Your thoughts create your reality: how to plant better seeds in your mental garden.

Your mind is a garden, and your thoughts are the seeds. This pivotal insight from "The Power of the Subconscious Mind" reveals why some of us flourish while others struggle with the same circumstances.

Did you know you have approximately 65,000 thoughts per day, and a staggering 85% of those thoughts are repeats from yesterday? This repetition creates your life's framework—when you think the same thoughts, you create the same experiences. But what if you could consciously choose different seeds to plant?

We explore five transformative principles from Chapter Three that can revolutionize your thinking. Your subconscious mind accepts everything without discrimination—it doesn't judge the quality of thoughts being planted, it simply grows whatever you feed it. This explains why affirmations work, why gratitude transforms your experience, and why protecting your mental space is crucial.

Perhaps most powerful is understanding that your conscious mind functions as a gatekeeper. Like installing a firewall on your computer, you can choose what influences penetrate your mental space. The news, negative people, and limiting beliefs can only affect you if you allow them entry. And when someone's words upset you, it's not their power—it's an internal button being pushed, revealing where healing is needed.

Through practical examples and real client stories, we demonstrate how these principles apply to finances, relationships, and self-worth. The homework challenge? Choose one principle and consciously apply it this week. Notice how simply being aware of what you're planting in your mental garden begins shifting your entire life experience.

Ready to take control of your subconscious programming and transform your reality? This episode provides the roadmap. Subscribe now and join our community of conscious creators designing lives of abundance, joy, and purpose.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Chapter Three Highlights
• 5:09 We Become What We Think About
• 11:44 Your Subconscious Accepts All Seeds
• 18:24 The Power to Choose Your Thoughts
• 26:05 Your Conscious Mind as Gatekeeper
• 30:30 Words Only Hurt If You Allow It

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Today we're gonna do the highlights of chapter three from the power of the subconscious mind. I'm gonna hit, point by point, the key elements of chapter three and for the rest of the book that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna just pull out the key items and discuss it and use examples so that you really get the key items from the book. I had asked for feedback and some of the feedback that I got was Mike, you don't necessarily have to go line by line. As long as you're hitting the key elements and you're giving us examples of how that actually works and how we can apply that in our life, that's perfect and I think that's good also because it's going to allow us to go through books a little more quickly and go to some other books and again hit key items in those books so that we can use those points and apply them in our life so that ultimately, we're living a happier and better life. So we're on page 37 of the Power of the Sub subconscious mind. It's the review section, and I'm going to start with point one. So it says think good, and good follows. Think evil, and evil follows. You are what you think about all day long. Earl Nightingale said this so beautifully. The talk that he did was called the Greatest Secret, and the Greatest Secret was you become what you think about?

Speaker 1: 2:29

We have 65,000 thoughts per day, many of those same thoughts. About 80% of I think it's even higher, I think it's 85% of those thoughts are the same thoughts that we had yesterday. Now, how does that work? Think about it. When we wake up in the morning, those thoughts are similar thoughts. We'll think it's time to get out of bed. We'll then get out of bed, we'll then walk to the bathroom and as we're doing those actions, there are thoughts that precede the actions. So I say to myself okay, it's time for me to walk to the bathroom, it's time for me to brush my teeth, it's time for me to go to the bathroom, it's time for me to shower. These are all thoughts that we have over and over. Now, remember, if we're having 65,000 thoughts per day and our life is very similar on a day-to-day basis and our experience of life is very similar, that's because we're thinking these same thoughts over and over every single day. This is good, because if we start to change the way that we think, what do you think is going to start happening to our life. If we think more good thoughts, if we think more positive thoughts, what will our experience of life be? If we think more negative thoughts and we focus on all the lack in our life, what will our experience of life be? And the answer to both of those is we will become more of whatever it is that we think about. If you're not feeling good, it's telling you that you're thinking in a wrong way, you're thinking in a negative way. So what we need to do is shift that and start thinking more positive thoughts. So here's a question how can you think more positive thoughts? What are some simple ways to apply that in your life?

