The Growth Mindset Book Podcast: Mindset Mastery Chapter by Chapter

Navigating the Hidden Forces Shaping Your Beliefs

• Michael Fox • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Unlock the secrets of your subconscious mind and take control of the external influences shaping your life. Ever pondered how the suggestions you receive from friends, media, or even past experiences might be quietly molding your beliefs and behaviors? Join us as we explore Joseph Murphy's insights on heterosuggestion and the powerful impact of external suggestions. We promise that by the end of this episode, you'll not only understand the significance of questioning and filtering these inputs but also be equipped with practical strategies to reinforce positive affirmations in your life, leading to a more empowered and self-directed existence.

This episode is a deep dive into the realm of auto-suggestion and self-improvement. Discover how becoming aware of negative verbal conditioning and questioning the information around you can foster personal growth. We explore the subtle ways that propaganda and marketing might be steering your thoughts without you even realizing it. With mindful reflection, we encourage you to become the gatekeeper of your subconscious mind, blocking negativity and embracing positivity. As you engage with your own beliefs and past influences, like those ingrained during school years, prepare to embark on a transformative journey towards conscious awareness and personal development. Join us, share your thoughts, and let's grow together.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back. We are on podcast episode nine. We've been digging in deep to the book Power of the Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy. We started with this book because the key principle of our subconscious mind, which is that piece of God, divine, higher power that sits within us, that operates our whole body, our eyes can see, we can hear our heart beats, we breathe, our eyes blink automatically, all the systems in our body are somehow doing their magical work. Our kidneys are operating, our heart is operating, our liver, all these things are magically occurring and there is that power that exists right within us and that's why they call it the power of the subconscious mind.

Speaker 1:

We left off last time talking about heterosuggestion, and what heterosuggestion means is when someone from the outside meaning someone outside of us, so maybe a friend, a family member, a teacher, a boss, anyone outside of us offers up a suggestion. If we allow it in without questioning it, it has and can have a whole lot of power. So we really want to start to become aware of what are people outside saying and, most importantly, who am I going to to get advice and guidance and feedback? Because if I go and ask the wrong person for feedback, advice and guidance, well, I'm going to get an answer, but it might not be a very good answer. The problem is, if I don't block that out, the subconscious mind will accept that advice as being true. What do I mean? I go to someone for relationship advice. That person is struggling in their own marriage and having all kinds of issues, and they start giving me advice and telling me what I should do, and that goes into my subconscious mind if I don't block it out. Well, that advice coming from someone who's already struggling in their own marriage probably wouldn't be the best advice to listen to. Therefore, again, what I would want to do is I'd want to really pay attention to what suggestions am I allowing in from the outside?

Speaker 1:

In Now, the key is awareness. We've used that word many times and what I'm going to tell you is that word is super powerful. It's super important for us to be focused on awareness. I am aware of what's happening outside of me. I am aware of what I'm tuning into. Remember, heterosuggestion not only means a friend, a family member, but it could mean the television, it could mean radio, it could mean a TV show that we watch, because if we keep hearing a message over and over from the outside world. It is programming our subconscious minds if we don't block it out. So if you're listening to the news and they're constantly talking about the Republicans or the Democrats, it will cause you to form an opinion which may not necessarily be true, because you're hearing the same message over and over and over again.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that's why we're studying this book. That's why our subconscious mind is so powerful, because it will accept from us or from others, suggestions and it will act on those suggestions and give us more of the same and over again that I'm not good enough, or I'm not smart enough, or I can't do that. Then, no matter what I go to do in life, that same suggestion will be repeated by the subconscious mind. In other words, I go to start that business and then the thought comes up I can't do this. The reason it's coming up is because that's what we've been programmed to believe, but the belief is false. The problem is, we've never questioned that belief. Now, I know that we've been programmed to believe, but the belief is false. The problem is, we've never questioned that belief. Now, I know that we've repeated this information and we will repeat it over and over, but why do you think we're repeating this information over and over Because it's the repetition that gets into our subconscious mind and we want this message to get in over and over so that when you're out there and you're dealing with people and you're dealing with your own thoughts that are coming up, those beliefs that are negative, you'll have heard this message so many times that instantly you'll say wait a second, I'm aware that this is a negative belief coming up.

