Many people go through their lives without understanding why they make the same mistakes, follow the same patterns, and live in the same ruts. They aren’t happy with their present situation, but they seem to be unable to make any lasting changes. Are you one of these people?

Perhaps you’ve attend seminars, read books, and taken courses, but, in the end, fallen back into the same dysfunctional patterns you’ve always followed! Why does it always turn out this way?

We struggle to make permanent changes in our lives because we input information only into our conscious mind. The problem is that your conscious mind does not control your belief system or your behaviour.

To change your behaviors, you must first reprogram the hard-wired center of your mind: the subconscious mind.

How Does Your Subconscious Mind Work?

The subconscious is the largest part of our mind. It contains all the messages we’ve received throughout our lives. You belief mindset and character traits are held here, and grouped into millions of thoughts clustered held there.

Photo by I Bird 2

The relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds is like an iceberg. The conscious mind is represented by the visible tip of the iceberg, while the subconscious is represented by the gigantic lower portion of the iceberg hidden from view.

You can’t see the subconscious in action, but it certainly has a major impact on the voyage you take in your life.

The subconscious is the place where all of your learned behaviors reside. Once you learn to walk, you don’t need to consider how to lift and place each foot to take the next step, do you? Of course not! Your subconscious mind automatically controls your steps.

Your subconscious learns behavior through repetition and practice. Just as it learned to control your footsteps when you learned to walk, it also controls your footsteps in your life’s journey based on what you’ve reinforced throughout your life.

The good news is you can reprogram your subconscious mind by inputting and reinforcing new thoughts and actions! By tapping into the the subconscious mind with several different techniques, you can reprogram how it works.

Here are some strategies you can use to change your mind and change your life:

1. Affirmations. Affirmations work to change your subconscious mind by using positive, personal, present tense statements to override the embedded negative thinking. By repeating these positive thoughts, you can create new pathways in your subconscious, giving it new attitudes.

Then your subconscious causes you to act in new ways that agree with these new attitudes. For example, repeating: “I choose healthy foods at each meal” can change your mindset about what you eat and why!

2. Visualization. Visualization is the act of creating detailed mental pictures that depict a desired outcome so you can see success for yourself. These images stimulate the subconscious into accepting them as reality, which then directs behavior accordingly. Top athletes around the world use this technique during game-time.

3. Hypnosis. Hypnosis and various other types of therapy works with the subconscious mind. By easing you into a state of extreme relaxation, you will find that hypnosis is effecive and works. Once you’re in this state, the conscious mind releases its grip, and the subconscious mind is easier to access.
While under hypnosis, it’s much easier to reprogram the subconscious into accepting new thoughts as reality.

4. Subliminal Audios. You can use subliminal audios while you sleep. The conscious mind listens to music or someone speaking on one level, but the subconscious mind hears another layer of information recorded underneath the audible portion.

When awake, the conscious mind is distracted with the audible portion of the audio, making it harder to tap into the subconscious mind.

Using techniques like these can help you reprogram your subconscious mind and remove the burden of the negative thoughts buried there. Imagine the freedom of living your life without the automatic dysfunctional behaviors you’ve had driving you for years!

When you transform your negative outlook into a positive one, you can accomplish so much more. In doing so, your mind will be released from negative programming, allowing you to excel and succeed throughout your life.

Most people agree that life is more stressful than ever. For many people, stress leads to restless, and sometimes sleepless, nights. In this article, we’ll review some helpful tips on helping a person fall asleep.

How long does it take for an individual to fall asleep? That depends on a number of factors, including how tired the person is, what the person ate before they went to bed, and numerous other factors. If you have sleep problems, it might seem like hours before you fall asleep.

Insomnia means you are having a struggle to go to sleep.It also can mean that you battle to stay asleep. Most people who suffer insomnia say that they remember turning and tossing all night long or remember being awake at night. Nights when I wrestle with insomnia I just can’t seem to turn my mind off; often I can’t even close my eyes. Usually it takes me about a half hour to fall asleep, but my son is asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

The TV helps me fall asleep — I have it on a timer and it shuts off after a half hour.I also need total darkness, and my bedroom must be ice cold – even in summer. Admittedly, this doesn’t help save energy!

There are behavioral, or natural, treatments for insomnia. One relaxation technique is utilized by tensing different muscle groups and then relaxing them. Another method is to repeat a set of visualizations to produce a state of relaxation. My favorite visualization? Lying in the sun on a beach in the Bahamas.