Speaker 1: 4:18

My favorite go-to is gratitude. Gratitude is a beautiful way to quickly connect to the higher power, to connect to God, and it's a quick way to get yourself feeling good. Because if you take moments and you take time to focus on all the things that you're grateful for in your life, you're absolutely going to start feeling better. For example, let's say that right now I start thinking of the things I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for my wife, why? Because she's caring, loving, kind. She has such a good heart. She always supports me in everything that I want to do. I'm grateful for my son. Why I'm grateful for my son? Because he's such a caring and loving and kind soul. In all the time that he's been around, I have never, ever, heard him say one negative thing about anyone or anything. He doesn't talk negatively about anyone, and that's an amazing thing. There was only one other person who in my lifetime I experienced that with, and that was my grandfather. He never had a negative thing to say about anyone. So I'm grateful that I have him in my life to show me that I can raise my standards and try to get to his level of not making those judgments and not speaking negatively of others. And not speaking negatively of others. So gratitude again is a great way to quickly pull us out of negative thinking and quickly have us realize all these incredible things that we're grateful for. Recently, my mom went into the hospital. Thank God she's okay, but in a heartbeat things can change. No one was expecting her to be in the hospital and then suddenly I got a phone call that she's in the hospital. So I'm grateful that I have her in my life. I'm grateful that she has health in her life. I'm grateful for all of these things. If I choose to focus on that. What will my experience be? I will have more happiness, more peace in my life, and that all came from changing the way that I was thinking. So, again, the easiest way to change how you're thinking, the easiest way is to go to gratitude and just take time to keep asking yourself what am I grateful for? And when you have an answer, then ask why. And the why will take us deeper. It will cause us to feel more of that gratitude, to feel more of that thankfulness, to feel happier, to feel peaceful and to feel much better. And when we do that, our life will start to also show more happiness, peace and our results in life will start to shift as well. So, again, the key thing here is whatever we're saying and whatever we're thinking on a consistent basis is what we're going to become. And that happens because we're planting these seeds into our subconscious mind. So if I'm constantly thinking negative thoughts and I'm planting them into the garden, my subconscious mind, the subconscious mind doesn't reject anything. It just allows you to plant, and whatever you plant, it's going to sprout more of. So we control that garden by controlling our thinking, and we control our thinking by going to gratitude. Does that make sense. Let's go to point number two. Your subconscious mind does not argue with you. It accepts what your conscious mind decrees. If you say I can't afford it, it may be true, but do not say it Select a better thought Decree, I'll buy it. I accept it in my mind. This is a really important point. Our subconscious mind doesn't care what we feed it. Again, it's a garden. It's sitting there, it's that soil on the ground. It doesn't care what we plant in it, because whatever we plant in the soil, it's going to grow more of. This is exactly how our mind works. So if we know that's the case, we want to be very selective in what we're going to plant in that garden Because, again, it's not going to reject it. So if I keep saying I have a lack of money in my life, if I keep worrying about money and I plant those seeds in the garden, what is my experience of life going to be? It's going to be lack and limitation. It's going to be. I can't afford this. I need to be careful, I need to save, I need to worry Instead of focusing and planting seeds of abundance and taking actions of abundance which will lead to more abundance coming into my life. But if I plant the seed in my mind money comes to me easily and effortlessly and I plant that in my mind I'm going to have a very different experience than if I plant the seed. Money is really tough to make or I'm always having a struggle to get all the things I want in my life. The thing is, whatever I say will go into the subconscious mind, it will get planted in there. I choose, so let's all choose to plant what's going to support us, what's going to make a difference, what's going to help us? Because, again, the subconscious mind is not gonna argue with you. It's gonna say Michael, you're right, you have lack and limitation in your life. If I plant that seed, it will also say Michael, you're right, you have a lot of abundance in your life and it will grow more of that. You're in control. You choose what you're putting in the garden and if you choose to put negative seeds in that garden, you're going to sprout lots of negative seeds. The beauty is, if you find that your garden is overwhelmed with negative things, just start pulling the weeds and start planting positive seeds and it will overtake the garden. We have a choice. Our subconscious mind doesn't care what we choose. It'll just give us more of whatever we choose to put in there. So you are completely responsible for the results and