Speaker 1:

Is this belief true? Let me question this Is that really true? Am I really not good enough? Where are times in my life where I've proven that I'm more than good enough and we question it and ultimately we show that it has no credibility and we flip the script and instead we say you know what? I am smart and here's proof. Or I am good enough and here's proof. Or I am good enough and here's proof. I did this that time and that really led me to having success. And we prove to ourselves that these limiting beliefs aren't true.

Speaker 1:

And when we do that enough and we become aware enough and we act on the awareness by questioning those beliefs, guess what ends up happening? Those beliefs lose their power. They lose power in the subconscious mind and we replant in our subconscious mind what we want, and that is the thing that ends up having so much power, and it takes us to a completely different place, because now we're focused on completely different suggestions. Wow, I feel like that was a whole lot that in and of itself. Wow, I feel like that was a whole lot that in and of itself. You could just repeat what I just said over the last six minutes. You could play that over and over and over again for maybe 10, 15, 20 times until you really get it, and that would be really powerful to listen to over and over again. So, that said, we're coming to kind of the close of chapter two and we're going to continue on with heterosuggestion and suggestion. Again, heterosuggestion coming from someone else outside of us or something outside of us, and regular suggestion coming from within my own thoughts, my own beliefs Great. So we're going to go back to the book now we're on page 32, and we're going to be talking about suggestion and it says suggestion may be used to discipline and control ourselves. So what do you think that it means when it says suggestion may be used to discipline and control ourselves?

Speaker 1:

I've worked with a lot of clients and a lot of them will say to me I just don't have the discipline to do the calls. I just don't have the discipline to follow up as much as I should be following up. Now, isn't what they just said to me a suggestion? A suggestion. I just don't have the discipline. They say that it goes into their subconscious mind over and over. And what do they believe moving forward? They don't have the discipline to do the thing they need to do. They don't have the discipline to make the calls. They don't have the discipline to do the thing they need to do. They don't have the discipline to make the calls. They don't have the discipline to follow up. Now, if they keep saying that to themselves, what do you think the chances are that they will actually make the calls and follow up? Well, I can tell you none. And that's the proof in this sentence right here, which says suggestion may be used to discipline and control ourselves. So if we know that that statement isn't going to work example that same client is talking to me.

Speaker 1:

I hear them say I just don't have the discipline.

Speaker 1:

And I say to them I hear what you're saying. Now what you're doing is you're planting a seed in your subconscious mind. So now you have a choice you can continue to plant that seed or you can plant something else instead. I said what would you choose to plant instead, if you know that the seed that you're planting will grow, what do you want to plant? And then they'll say something like I become more disciplined every moment of the day. I become more disciplined with making the calls. I become more disciplined doing the follow-up.

Speaker 1:

I am a disciplined person. Now I've heard my clients tell me this many, many times, which is but Mike, that's not true. I am not disciplined right now. And I always say to them this well, you must become disciplined in your mind first before it's going to show up on the outside. So I have to be telling myself on the inside that I am this type of person. For it to show up, I must say I am disciplined. In order for me to ultimately become disciplined, because I know, if I do what the client was originally doing by saying I am not disciplined in my approach, I am not disciplined in making the calls, well, that's going to be continued to be a reality in their life. How do I know it? Because they've been doing it for months, years and it's literally taken over their life and, ultimately, their results. So we can't continue to do what we've always done or we'll continue to get the results that we've always gotten. So we must shift and we must become aware of the words that are coming out of our mouth and ask ourselves if I was talking to a genie and I was telling the genie what I want in my life, would I be saying I am not a disciplined person? No, we would say to the genie I am disciplined. And the genie says your wish is my command, I will give you more of being disciplined. It sounds simplistic in theory, but it works. And again, you've been using it this way, in the negative, all this time. So we're just flipping the script and we're using it as a tool to help us get what we want.

Speaker 1:

Let's go back to the book. But it can also be used to take control and command over others who do not know the laws of the mind. In its constructive form, it's a wonderful and magnificent. In its negative aspects, it's one of the most destructive of all response patterns of the mind, resulting in patterns of misery, failure, suffering, sickness and disaster. Let's continue on here Now, as I go through what I'm about to read here. Ask yourselves have you heard this and how have you responded to it in the past? Back to the book.

