will be removed from your subconscious mind. The phenomena that occur are not the result of your imagination, but they are evidence of the fact that subconscious material has been activated. The phenomena don’t necessarily have to be related to the contents of your sentence.
Repeat this sentence for five to ten minutes and sometimes for half an hour. Repeat this sentence until you feel that it is, often all of a sudden, completely gone from your mind, or until it feels a lot lighter: the sentence is no longer as clearly present in your mind as before. When this phase has been reached, you no longer want or feel the need to repeat the same sentence. When this phenomena occurs that the sentence has gone completely (entirely or it feels much lighter), then you may be sure that a small piece of subconscious matter has been removed from your subconscious mind.
When the sentence is gone, it no longer spontaneously comes to mind anymore, and when you think back to the sentence, you can feel that the issue that the sentence was about, feels different. Sometimes only temporarily, because many layers of the same issue are still present in your subconscious mind, but you may feel a difference at that very moment.
Next, you can form a new sentence related to this subject, or about a different subject. You may also choose the same sentence as before.