As you continue your spiritual practices like meditation, you dissolve the subconscious blocks preventing you from realizing your highest potential.
Still, sometimes you follow your intuition and put every effort forward, but things don't work out.
How I got into this
I know this firsthand because I was born into this incarnation with a set of karmas that seemed to sabotage my hopes of a "normal life." I knew I would eventually dissolve them, but I desperately wanted to speed up the process.
I spent years researching the ancient teachings, wondering how to let go of these limiting and negative patterns that were destroying my hopes and dreams. I longed to spend this time on earth living to my highest potential rather than just scraping by.
Although I'm not where I want to be, I'm much farther than I was when I started this journey. I've kept track of the subconscious thought patterns that were (and in some instances still are) impeding life and my ability to live in the effortless flow I know is possible.
Over the next few weeks, I'll share some of the main subconscious blocks I discovered on this journey. I hope to inspire you to let go of anything standing in your way of living your life to the fullest, specifically the unconscious programming that may not yet be in your awareness.
Conscious Mind Trap #1: Your inner conversations are a litany of self-abuse.
Beware of your inner conversations because the content determines your concept of self, which determines your perception of the world you live in.
You can meditate, journal, and do your inner work. Still, if your inner dialogue is centered around devaluing or judging yourself or others, your outer world will reflect this back to you with unfavorable circumstances.
How do you improve your inner dialogue?
Affirmations are a powerful tool, and I recommend looking into the work of Louise Hay to start.
However, if your self-concept is particularly low, an affirmation won't do anything because, deep down, you don't believe it to be true. This is why positive thinking won't work for some people - your mind may recite the words, but your body, energy, and emotions respond to how you feel, not what you think.
So, how do you change how you feel about yourself? By starting in very small increments. For example, rather than envisioning the ideal version of yourself and making yourself believe it, start with the small step right in front of you, which might be as simple as, "I am willing to change how I perceive...."
Changing your inner dialogue to support this new life that you are building is a long-term play. You will likely progress in very slow increments.
But the time will pass by anyway, so starting now is a good idea.
What is it you're desiring? What is the vision you see for life? Do your inner conversations support or negate this?
Conscious Mind Trap #2: Terminal Uniqueness
Twenty-four years ago, I voluntarily entered a halfway house in Hackensack, NJ, while out on bail, hoping my good effort would get me a reduced sentence for my drug-induced shenanigans. It worked, and I spent the next 18 months in active treatment and received a “time-served” sentence for my time in the program.
It was the greatest education I have ever received.
The treatment protocols were somewhat controversial, but they did the trick, as there are several of us still living drug-free.
One of their teachings was avoiding a mind trap called “terminal uniqueness.” This is the mindset where you believe nobody understands the suffering you’re experiencing.
There’s an old expression - pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.
When you have the mindset of terminal uniqueness, you end up isolating and living in your own head rather than engaging in the world around you. You think nobody understands you or, even worse, nobody cares.
In other words, you take your pain and make an identity out of it, which inevitably guarantees your suffering.
If there’s one thing that all of humanity has in common, we all feel pain, and even though someone’s struggle may be different than yours, the experience of hurt is the same.
And when we acknowledge this, it awakens an understanding that our situation is not unique.
They are others who understand us.
They are others who care.
You may have to expand your circle of acquaintances to find them.
If you believe you’re alone and no one understands, you will live an isolated life.
If you’re open to the possibility that you’re not alone, you will find folks to commune with. Or, you may be the one who builds a community supporting others, starting a rippling effect that lasts for generations.
The act of creation moves through life with a motive-less necessity. It responds to your vibration, which is created by your beliefs.
And what you believe attracts the outcome you will experience.
From the conscious to the unconscious
We’ve been talking about conscious mind traps, but what about the ones that are not so easy to see? The mind traps that exist below our conscious level of thinking?
Unconscious mind traps can be challenging because we’re not always aware of how their patterns play out in our daily lives.
Oftentimes, just becoming aware of them is sufficient to dissolve them if your conscious presence is grounded and stabilized.
Unconscious Mind Trap #1: Deep down, you don’t believe you deserve it
This one runs especially true with relationships. Maybe you’re trying to manifest the soulmate partnership of your dreams, but deep down, there’s a subconscious block caused by fear.
Maybe you’re not afraid of getting a wonderful relationship, but unconsciously, you’re scared of losing it, thereby blocking its manifestation.
Or maybe you’re scared to be vulnerable and have someone see the real you, so you unconsciously avoid having to face those feelings.
Or maybe you’re unconsciously blocking the manifestation because, after years of emotional abuse, deep down, you don’t feel you deserve it.
These unconscious blocks can manifest in relationships, jobs, missed opportunities, financial resources, etc.
