We’ve all been there before. Time after time we try to change a habit or start a new one in our life, but all of our positive action disintegrates all too soon. We keep trying but end up back at square one.

Instead of looking at our success, we shine the light on our failures. We don’t try to look at how or why we failed, we just beat ourselves up for not following through. Little do we know this self-sabotage might not entirely be our fault. If this keeps on happening you might be a victim of your programming.

The unconscious thought processes behind the scenes are setting you up for failure before you even start. You’d love for change to become easy. You’d relish in the opportunity for sustained personal growth.

If only true, lasting change were this easy. One day it might be. At times you may have even changed easy, you might have embraced uncertainty and allowed the moment to truly transform your life. These moments of transformation are now rare.

You’ve Been Letting Your Programming Get the Best of You

Your inner operating system could be preventing you from reaching the heights you know you’re meant to reach. Your true calling. You could have beliefs and thought process that do everything in their power to keep you in your current place.

If you’ve ever felt like your life is harder than swimming upstream this could be the cause.

Instead of taking the time to address how your beliefs have formed, and how your thought processes play out you’ve been letting them run wild. Your mind has been running like an uncaged beast, and the product of all that running has been continual failure. This is the way most of us go through our days.

Our minds and thoughts, the directors of our life, are given no direction. We leave it up to how we were nurtured during our youth to decide how we respond to our lives today. As a culture we are always reacting to outside stimulus. There is never a moment of true creation. True action.

It’s all been laid out before us. Like a map someone else has written for our fate. We’re taught to never entertain the idea that we’re in control of our own fate. We are the mapmakers of our own destiny. The main issue is this runs counter to how our society is conducted.

If the masses of people are always living in constant reaction to the throws of life, then there will never be time for an original thought. There will never be time for revolution.

It’s your job to break this cycle, it’s your job to start a revolution in thought.

We’ve Been Taught to Bandage our Problems

Looking across most aspects of our world we can see bandages placed over our problems. We tend to address everything as separate. We are separate from our environment. We are separate from other people. We are separate from other nations. We are separate from the air we breathe.

This couldn’t be more of a lie.

We never try to get down to the source of an issue, instead we prefer to work with surface matters until we find a solution that feels comfortable. This works for a little while, but it will never last very long. For lasting, impactful change we need to get down to the source. Just as the roots of a mighty Sequoia are responsible for it’s uptake of nutrients, it’s massive growth and ultimate survival and stability, the roots of us are responsible for all of the same.

Our only difference is that we are unaware of how far our roots go, or even that we have them in the first place.

We need to stop covering up our problems with dirt and pretending they don’t exist. We must stop thinking about our problems using the same level of mind that led to their manifestation in the first place.

We need to go deep.

Start at The Deepest Layer Possible

Start at the core and branch out. By changing your deepest level of unconscious thought you allow the rest of your thoughts to change as well. The path to finding your roots is never the same and the process for uncovering is more intensive. Think emotional, creative, and intense.

However, the results are lasting.

In planting the seeds deep in your unconscious and digging out the weeds of thought from this same zone you bring the kind of change into your life you’ve been seeking.

In the past your underlying beliefs may have limited you. Now they are your soul reason for liberation. Change these and slowly your life begins to change. Positive habits will be easier to correct, and may even spring up as a natural extension of removing your limiting thoughts.

Just as works of art are saturated in the core emotion the artist felt at the time, your life will be colored by the lens that has been crafted by your innermost hidden thoughts.

Your opinion of the world says more about you than the actual state of the world.

Learning to Plant the Seeds and Uproot the Weeds

Basically, you are going to undergo a forced purification process.

If you care for your mind, if you nurture it and if you cultivate is just like a fertile, rich garden, it will blossom far beyond your expectations. But if you let the weeds take root, lasting peace of mind and deep inner harmony will always elude you. -Robin Sharma

We’re going to go through a mental cleanse to understand our deepest thoughts, unroot the ones that are holding us back and replace them with a more empowering mental framework. This process might also unearth some emotional tension you’ve coupled with your limiting thought patterns, just be aware that you might feel sadness, anxiety or other “negative” emotions when you’re experimenting with any of the techniques below.

1. Use a powerful repetitive thought as a mantra

A simple way to dislodge limiting thought patterns and beliefs is to substitute your negative thoughts for an insanely positive thought. The best one I know is “I love myself.”

Anytime you begin to think negatively of yourself, or start to feel down repeat “I love myself,” as many times as possible. Put as much love into the phrase as possible, really feel in in your heart.

Instead of digging into every belief you have, by repeating this so often and with so much vigor you dissolve all other negative beliefs. Make it your mantra for life. Repeat it with every breath you take throughout the day.

It’s only as powerful as the effort you put behind it. Think of this one thought as creating a fire so bright and so hot, that every other limitation you have gets burnt up in the flames.

2. Embrace the art of thought flow

Thought flow is the act of watching your thoughts pass by. It’s equal parts mindfulness and meditation, with a spoonful of pizzazz. When you have a negative thought come up like, “I’m not good enough to be doing something like this”, see if you can allow it to pass by.

When we engage our thoughts we tie them down and they become rooted in our reality. We essentially give them wings. We tie them down with our emotions and the feelings they bring us; when we react the power they hold over us grows stronger.

Instead of strengthening this bond, take a deep breath and let it float on by. You’ll notice your thoughts come and go naturally, this one is no different.

Imagine you’re sitting in a cave behind a waterfall, the water keeps flowing no matter what you do. Now think of that rushing water as you thoughts. They come and go, and flow on by.

It’s your active participation that makes them real, try to become a passive observer. Only give strength to the thoughts and beliefs that lift you up.

By practicing the above on a day to day basis you’ll start to dissolve the limitations that once held you back and begin your path towards a magical existence.

Kevin Wood is a writer at Counter Culturist. He helps you consciously rebel to craft your most meaningful life.

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