the feelings that you're getting in your life because you're choosing to put these seeds in your subconscious mind. Let's move on to point number three, and point number three is you have the power to choose. You can choose to have health and happiness. You can choose to be friendly. You can choose to be unfriendly. Choose to be cooperative, joyous, friendly, lovable, and the whole world will respond. This is the best way to develop a wonderful personality. You have the power to choose. Let me tell you a story about one of my clients. He grew up in a household where money was lacking significantly. He was always worried. His parents were always struggling, his dad lost his job and they were always worried about how they were paying the bills. So if he was surrounded by these messages of lack and limitation, what do you think now he's grown up to believe? His belief is that money is lacking and money can quickly disappear, just like it did. When he was younger, he wasn't aware of what he was doing. He wasn't aware that he was choosing to focus on that negative and choosing to allow this old belief system, this old programming about how money is lacking was taking over and running habitually in his mind. It was a program that was running in his mind and controlling everything about money. Then we started working on understanding that when that feeling comes up, it's okay, it's not bad, it's normal, it's habitual behavior. It's that habitual program of lack and limitation, of I don't have enough, I may run out of money. What if this happens? It's that habitual thought process and that's all it is. It's habitual. It's not really a choice. Until you realize what you're doing. Then it becomes a choice. So now that he's aware of what's happening, he can make a choice when that type of thinking comes up. Instead he can choose abundance. So when that thought comes up, okay, what if I don't have a good month this month? What if I struggle the next couple months? When those come up, he can replace it with I am so happy and grateful now that money flows to me in increasing quantities through multiple sources on a continuous basis. And then the negative thought comes up again about money and then he replaces it with I am so happy and grateful now that money flows to me in increasing quantities through multiple sources on a continuous basis. You see, what he's doing is, now that he's aware of his thought process, he's making a choice and he's saying, every time that negative comes up, what I'm going to do instead is I'm going to replace it, I'm going to plant the different seed, I'm going to choose which seeds I'm planting in the garden, and that's what this point three is all about negative. I'm making a choice to then say I'm planting these seeds instead into my garden, and you can do that. So think about for yourself right now what is something that has been a negative, habitual thought process for you over all these years that has controlled a lot. Maybe it's something about relationships. Maybe it's trust. I don't trust a man or a woman in a relationship because people left me at a young age, and if they left me, if my parents left me, that means other people will leave me too. So I can't trust anyone. That's a belief, or maybe it's. I can't get in good shape, no matter what. I've tried it in the past, whatever I do, it just doesn't work. Ultimately, I put the weight back on, I stop going to the gym and I'm not in good shape. Those are all habitual ways of thinking and you can choose to allow that to continue or you can become aware of it and you can shift it. You can change it and you can replace it with something different In the relationship. You could replace it. I'm so happy and grateful now that I trust and have beautiful, loving, caring relationships and if you say that enough times, you're planting seeds in your garden and ultimately, over time, the garden will be filled with that trust and that love. Again, we have the choice. This is you having the power to choose. We don't necessarily have the power to choose up until this point because we didn't even realize what was happening. But now that we're aware of what's happening, we have the ability to make a choice and say I'm no longer allowing that negative to control my life. I'm no longer choosing to plant these negative seeds in that garden. Instead, I'm choosing to put positive in there. I'm choosing to focus on gratitude. I'm choosing to focus on trust, love. I'm choosing to put the seeds that I want in my garden, because it's my garden and I want it to grow into the garden that I want, not a garden that I'm unhappy with. If you're unhappy with your garden, you weed what you want out and you plant what you want in. Can it be that easy? What do you think? Can it be easy like that? It can, but we have to again become aware of what we're doing and then choose to say something and plant something that's going to support us and help us live a life where we're happy, peaceful and free. Does that make sense? All right, let's go on to point four. This point is key. This is a very important point, and it is this your conscious mind. Again, your conscious mind is where we do all of our thinking. Your conscious mind is the watchman at the gate. Its chief function is to protect your subconscious mind from false impressions. Choose to believe that something good can happen and is happening now. Your greatest power is your capacity to choose. Choose