Another helpful method is to associate the bedroom with sleeping only, by limiting the time spent in the bedroom for non-sleep activities.So take your computer, office, and television out of the bedroom. Also reduce the use of stimulants (such as caffeine) and avoid big meals just before bedtime; this can help reduce insomnia. One can also try soaking in a hot bath to relax, or listening to soft music before going to bed.

Melatonin is a well-known sleep aid. It is especially helpful for people who suffer from insomnia caused by jet lag or shift work. Melatonin occurs naturally in the body; this happens when serotonin is exposed to diminished light.

Other common over-the-counter sleep aids such as Sominex or Nytol can also be tried by adults but, again, a person should discuss with their doctor before taking any of these sleep aids especially if you suffer from Parkinson’s disease, or are being treated for depression or other mental health problems. But it is also buying into the mindset of turning to a pill to solve a problem which can cause problems in other areas of a person’s life.

It is advised that if you have trouble falling asleep and have tried all the natural tips in this article, then perhaps you should see a sleep management specialist. So many people have sleep problems, there is now a sub-specialty in medicine for such difficulties. Inomnia might be a symptom of another medical problem, so it is best to get a consultation with your doctor and discuss your sleeping problems with him.

But even with all the tips on falling asleep, each person must discover their own best way to fall asleep. It is important that you do, because a weary mind and body will hinder you in dealing with life’s other stresses.

If only our brains were like our computer, improving our memory would be a simple upgrade. Just buy some new hardware and you’re good to go. Unfortunately, our brains are much more complex than that. 

Think of your brain like a muscle. To build (real) muscle, you don’t just go get muscle implants, you have to exercise and provide your body with the nutrients needed to build new muscle. 

Your brain works in a similar fashion. Your brain’s “muscle” power can be built with proper exercise and nutrition. There are several ways in which your brain can be exercised, but first it’s helpful to understand exactly how your memory works.

How Memory Works

Simply put, memory is the act of recalling information that your brain has previously processed. However, the process is very complex and involves multiple components.

The major components of the brain used in memory storage and recall are:

• The hippocampus, a primitive structure deep in the brain, plays the single largest role in processing information as memory.
• The amygdala, an almond-shaped area near the hippocampus, processes emotion and helps imprint memories that involve emotion.
• The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, stores most long-term memory in different zones, depending on what kind of processing the information involves language, sensory input, problem-solving and so forth.
• In addition, memory involves communication among the brain’s network of neurons, millions of cells activated by brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

These components are used in varying degrees depending on whether information is being stored in the short-term or long-term memory. 

The Specifics of Short-Term Memory

As its name implies, short-term memory is for short-term storage. Hence, items stored in the short term memory are generally forgotten very quickly. If read a phone number, most people would be able to easily repeat it back. However, it’s likely that you wouldn’t be able to repeat it 5 minutes later unless you gave a concerted effort to remember it. 

The average person’s short-term memory can hold around 7 items. That is why you can remember a phone number for a few minutes, but need your credit card number in front of you when ordering something.

Tips to Improve Your Short Term Memory

Brain Exercises

People are creatures of habit. When we perform tasks in the same way each time, our brain uses the same neural pathways to send the signals needed to complete those tasks. This could be the way you get dressed, the route you take to work or the way you put your makeup on.

Use Mnemonic Devices

This involves using things you are familiar with to remember things you aren’t familiar with

• Visual images - Try this when trying to remember someone’s name. Associate the face of a friend or a pleasant image with the new person’s name. Recently I met someone named Morgan. To remember their name I associated Morgan Freeman’s face with their name. For someone named “Mike” you could associate a picture of a microphone with their face.
• Create a sentence using words with a first letter that represents the list that you are trying to remember. If you were trying to remember the order of the planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – you might use “Many Very Elderly Men Just Snooze Under Newspapers.” This is often used by medical students learning muscle groups, bones and other anatomical features.
• Acronyms, which are initials that creates pronounceable words. HOMES would be an example for remembering the Great Lakes - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.
• Grouping information: Take a long string of information and break it up into chunks that are easier to remember. When remembering your Social Security Number, do you remember it as a 9-digit string or as a group of 3 numbers, 2 numbers and 4 numbers? 
• “Method of loci” is an ancient memory tactic that is still in use by memory experts today. This involves associating a list of items with stops or “loci” on a journey. Try associating each item on your grocery list with each intersection you drive though on your way to work. This is one of the most powerful memory techniques. In fact, Clemens Mayer, the 2006 World Memory Champion, used a 300-point-long journey through his house for his world record in “number half marathon”, memorizing 1040 random digits in a half hour.

Additional Things to Consider

Your brain requires the same things the rest of your body needs to be healthy. Things like plenty of sleep, good nutrition and low stress levels can help your memory retention and recall significantly.