Day 44: We Become What We Think About

I will begin with 5 Quotes and 1 verse today. I love quotes very much much! And the bible too! This is because through the two I am able to tap into the knowledge of very wise people and beings who existed way before dawn. Alright here we go!

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" - Proverbs 23 v 7

"We become what we think about," - Earl Nightingale

"A man is what he thinks about all day long," - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Change your thoughts and you change your world." - Norman Vincent Peale

"Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think." - Gautama Buddha

"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought." - Peace Pilgrim

Have you noticed something interesting about these quotes? They're all saying the same bloody thing, aren't they? From ancient biblical wisdom to modern self-help gurus, the message is consistent: our thoughts create our reality. Then isn't it worrying how we do not hear this quite often? Well it is for me. But here's the kicker, most of this thinking isn't even happening consciously. It's all going on behind the scenes, in that mysterious realm called the subconscious mind.

Let me take you back to something rather profound in the book of Romans. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Paul just referring to the unjust and ungodly social ills governing the mind. He understood something fundamental about human nature that modern psychology would only catch up with centuries later. Your mind, particularly your subconscious mind, determines your reality.

So what exactly is this subconscious mind then? Imagine your brain as an iceberg. The conscious mind is that little bit poking above the water about 10% of the whole thing. The other 90%? That massive chunk lurking beneath the surface? That's your subconscious. And it's running the show, mate. Realise how the 10% water above the surface is just water that has melted from the ice below.

Picture this: It's Wednesday evening, you've had an absolute shocker of a day at work. Your boss was in one of those moods, you know the type could find fault in anything. You're driving home, supposedly concentrating on the road, but your mind is replaying that awkward meeting in vivid detail, complete with what you should have said (why do we always think of the perfect comeback hours later?). Meanwhile, your hands are steering, your feet are working the pedals, you're navigating traffic, and you somehow arrive home with no recollection of the actual journey.

That's your subconscious at work. Driving a two-ton metal machine through traffic while your conscious mind was busy drafting strongly worded resignation letters you'll never send.

Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist (fancy that!), found that the subconscious mind processes about 20 million bits of information per second, while the conscious mind handles a measly 40 bits. Forty! I've got more apps open on my phone than that!

So here's where it gets proper interesting. If what we focus on becomes our reality, and 90% of our mind is operating below our awareness the part that we can not really focus on, that we can even go for days sometimes months without even knowing it exists, we've got a bit of a situation, haven't we? It's like having a powerful supercomputer that's running programs you installed decades ago and forgot about.

And this is precisely where most of us go wrong. We're walking around letting our subconscious mind run old, outdated, often negative programs while wondering why life isn't working out. It's like expecting to download the instagram while using a Nokia 3310. Not happening, mate. Try all you can, mhm imagine how hard we try to change and somehow just somehow with all the desire to change we keep on going to the same old mistakes and tendencies. 

A bit of good news. Your subconscious doesn't distinguish between what's real and what's vividly imagined. It takes everything at face value. Feed it constant negativity, disaster news, toxic people's drama, and guess what? It believes that's the world. Feed it positivity, gratitude, noble thoughts, and it adjusts accordingly.

This is where the rubber meets the road with the subconscious mind. You have to be ruthlessly selective about what you allow into your mental space. As the author Joseph Murphy says in "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" (phenomenal book, by the way if you haven't read it, what are you waiting for? Oh wait you done stalking your Ex in IG or aimlessly scrolling through your for you page on the TiKing Time Bomb), "Your subconscious mind doesn't argue with you. It accepts what your conscious mind decrees."

So let me get properly practical here:

1. Your morning routine is non-negotiable. The first 30 minutes after you wake up are prime programming time for your subconscious.
   
   I remember using the desktop computer a while back, I mean I still do from time to time. But I mean the time when they were horribly slow. You would turn it on. Then right after you had to refresh it a couple of times before initiating any program. It would just stop responding if you'd just jump to an app right after. 
   
   Resist the urge to check your phone. Instead, read something uplifting, practice gratitude, or meditate. I know, I know easier said than done when your phone is literally your alarm clock and Instagram is just a tap away. But trust me on this one. Write a Blog about the subconscious mind or something. 
   
   
2. Become brutally aware of your self-talk. The average person has about 60,000 thoughts per day, and for many of us, 80% of those are negative. Would you let someone speak to your best mate the way you speak to yourself? If not, it's time for an intervention.
   
   
3. Visualise success daily. Athletes have been using this technique for decades. Before Michael Phelps ever won an Olympic gold medal, he'd visualised every stroke, every turn, every breath thousands of times in his mind. Remember your subconscious can't tell the difference between a vividly imagined event and a real one.
   
   
4. Cut toxic people out of your life with the precision of a surgeon removing a tumor. Lol? Perhaps. Necessary? Well not perhaps, Absolutely. Jim Rohn said we're the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Choose wisely. Well I'm not sure that's that's the case with myself but okay Jim. 
   
   
5. Repetition is the language of the subconscious. That's why affirmations work, but only if done consistently. Five minutes of positive affirmations won't undo 23 hours and 55 minutes of negative thinking. Think about that. Mhm, thinking quite an interesting topic too. Think about it, how many times are told to think I just said it twice in a second and yet, no one has once taught us how to do that, think. Let me write about it tomorrow yea. Back to the subconscious. Consistency is key here.

I tried affirmations once, halfheartedly. Stood in front of the mirror mumbling "I am confident and successful" while my eyes screamed "You're a fraud from a poor unsuccessful family and everyone knows it! " Needless to say, it didn't take. You've got to believe it, or at least suspend your disbelief long enough for your subconscious to consider the possibility. In fact I suggest to you, you have to be delusional. As millennials would say "Delulu is the solulu"

Proverbs 4:23 warns us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." In biblical terms, the heart was considered the seat of thought and emotion what we'd now call the subconscious mind. The ancient wisdom still stands: protect what goes into your mind with fierce dedication.

Now, I'm not suggesting you become some positivity-spouting robot who denies reality. That's just spiritual bypassing with a smile, and it's about as authentic as those "genuine leather" bags they sell at the market. Acknowledge the negative, but don't marinate in it. See it, process it, then redirect.

Dr. Caroline Leaf, who's spent her career studying the mind-brain connection, found that toxic thoughts actually cause physical damage to the brain's structure. Meanwhile, positive, directed thinking creates new neural pathways. Your thoughts are literally reshaping your brain in real-time. Bit scary, that, isn't it?

Remember, what you FOCUS ON, YOU BECOME. We become what we think about. It's not just a nice quote for Instagram it's the operating manual for your mind.

And if you're thinking, "This all sounds a bit simplistic," well, maybe it is. But sometimes the most profound truths are also the simplest. As Einstein supposedly said (though probably didn't, but it sounds good so we'll go with it), "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Wait, who said that actually, give me a sec...

Your subconscious mind is the most powerful tool you'll ever have. It's time you learned how to use it properly.

Because This is What we Do Now!