MENTAL MAKEOVERS

Reaping the rich rewards of pursuing a wellbeing regime

BY Archana Law

As workforce wellbeing dips, leaders ask: ‘What will it take to move the needle?’ According to Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a fifth of us will experience severe depression and even suicidal thoughts in our lifetimes.

While this can be triggered by major trauma such as grief, accidents and injuries, it can also be brought on by simple things such as work-related stress or the lack of rest time. The wide variety of causes points to a definite need to give our wellbeing regime more care and attention.

Extensive information about the power of the human mind and discoveries in neuroscience, coupled with astonishing acts of human will, have solidified the brain as perhaps the most powerful life changing force in the world.

Nevertheless, it’s what we choose to do with this information that dictates how our lives ultimately turn out. Only the practical application of these concepts will constitute a truly life changing experience.

It is the imagination first – rather than logical processes – that’s responsible for most human achievements. Steve Jobs created an entirely new product range that wasn’t seen before. Elon Musk is doing the same with SpaceX and electric car projects. These are completely new paradigms not always connected to academics.

And the creator of Bach flower remedies Dr. Edward Bach claimed: “It will take me five years to forget all I have been taught.” Einstein had no faith in school and famously stated: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.”

The author of Your Brain at Work Dr. David Rock says that 95 percent of our activity is driven by the subconscious mind, which can’t distinguish between real and imaginary, and tends to store everything that has happened to us like a gigantic computer.

When bombarded with two million bits of data every second, the conscious mind can remember only between five and nine pieces of information; the rest is passed on to the subconscious mind for processing and free up space.

These discoveries have important implications. If the majority of our lives is fulfilled by the subconscious, it follows that we should primarily focus on our subconscious mind to progress.

Just as a cosmetic makeover focusses on key elements of one’s appearance, a mental makeover addresses the basic components of an individual’s mental makeup.

These few pointers can help stimulate your thinking in this area. Are you emotionally balanced or is life an emotional rollercoaster where you tend to be upset by almost anything? And are you usually relaxed or often anxious, tense and uptight?

If you’re driven by a perfectionist’s need to control each and every aspect of your life, can you let go? Is life a glass that’s half full, empty, negative and pessimistic? And finally, are you able to establish and maintain close relationships, or do you feel alone and distanced?

A good metaphor is that the human mind is like a computer programme with inputs from a variety of sources to generate output. But we aren’t really aware of all that we’re taking in subconsciously as opposed to the conscious mind.

According to author Earl Nightingale, “whatever we plant in our subconscious mind, and nourish with repetition and emotion, will one day become a reality.” This scientific fact – as well as a phenomenon documented by psychologists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud – is also mentioned in ancient texts by scholars throughout the ages.

Use your mind power and be creative. Paint, write (a journal, diary or poem), learn a new language or take up a new hobby to expand your mental capabilities.

Practise being rational. Identify a limiting belief or negative feeling and interrupt that thought process consciously. Transform negative thoughts with positive ones.

When you are relaxed and receptive, programme your subconscious mind with affirmations in the present tense that are personalised and positively worded.

Mindfulness practices such as meditation are ideal for mental development. Though there are a variety of mindfulness practices, they all involve being self-aware in the present at regular intervals throughout the day.

Top sportspersons, athletes and coaches recommend creating a mental picture of success to improve performance. Founders of neurolinguistic programming Richard Bandler and John Grinder have developed and tested changes achieved in real life.

Reframe your thoughts and how you see things in your mind based on beliefs that you might have about yourself, your situation and people around you. By reframing your thoughts, you can choose the best and most enabling perspectives that will help you achieve your goals.

This potentially life changing knowledge will enable you improve life and achieve amazing results. So it’s time to get going!