Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind – English for Psychology

Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind – English for Psychology with a podcast, selected passage and illustrated flashcards to improve your listening and reading comprehension

Reading practice

Focus on your future instead of your past

People focus on the negative instead of the positive, and on the past instead of the future, because that is what used to save us from danger. When our DNA was being programmed with this propensity, there was the very real fear of being killed by forces of nature and wild animals if we didn’t learn our lesson the first time.

When your mind experiences emotional pain, it reacts the same way as if you experienced physical pain. In order to prevent you from entering into a similar threatening scenario in the future, your brain will remind you of your past. Basically, it is your subconscious looking out for you. If this becomes a problem, and holds you back, there are lots of ways to retrain your brain! Many of the tools used to help with PTSD can be used to help you to stop focusing on the past if you don’t want to focus on it as much as you do.

Source: https://www.7cups.com/

Stream of consciousness

We exert some power over our thoughts by directing our attention, like a spotlight, to focus on something specific. The consequences of doing so can be amusing, as in the famous experiments in which about one third of the people watching a basketball game failed to spot a man in a gorilla suit crossing the court. Or the consequences can be disastrous, as when a narrow focus prevents a driver from noticing a light turning red or an oncoming train.

Although thoughts appear to “pop” into awareness before bedtime, their cognitive precursors have probably been simmering for a while. Once those preconscious thoughts gather sufficient strength, the full spotlight of consciousness beams down on them. The mind’s freewheeling friskiness is only partly under our control, so shutting our mind off before we sleep is not possible.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/

Positive affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements that can help you to challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. When you repeat them often, and believe in them, you can start to make positive changes.

You might consider affirmations to be unrealistic “wishful thinking.” But try looking at positive affirmations this way: many of us do repetitive exercises to improve our physical health, and affirmations are like exercises for our mind and outlook. These positive mental repetitions can reprogram our thinking patterns so that, over time, we begin to think – and act – differently.

Source: https://www.mindtools.com/