In this book Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself – How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One, the author, Dr. Joe Dispenza is very detailed in his application and tools to use
Chapter 10: Open the Door to Your Creative State (Week One)
Induction: be aware of your body’s position in space. Feel where it is. (Cerebellum is the seat of preconception, feelings are the language of the body aka subconscious. So focusing on feeling your body position can get you out of analytical mind)
Alternatively: imagine water slowly rising in the room you’re sitting in. Sense the space where the room is.
Chapter 11: Prune Away the Habit of Being Yourself (Week Two)
Recognizing: Name the problem by seeing it objectively, then you know what you need to change. Recognition is a life review. Take time to write down answers to questiosn like:
- What kind of person have I been?
- What do I present myself as to the world?
- What am I really like inside?
- Is there a feeling I struggle with over and over?
- How would my friends/family describe me?
- Is there something I hide from others?
- What part of my personality do I need to improve?
- What’s one thing I want to change about myself?
Now choose an emotion to un memorize. One at a time. Pick the one that’s a big part of you and is familiar. Ex: shame, regret, anxiety, fear, greed, anger, insecurity, victimization, worry, guilt, depression, disgust, resentment, unworthiness, lack, sadness, envy, suffering, frustration, hatred.
Observe how that emotion feels in your body. Don’t try to make it stop — almost everything you’ve done in life is try to run from this feeling. Let it be. It started as an emotional reaction to something in your life →mood →temperament →personality. This emotion is the memory of yourself. It has nothing to say about your future. Attachment to it = you’re mentally/physically bound to the past.
Observe your attitude/state of mind associated with the emotion. Attitude = series of thoughts connected to a feeling and vice versa. Write down a few limiting states of mind (Ex: overwhelmed, overly intellectual, competitive, blaming, complaining, confused, distracted, self-pitying, desperate, dishonest, lazy, dramatic, controlling, deceptive, conceited, needy, self-involved, over-sensitive, self-important)
Admitting + Declaring: Acknowledge the true you that you don’t show others. Own up to your ID and past mistakes. No judgment, punishment, manipulation, abandonment, blame, score keeping…these problems come from seeing God as an insecure shrunken man.
Talk to the One who gives you life. Be honest. Write. (Ex: “I’m afraid of falling in love because it hurts too much. I pretend to be happy but I’m really suffering because I’m lonely. I don’t want anyone to know I feel guilty, so I lie about myself. I lie to folks so I won’t feel unloved/unworthy. I feel like a failure, so I try extra hard to be a success,” etc.
Declare the truth about yourself out loud, break emotional ties, agreements, dependencies, etc., to external cues.
No one really wants anyone to know who they really are.
But it takes enormous energy to keep up an image. Let go of that energy, release it.
If you have someone, that hate keeps you emotionally attached to the other person…you use that person to stay addicted to hatred.
Surrendering
Keep in mind who you are surrendering to, that will make thiis easier. Let go, let someone else have control. You can’t tell God how to go about anything. That’s trying to do things your way. You should be: “Thy will be done.”
Surrender joyously.
Write down some surrender statements. Ask for help, turn over your unwanted state of mind. Give thanks.
Chapter 12: Dismantle the Memory of the Old You (Week Three)
Observing and reminding: observe old self, remind yourself of who you no longer want to be. Stay ahead of your old self so you have control over it. Be familiar with specific thoughts and actions, catch yourself.
Not all your thoughts are true. Most are old hardwired circuits.
Is this thought true, or is it just what I think and believe while I am feeling this way?
Write down the automatic thoughts that come when you feel that emotion from step 2. Ex: “No one listens to me, he always makes me angry, everyone uses me, I don’t feel like it, my life sucks.”
Unconscious actions emotionally reinforce personality, fulfill addiction to feel the same way. Or habits are learned to make memorized feelings go away.
Write down automatic actions that limit. Ex: sulking, sitting alone, playing games, eating too much.
Redirecting: prevent yourself from behaving unconsciously. How?
- Picture yourself doing something (from the automatic actions list above) and say aloud: “Change!”
- Do this in real life. In time, your own voice can be the loudest voice in your head, the voice of redirection. Repeatedly interrupt the old program. (Principle of Hebbian learning — unhook circuits connected to the old self).
- Remind yourself “This [behavior] is not loving. The rewards of being healthy/happy/free is greater than being stuck in this self-destructive pattern.”
It’s difficult to stay conscious while you’re in the process of change, because of associative memories: Ex: you act a certain way around familiar people. As soon as you see them, your body starts releasing the chemicals to prepare you to act that way. Like Pavlov’s dogs. You need to catch yourself before going unconscious.
Chapter 13: Create a New Mind for Your New Future (Week Four)
Creating and rehearsing: Learn/read about great historical people who represent your ideal = sowing seeds. Be creative in reinventing a new identity. Then mentally rehearse this new self until it’s more familiar/natural/routine/automatic/subconscious. Remember you as someone else.
Write answers to questions like:
- What’s my greatest ideal of self?
- What would it be like to be X?
- Who in history do I admire, how did they act?
- Who in my life do I know who is/feels X?
- What would it take to think like X?
- Whom do I want to model?
- How would I be if I were X?
- What would I say to myself if I were X?
- How would I talk to others if I were changed?
- How/whom do I want to remind myself to be?
- How would X think, act, feel?
Don’t let your brain abort the mission. Gently make it come back and feel the feelings until you ARE that person. Don’t get up different than how you sat down.
Keys: intensity, frequency, duration. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
Dr. Dispenza: a new personality will create a new reality, a different life. Don’t fuss over the how/when/where/with whom. Leave those details to a mind that knows so much more than you do.
Once a month, reflect back look for feedback on what you’re creating, how you’re doing.