use your imagination

So You made a decision, you set a date, you picked a reward, you still find it hard to change...
Imagination can make it much easier.

When you are trying to replace the old habit with the new one, you are denying your good friend, subconscious, and using your conscious mind to overwrite it. According to Law of Conflict, whenever your conscious and subconscious are in conflict, your subconscious invariably wins. However, you can trick your subconscious to help you.

The best time to talk to your subconscious is every morning when wake up and every night before you go to sleep, when you are most relaxed. Your conscious mind is not fully functioning, so you can program your subconscious mind to believe you are what you want to be.

Start by telling yourself what you are the person who has kicked the bad habit and enjoying the benefit of the good habit. Don't use future tense, say it as if it's a reality. Not "I will quit smoking." But "I've quite smoking and I am breathing in the fresh air." Not "I'm will get up early tomorrow." but "I am an early riser." Not "I'm trying to be punctuate." but "I am always on time."

Then, picture yourself living in the created reality. Engage all your senses: see yourself running early morning wearing tight outfits that shows your toned body; hear the birds chirping, smell the cut grass and the fragrance of flowers in the morning breeze, taste the cool water you carried with you, feel your feet bouncing from the ground. Enjoy that moment and engrave it in your mind. (Do not think how comfortable the bed is.)

A few things happen while you are doing this: your thought causes a physical reaction. Then what you expect will become reality in your mind. If persisted long enough, you will see organic changes.

You may have heard this story: A man accidentally locked himself inside a refrigerated box car. He recorded what he went though on the side of the car. "I'm slowing freezing to death. These may be my last words." The next day the man was found dead there on the floor. His body showed all symptems of frozen to death. However, the refrigeration unit was out of order. The temperature in the car had never gone below 57 F and there was plenty of air. The man died of his own illusion.

Remember, your brain cannot tell the difference between mental rehearsal and reality. So your subconscious will carry out the day the same you imagined. Use this powerful method to make good habits part of your life. Let your live unfold according to how you think.

(Photo by Jaquelinevanek.com)

Side effects of creating a new habit

There are side effects of creating new habits out of an old one, are you ready, you become more creative and innovative.

According to an article in the New York Times, research shows that "When we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.".

Some old habits that you want to abandon have been following you for years. They won't willingly go away. So instead of trying to erase them from your subconscious mind, create new ones to overwrite them. There is a Chinese saying:"Attack poison with poison." In this case, "Attach habit with habit."

Same effect can be achieved when you are doing something new. Think of yourself like a rubber band. When you are relaxed, there is no power, and you are in your comfort zone. The more your stretch it, the more powerful it will snap back, you are in your stretched zone. When you pull it too hard, it's becoming painfully and eventually get out of shape or break, that's when you are stressed. The ideal place you want to be is when you are stretched a little, but not relaxed or stressed out.

As everything else, there are side effects of being creative and trying new things everyday, it slows down the aging process of your brain. Are you up to it?!

(photo by pricklypearbloom)