How to have more will power
Physical Reaction
Every change of state of mind (every new thought) causes a physical reaction however small. It has been known for centuries that psychological/emotional factors are related to many physical illnesses. Some emotional reactions cause problems and some psychological circumstances or techniques help us feel better. Emotional trauma can cause physical problems.
Worry thoughts trigger changes in the stomach that eventually lead to ulcers. Anger thoughts stimulate your adrenal glands and the increased adrenaline in the bloodstream causes many other physical changes. Anxiety and fear thoughts change your pulse rate. Hunger and thirst thoughts affect your stomach and salivary glands. Sex thoughts affect your sex organs.
Our personal body chemistry is guided and triggered by our emotions. However, thought leads the emotions. You can make yourself sick, poor and unhappy by your habitual talking. People do not realize that it is a law that you become what you dwell upon. The law of electricity must be obeyed before it can become man’s servant. When handled ignorantly, it becomes man’s deadly foe.
Ideas with a strong emotional content reach the subconscious (feeling) mind and reproduce the same body reaction over and over again. In order to eliminate or change chronic negative bodily reactions we must reach the subconscious mind and change the idea responsible for the reaction. This is easily done with self-hypnosis and autosuggestions.
What is expected tends to be realized
Whatever the mind expects tends to be realized.
The individual, who strongly believes in success, subconsciously strives to bring about favorable circumstances leading to success. When advantageous conditions arise, he is able to recognize the opportunity and take the steps necessary to complete his success plan. We all know people who seem to have a "magic touch." Life seems to shower them with blessings for no apparent reason and we call them "lucky." What appears to be luck is actually nothing more than positive mental expectancy.
On the other hand, the person who conceives himself to be a "failure type" will find some way to fail, in spite of all good intentions. The student who believes he is poor in arithmetic must make poor grades in that subject to justify his own convictions. His original negative belief is reaffirmed by his poor grades and a vicious cycle is set in motion.
Expect good things to happen and good things will occur. Vividly imagine yourself successful and you will achieve success. All mental images become a blueprint and the subconscious mind uses every means at its disposal to carry out the plan. Our physical health is largely dependent upon our mental expectancy.
Here is where self-hypnosis can become the tool to remove despondency and negative attitudes and bring about a hopeful positive expectancy – the expectancy of health, strength and well-being, which then tends to be realized.
Imagination is more powerful than knowledge
Imagination (visualization) is more powerful than reason. When imagination and reason are in equal conflict then imagination will always prevail.
When you look at an object, light reflected from the object enters your eyes causing an electrochemical change to occur. This change produces nerve impulses that are transmitted to the visual center of your brain where they are interpreted as visual images.
It is these mental images in the brain that you react to and not the actual object itself. For this reason, visualizing some object or action in your imagination can have the same affect as the real event.
Realizing that our nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined opens a new door to self-improvement. It offers the opportunity to practice, without effort, new skills, traits and attitudes until new habit patterns are formed. Habit patterns can be modified and even reversed simply by practicing or "acting out" the new response or behavior in your imagination. However, this rule can work for or against you. An imagination preoccupied with negative images will only serve to hinder your improvement.
Successful living starts with a picture held in your imagination-- a picture of what you want to be and of what you want to accomplish. Once the habit patterns are established, the desired result will occur automatically without conscious effort.
Reason is easily overruled by imagination. And any idea accompanied by a strong emotion such as anger, hatred, love or our political and religious beliefs usually cannot be modified through the use of reason. In using self-hypnosis we can form images in the subconscious mind, which is the feeling, mind, and can remove or amend old ideas.
Opposing ideas cannot be held at the same time
Opposing ideas cannot exist in the mind at the same time. For example you cannot love and hate someone at the same time.
This does not mean that one idea cannot be remembered or harbored in your memory, but it refers to the conscious mind recognizing an idea. Many people try to hold opposing ideas simultaneously.
A man might believe in honestly and expect his children to be honest, and all the while may be engaging daily in slightly dishonest business practices. However, he cannot escape the conflict and its effect upon his nervous system that is caused by trying to hold opposing ideas.
Once an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind it remains until another replaces it
Starting at birth, and from then on, every individual is continually exposed to a variety of situations requiring some degree of adaptive behavior. Similar situations occurring repeatedly soon begin to establish certain conditioned responses. Once this happens, each repeated occurrence serves to reinforce the responses, until they become so strongly established that we are unable to exercise much voluntary control over them
The longer an idea remains in the subconscious mind, the more difficult it becomes to replace it with another idea. If an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind it will remain until it is replaced by another. Once an idea is fixed, it tends to remain fixed.
The longer it is fixed the more difficult it is to change. This is how habits are formed, both good and bad.
First there is the thought and then the action. We have habits of thinking as well as habits of action, but the thought or idea always come first. Hence it is obvious if we wish to change our actions we must begin by changing our thoughts. We accept as true certain factors.
Now in advancing these rules, we are speaking of fixed ideas, not just idle thoughts or passing fancies. We need to alter fixed ideas or to use them. No matter how fixed the ideas may be or how long they have remained they can be changed with self-hypnosis or autosuggestion.
An emotionally induced symptom tends to cause organic change if persisted in long enough
Long held ideas, which condition lifestyle, in a manner not wholly suited to the person in their environment, eventually bring about organic changes, some of which are adaptive but some may be alien to the organism.
Many physicians will admit that more than 70% of human ailments are emotionally based rather than organic. This means that the function of an organ or other parts of the body have been disturbed by the reaction of the nervous system to negative ideas held in the subconscious mind.
We do not mean to imply that every person who complains of an ailment is emotionally ill or neurotic. There are diseases caused by germs, parasites, virus, and other things attacking the human body. However, we are a mind in a body and the two cannot be separated. Therefore, if you continue to fear ill health, constantly talking about your “nervous stomach” or “tension headache” in time organic changes must occur.
The subconscious has a powerful effect on our physical being. An emotionally induced symptom tends to cause organic change if persisted in long enough.
Each suggestion acted upon creates less opposition to successive suggestions
Each suggestion to the subconscious mind – if acted upon, creates less opposition to successive suggestion.
A mental trend is easier to follow the longer it lasts unbroken. Once a habit is formed it become easier to follow and more difficult to break. In other words once a self-suggestion has been accepted by your subconscious mind it becomes easier for additional suggestions to be accepted and acted upon.
Thus suggestions should begin simply and become increasingly complex for the mind to follow. Once the trend of acceptance has started you may move on to more complicated suggestions.
The greater the conscious effort the less the subconscious response
Our currently held beliefs, whether good or bad, true or false, were formed without effort, with no sense of strain, and without the exercise of “will power.” Habit patterns whether good or bad are formed in the same way.
This proves why “will power” doesn’t really exist.” When the conscious mind is active the subconscious is inactive and visa versa. Will power suggests that you are trying to do something you do not really want to do.
When dealing with the subconscious mind, the greater the effort - the less the subconscious response. The subconscious is childlike. It accepts readily simple, direct, repetitive instructions without question.
The rule is “When dealing with the subconscious mind, “Take it easy.” This means you must work to develop a positive mental expectancy that your problem can be and will be solved. As your faith in your subconscious mind increases you learn to “let it happen” rather than trying to “force it to happen.”