happiness and abundance. I want to focus on the beginning part of what it's saying here. It says your conscious mind is the watchman at the gate On your computer system. What do you put in place to protect it from getting viruses and to protect it from having people connect from the outside? In you would put virus software and potentially a firewall, because what you're doing is you're putting these protective layers in so that the outside sources can't get in and infect your computer. Because if your computer gets infected then you have to scrub it and clean it and you have to run special programs to remove these viruses. And it's the same thing with our conscious mind. Our conscious mind is where we do our thinking. That's where we can protect ourselves from allowing the thoughts to go into our subconscious mind. It's at the conscious layer, it's at our thinking parts. Remember, we were just talking about the virus software. This virus software or this firewall can protect us from outside things that are going on. Someone walks up to you and says you're such a jerk, you're such an idiot. We have a choice. If our virus software is in place, if our firewall is in place, we can block out what they said and say I reject that, that's not true. And you block it from allowing it to come into your conscious mind. Allow it to sit in your conscious mind. What happens next is it's going to cross over to your subconscious mind and once it's in your subconscious mind, you've planted a seed in the garden. Now that seed, the subconscious mind, it's not going to reject, it accepts whatever you plant into it. So if you allow all this stuff that's happening on the outside to come in. This is a problem, so we need to block it. We need to put that layer of protection up there and say if someone's going to say something, I am going to reject it if it's not going to help me and it's going to ultimately plant negative seeds in my subconscious mind. How about this? We've spoken about this before. But what about the news? If you're sitting there and you're watching the news, do you have your firewall in place or is the news just coming right into your conscious mind and if you allow it to sit there, it goes directly into your subconscious mind? So, whatever they're saying on the news, our seeds are being planted into your garden. News, our seeds are being planted into your garden and that is creating your reality in life, because your subconscious will say yes, this political system is terrible, bad things are happening, the world's coming to an end and that's what your experience of life will be. However, if you turn off the news and you don't allow it to come into your mind, what's going to happen? You're protecting yourself. You're protecting yourself from allowing that impression, this negative seeds, to be planted first in your conscious, but then directly into your subconscious mind is absolutely imperative that we see ourselves as having this firewall and we're protecting whatever's on the outside and we're making a decision. Am I going to allow what's going on the outside to come in? Am I going to allow those negative beliefs that others have about relationships? Am I going to allow what they're saying to come in and infect my mind? Because if you do and you allow it, it's going to get planted right into your subconscious mind and your belief will be that relationships equal pain. And if relationships equal pain and relationships equal not being able to trust, what is the likelihood that you'll be in a good relationship? However, if instead, what you do is you block that out and you say, no, that's not true. I get into really good relationships because I have love for myself, I support myself, I take care of myself and I'm going to be in a caring and loving and kind relationship. And that's what I'm attracting more and more into my life People that love me just as I am and care about me just as I am. Those are the seeds I'm planting into my subconscious. And if I do that consistently, what do you think will begin to happen? We'll start to have more trust in our relationships, because those are the seeds that we're planting. Put the firewall in place and you decide what you're allowing to come in from the outside. Am I allowing the news to come in automatically? Am I going to listen to those negative songs on the radio that are programming my mind about relationships? Am I going to allow that song that's talking about how a guy got cheated on, and multiple times? Am I going to allow that to come into my mind and plant seeds about relationships? Because that's exactly what it's doing? How in the world do you think you got all the beliefs that you currently have in your subconscious mind? How do you think those programs got planted? They got planted because you heard things over and over. You didn't have the firewall in place and it came in and it polluted you. It caused all these viruses to be installed, and these viruses now, if we don't remove them, will infect us and we'll completely be in control of how we think. Does this make sense? We're hitting a lot of things here and my suggestion is listen to this again and again, because it's through the repetition of this kind of information that it's planting seeds in your mind that are beautiful and it's causing you to think in a very different way, planting seeds in your mind that are beautiful and it's causing you to think in a very different way. So what better