Speaker 1:

From infancy, the majority of us have been given many negative suggestions. Again, we're going to ask ourselves have we been given these suggestions before? Not knowing how to deal with them, we unconsciously accept them. Let me pause here. This is awareness, and this is where awareness comes in. Up until this point, unconsciously, we were accepting things that were being said. We were accepting the social media scroll and what we were reading. We were accepting the television news report that they were telling us. However, what we're going to do is we're going to start getting conscious of what we're doing. We're going to start becoming aware of what we're going to do, and then that will give us more control and more power in our own lives.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's go back to the book.

Speaker 1:

Here are some of the negative suggestions that you might have heard. Ready, ask yourself if you've heard this from other people or the news or any source outside of us. You can't. You'll never amount to anything. You must not do that. You'll fail. You haven't got a chance. You're all wrong. It's no use. It's not what you know, but who you know the world is going to the dogs. What's the use? Nobody cares. It's no use trying so hard. You're too old to do that. Things are getting worse and worse. Life is an endless grind. Love is for the birds. You can't win. Pretty soon you'll be bankrupt. Watch out, you'll get that virus. Now I want you to ask yourself have you heard suggestions like this before?

Speaker 1:

The next question is when you heard them, did you accept it? Did you reject it? Did you accept it and allow it to come into your subconscious mind? If you did accept it and if it did come into your subconscious mind, if you did accept it and if it did come into your subconscious mind, what's the problem with that? What's the cause that could potentially happen by allowing those seeds to come in?

Speaker 1:

These are all statements that we've heard many times in our life, and we have a choice now, and the choice is when someone says something like things are getting worse and worse, we say to ourselves no, I'm calling BS on that. That is not true. It is not getting worse and worse. Things are going to get better and better, because I'm going to take control and I'm going to take a step in a direction of improving this situation. But if I don't do that and if I accept what that person said, which is things are getting worse and worse, and I say you know, it's so true, things are really getting worse. Every time I go to something, it just seems to not work out. If I follow that path, I'm guaranteed to get more of the same. So if that's true, and we know it to be true and we become aware of it, then we want to switch it and say no, things are getting better and better. Things become easily and effortless for me. The perfect people come into my life and guide me and support me. I tap into the power inside of myself and I use that power to help me get everything that I want in life. If we do that, if we focus on what the power is inside of us and reject that outside negativity that's coming in, what does your life look like? How much better is it for doing that? It's powerful stuff and the beauty is we have complete control over it. Let's continue back to the book.

Speaker 1:

Unless, as an adult, you use constructive auto-suggestion, which is a reconditioning therapy, the impressions made on you in the past can cause behavior patterns that cause failure in your personal and social life. So unless we start to recondition all these things that came in from the outside, then what's going to happen is and what has happened is. It caused behavior patterns, it caused beliefs in us and those beliefs are in control of our behavior. If we don't start working on this process of reconditioning and we'll get into how this works in a bit but if we don't start reconditioning and being aware and paying attention, what do you think the chances of our life changing will be? You think we'll continue to do the same behavior patterns over and over? How many of you out there know what you should be doing but aren't necessarily doing what you know you should be doing? There's only one reason why you're not doing what you know you should be doing, and it's because we've gotten conditioned from the outside world, a limiting belief which sits in our subconscious mind, which is now dictating everything as we move forward. No problem, we're aware of what's going on. So now what we do is we figure out what that limiting belief is and we start reconditioning it and again, we're going to get into that as we move forward. Okay, so let's go back to the book.

Speaker 1:

Auto-suggestion is a means for releasing from the mass of negative verbal conditioning that might otherwise distort your life pattern, making the development of good habits difficult. You can counteract negative suggestions. Counteract negative suggestions. So again, someone's going to come to us and say to us a negative thing. If we go back a couple paragraphs for that list of all those negative statements that were being made, someone comes to us and says those things. So then what do we do? So it says we can counteract it. Let's go back to the book, pick up the paper any day and you'll read dozens of items that could sow the seeds of futility, fear, worry, anxiety and impending doom. If accepted by you, these thoughts of fear could cause you to lose the will for life. Knowing that you can reject all of these negative suggestions by giving your subconscious mind constructive auto suggestions, you counteract all of these destructive ideas.