You will always attract the person/situation who is a vibrational match with what you’re emanating. So, if you’re not attracting the right people or situations, look within to uncover the subconscious signals you’re emanating.
Therapy, sacred rituals, meditation, self-help books, and many other things can be of great benefit here because chances are, you will need help and support to let go of this resistance.
Remember: In addition to the above tools, it is of great value to practice presence and anchoring yourself in the breath during non-eventful times so that when challenges come and unconscious patterns are exposed, you’ll have a much easier time responding rather than reacting.
To learn more about these practices, you can see my blog posts on the topic.
Additional resources that I have found to be of tremendous value:
Unconscious Mind Trap #2: You're Stuck Between the Head and the Heart
The Heart - Mind Conundrum
Sometimes, our heads and our hearts tell different stories about what we desire and what our next step should be.
And if you're like most people who are primarily mind-identified, then you are likely to believe the stories the mind tells you about what you really want.
But the mind doesn't collaborate with your intuition and soul's desires. The mind is concerned with how to efficiently solve whatever problem you're experiencing, not to guide you in the direction of your highest Self.
For this, you must listen to your heart.
Why You Can't Hear Your Heart's Voice
Learning to hear your heart's voice when it speaks to you can be challenging. This is especially true if you've experienced some sort of emotional trauma in your life and, therefore, have an unconscious aversion to being present in the body, which is where you will experience your heart's voice.
When you can't hear your heart's voice, you follow the direction of your mind, which is inevitably conditioned by societal expectations and your previous experiences and perceptions.
Maybe your mind is telling you to seize a fantastic opportunity in front of you, but your heart is telling you to pause and rest to prepare for the next step, which is what your soul wants to manifest.
But you can't hear your heart's direction. And if you feel it, even just a little bit, you still can't see what's around the corner, which causes anxiety and uncomfortability.
So, you proceed with this fantastic opportunity.
Why Nothing Is Working Out
It doesn't work out. So you try again. And again. And over and over, your efforts keep getting thwarted. Nothing is working out.
You think Life is working against you. You have so much potential that needs to be realized.
But life isn't withholding anything from you. To give you what you desire, Life removes everything that's not it.
Life doesn't respond to what you think you want.
It responds to how you feel deep down and the energetic vibration you are emanating.
And if you're not in touch with how you really feel, you will wonder why nothing is working out the way you want.
Here's What to Do
In this situation, the next best step is to pause and recalibrate your energy into alignment.
You can do this in any way that works for you - meditation, movement, breathwork, etc.
Then come back and listen - but not to your mind. Listen to the subtle messages that your heart is telling you. You must recalibrate your energy before you do this.
The more time you spend getting the inside right, the less time you will waste pursuing paths never meant for you.
And you won't have to wonder why the mind-created paths didn't work out.
Gautama Buddha
Heart of Compassion Buddha statue at Mar de Jade in Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico.
Unconscious Block #3: You’re Seeking Fulfillment in All the Wrong Places
You will never realize your full potential if you're seeking fulfillment where you will never find it.
I'm very familiar with this - if there were a soundtrack that described my young adult life, it would be called "Looking for love in all the wrong places."
The "As Without, So Within" Mind Trap
But it's not our fault, hence why we call it unconscious. We're indoctrinated from a very early age that we feel better when we achieve or get what we want. The entire marking industry is built on this principle.
Get the dream career.
Retire
Get married
Get divorced
Lose the weight
Go on that dream vacation
The list goes on…
The irony is that none of these things will ever fulfill or aid in you realizing your potential. They only keep the thirst alive that wants you to get more and keeps you stuck in the loop of endless cravings.
We learn that fulfillment in any way, whether worldly or spiritual, is out there, and to experience the fruit, we bring it in.
The Vedic Perspective on Fulfillment
The Vedic perspective is different. It teaches that fulfillment is within - it's only your years, or perhaps lifetimes, of accumulated memories, stresses, and traumas that are covering it up.
We engage in the work - meditating, listening to knowledge talks, etc., not to find peace but to uncover it within and then allow it to shine forth and be a lamp for our path.
Indeed, this is the only way to realize true fulfillment - to reveal it within and then bring it forth into the world. Not only will your life be better, but the lives of everyone around you will be, too.
This is what I love about the Vedic tradition - our teachers give us the tools to uncover the peace within and then show us a new way of looking at the world that helps us to stabilize our awareness of this inner bliss.
A Showcase of Inner Bliss
We then showcase this joy through our presence, attitudes, and peaceful demeanor.
As one of my mentors, Light Watkins, says, "The only joy on the mountaintop is the joy you bring with you."
We uncover the fulfillment within, let it shine without, and then take our fulfillment on excursions to the mountaintops, where we showcase what we have cultivated through our inner work.
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