thing to put into our subconscious mind than to listen to stuff like this over and over again, because it's planting seeds and it's causing us to think in a very different way. Does that make sense? Okay, let's go on to number five. We hit this when we were talking about number four, which says the suggestions and statements of others have no power to hurt you. Let's think about this. If you could have that as a belief, the suggestions and statements of others have no power to hurt me. If you believe that, what would that do in your life? If you had the belief that the suggestions and statements of others have no power to hurt me, could anyone ever hurt you? No, only you are choosing whether or not you're going to be hurt by something. You're choosing to believe what their words are. They have no power over you unless you give it power. And to go on here, it says the only power is the movement of your own thought. You can choose to reject the thoughts or statements of others and affirm the good. You have the power to choose how you'll react. You have the power to choose how you're going to react. No one can upset you unless you allow them to upset you. I think I told this story, but I'm going to tell it again. I was once at a seminar and there was a facilitator at the seminar and I couldn't stand her. She just got on my last nerve and what really was going on is what she would do is she was telling people what to do and at the time I certainly didn't like to be told what to do and I finally got to a point where I was like boiling over and I raised my hand, they gave me the microphone and I started to scream and yell and actually say profanities at this facilitator. Here I am, I was a teenager doing that and I was screaming, yelling and she stood there and it didn't affect her one bit. Now, how is it possible that it wouldn't affect her? And that was one of the questions I actually asked her later on, because it blew my mind that I'm sitting there screaming, yelling and cursing at her and not one budge. It didn't affect her at all. And that's the power of our ability to reject. When I was attacking the woman in the seminar, the facilitator, was it because of stuff that she was doing, or was it because some button inside of me was being pushed? Of course that's what it was A button inside of me was getting pushed. I didn't want to be told what to do. I felt like she was telling me what to do and she was saying that I was stupid. And I had that very big belief when I was younger that I was stupid. My brother was an attorney, my other brother a doctor, my parents a lawyer and a paralegal. And here I am feeling like I was stupid. So when she was doing what she was doing, she was hitting that button inside of me. Did that have anything to do with her? Did that say anything about her me coming at her, or did that have everything to do with me? It had everything to do with her. Did that say anything about her me coming at her, or did that have everything to do with me? It had everything to do with me. And when you get upset with anyone, no matter what barring, they're punching you in the face. But the words that they speak can only cause emotion if you allow it to, and the only way you allow it to is if you have a belief inside that gets triggered. And so I think that as we move forward, if you can be aware, the next time you get upset and say to yourself it wasn't really nice that she said those words to me or he said those words to me. However, there's a button inside of me that got pushed. What's that button? And maybe if I work on dealing with that button, that belief, that limiting belief that's inside there, I'm not good enough, I'm stupid, I can't do this, I have lack in my life. Whatever those limiting beliefs are, if we work on those and we get stronger there. Now someone comes up to us and starts being really mean and using their words in a negative way, will that have any impact on you? Maybe it'll have a little bit of impact because those buttons, those triggers, are still there. However, it'll be a lot better and as you work on those triggers, eventually you'll become so strong that literally nothing on the outside world can impact you, because you'll realize if something's impacting you, there's a lesson to be learned. Okay, so I'm going to pause here. We're at 29 minutes for this episode. I'm going to stop and we'll continue next time. There's about five more points to this chapter. I'm going to hit those points and we'll do that the next time. So here's the homework assignment how can you take one of these five points that we've covered today and start applying them in your life? For example, how can you be the watchman, how can you be the guard of your conscious mind? How can you protect from allowing words from the outside to come in? Maybe you'll work on that this week. Or maybe you'll work on realizing I got to be careful what seeds I'm planting in my garden and I'm choosing, for this next week, to only plant positive seeds in there. And you may still put negative seeds in, but when you catch yourself putting a negative seed, just replace it with a positive. Don't beat yourself up. This is a work in progress. We're all far from perfect. We just keep trying to get a little bit better each time, and getting better comes through practice. Practice is what makes us really strong. So keep practicing, keep getting better, and I look forward to seeing you all next week. Have a wonderful day.