Speaker 1:

Awareness let's take a pause and discuss this for a second. Awareness we're just becoming more and more aware of what are people saying to us and what am I saying to myself. What are people saying to us and what am I saying to myself? What are people saying to us and what am I saying to myself? Aware of it? We don't necessarily have to change it yet we're becoming aware of what's happening to us on a consistent basis, and that awareness is going to help us see first what we're actually doing and then make changes. Okay, let's go back to the book here doing and then make changes. Okay, let's go back to the book here.

Speaker 1:

Check regularly on the negative suggestions that people make to you. You do not have to be influenced by destructive hetero suggestion. All of us have suffered from it in childhood and our teens. If you look back, you can easily recall how parents, friends, relatives, teachers and associates contributed in a campaign of negative suggestions. Study the things said to you and you will discover much of it was in the form of propaganda. The purpose of much of what was said was to control you or instill fear into you. Let's discuss the propaganda that we're talking about here.

Speaker 1:

How about going back in the day and looking at the advertisements for cigarettes? Now, they were very well aware of the fact that cigarettes would cause damage and that they were not good for us, that they could cause all kinds of issues with our health. However, what did they do? They had television commercials where someone was pulling up and they're smoking cigarettes and they look really cool and it's a really popular in thing to do. Well again, if we accept that to be the truth and we don't question is that really good to be smoking? Is that something that I should do? Am I going to just take and listen to the propaganda that's coming from the television, or am I going to go out and question is this really something good? Maybe I should go and talk to a doctor, someone that specializes in lungs, and ask them would it be a good idea for me to smoke? Would that be a good thing for me to do? And then listen to that person who has specialized knowledge, tell you the reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea. And then potentially not listen to the propaganda from television.

Speaker 1:

But remember, when we're watching television, there's marketing professionals, and these marketing professionals are paid millions of dollars to sell product. Therefore, when you watch and I'm sure you're all well aware of this one how many times do you turn on the television? And there's a pharmaceutical ad on TV? On TV, they're talking about some kind of pill that is kind of magically make you feel better. The amazing thing is we still listen to some of that right, we still listen to it and allow it in. However, if you listen to the very end of those commercials. They list 50 to a hundred ways that that same medication that you're going to be taking can cause damage to your body. But they speed it up really fast and they put in a lower volume so you can barely hear it, so that, ultimately, what you're really hearing is the suggestions that you're making that if you take this pill, you are going to feel better. So go ask your doctor about it so that he can give it to you.

Speaker 1:

And that's again propaganda. That's what we're talking about here. Do we listen to what others are selling us or do we question it? And again, unless they have specialized knowledge they're an expert in that specific area then we shouldn't be taking their word. We should be questioning everything. In fact, then we should go find someone who has specialized knowledge and ask that person before we allow that suggestion to take over and control our behavior as we move forward. Is that making sense to you? Are you seeing how, in your own life, you've done this? And this isn't good or bad. This isn't making a good or bad person. It's about becoming aware of information and becoming aware of how this information can help us become a better person, to become a stronger person, to become a more grateful person, to become a person that becomes stronger and in more control of our own life and our own process. So let's go back to the book. This heterosuggestion process goes on in every home, office, factory and club. You will find that many of these suggestions are for the purpose of making you think, feel and act as others want you to and in ways that are to their advantage. Let's pause for a second. Let's talk about school.

Speaker 1:

When we were younger, how many of you heard this from one of your teachers Pay attention, stop daydreaming. Now, what if, in becoming an entrepreneur, daydreaming from time to time would be a great thing, but the teacher didn't tell us that. The teacher told us stop daydreaming from time to time would be a great thing, but the teacher didn't tell us that. The teacher told us stop daydreaming and pay attention, otherwise you're going to get punished. I'll give you a detention. I'm going to talk to your parents.

Speaker 1:

And so we got afraid to daydream. Why? Because, again, this was a suggestion that was given to us, because the teacher wanted to control us. They wanted us to behave a certain way. It wasn't necessarily in our own best interest. What if the teacher would have said instead Michael listen, I know that you might be thinking about something else right now, and there is a real power in doing that. To be able to sit and think and daydream and come up with ideas and dream about different things that you can create in your life. That's a beautiful thing. However, when we're in class right now, I just want you to stay focused, because being focused, that will allow you to understand some of the things that I'm telling you for class. Now, if they suggested it to us like that, wouldn't we have learned a very different message there? We would have learned that daydreaming is a good thing. It's just there's time and place to do that daydreaming, as opposed to being terrified to daydream because if I'm not paying attention, then she's going to fail me, I'm going to get a detention or my parents are going to be contacted. So do you see how this works? All right, let's go back to the book how suggestion killed a man. So now they're going to give us an illustration of heterosuggestion. Here is an illustration of heterosuggestion.

Speaker 1:

A relative of mine went to a crystal gazer in India who told him that he had a bad heart and predicted that he would die at the next new moon. He began to tell all the members of his family about the prediction and he arranged his will. This powerful suggestion entered into his subconscious mind because he accepted it completely. Pause for a second. Because he accepted it completely, he didn't have to listen to this suggestion at all. This wasn't a doctor, it was a palm reader that he went to. Let's go back to the book. But because he accepted it completely, my relative also told me. My relative also told me that this crystal gazer was believed to have some strange occult powers and he could do harm or good to a person. He died as predicted, not knowing that he was the cause of his own death.

Speaker 1:

I suppose many of us have heard similar stupid, ridiculous, superstitious stories. Stupid, ridiculous, super superstitious stories. Let us look at one that happened in light of our knowledge of the way of the subconscious mind works. Whatever the conscious reasoning mind of man believes, the subconscious mind will accept and act on. My relative was happy, healthy, vigorous and robust when he went to see the fortune teller. She gave him a very negative suggestion which he accepted. He became terrified and constantly dwelt upon the fact that he was going to die at the next new moon. He proceeded to tell everyone about it and he prepared for the end. The activity took place in his own mind, and his own thought was the cause. He brought about his own so-called death, or rather destruction of his physical body, by his fear and expectation of the end.

Speaker 1:

I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on this. Do you think it's possible that if someone tells you something like that, you go see a palm reader or fortune teller and they tell you that you're going to die? There's something wrong with you? If you truly believe that in your heart of hearts and you start telling people and you start preparing your will and you start really believing that it's going to happen, do you think it could potentially happen? And I believe from the bottom of my heart the answer is yes, that it can. That's the power of our subconscious mind. So we want to be very aware of what we're going to allow in and what we're not going to allow in.

Speaker 1:

The best thing that could have happened as soon as that fortune teller would have said something negative just get up and leave and then go see a doctor if you need to and ask the doctor. Hey, doc, I went to a fortune teller. They told me this. I'm rejecting it, but I just want to make sure all is well, and then the doctor will tell you yeah, everything looks great. And then that's the end of that. That's the person that has specialized knowledge. I'm not saying that there aren't fortune tellers out there. That may be right, but we have the choice of whether we're going to believe and allow whatever they say in to affect us. So I want to pause here and I want to just end with this.

Speaker 1:

From today until the next time you hear this, which will be next week, what I would love you to do is practice being aware of two things Be aware of what other people are saying to you and be aware of what you're saying to yourself. And when you realize you're saying something negative, or when you realize someone else is saying something negative, ask yourself is that something that I really want to allow in to my subconscious mind? And if it's not, block it. And if you need to see someone that has specialized knowledge to get some feedback from them, then ask them and get that feedback that you need.

Speaker 1:

We have the power to accept and reject. Unfortunately, most people in life don't use this power, but we're learning that we have this power and that we can use it, and it can help us control the power of the subconscious mind. That said, I want you to have an amazing week this week and I wish you nothing but success. Make sure to reach out to us if you have any questions, comments or feedback. We'd love to hear it. We'd love to put it into place. We want to make this better and better for you. We want to make sure that you're happy with the content. Have a wonderful day and

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Michael Fox

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