By Jennifer McCartney
With the breakthrough technology of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and whole brain learning you can improve any aspect of your life – even while you are sleeping. Author, co-founder of Learning Strategies Corp., and founder of Scheele Learning Systems, Paul R. Scheele, Ph.D., joined Tammy Mastroberte, founder of Elevated Existence Magazine, for the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to teach us how we can reprogram our brains to reach our highest potential.
Scheele explained we’ve all been preprogrammed—often in a negative way—by society, which dictates how we feel about ourselves, our work and our relationships. Most of us don’t question this programming, and we just accept it unquestioningly.
“We’re often stopped from exploring and developing our true genius as we become adults,” he said. “We get through school, and we are programmed into what’s called ‘the socialized mind.’”
Sheele compared the preprogrammed brain to a computer that’s been infected with a virus. “We were raised to be obedient to the society that raised us, and we have accepted many of our programs unquestioningly,” he said. Maybe we now believe we’re bad at math, or that we can’t lose weight, or that we’ll never find a job. These become our default settings, and our brains don’t even try to solve the problem.
“We try to use the stuff we were given and when it doesn’t work we think, ‘oh I’m broken,’ or we look at society, and we think that society’s broken,” he noted. What we need is to identify the virus in our mind or the pre-programming we have accepted, and get rid of it. We can reprogram the brain using a variety of tools, including NLP so that our brain functions differently—more productively, and more in line with our highest self.
We all need to start by asking: “What are the voices in your head telling you?” said Scheele.
Rather than get stuck in what he called “the socialized mind,” we can become the author of our own mind, which Scheele calls “the self-authoring mind,” and ultimately, we can progress to what developmental psychologists call “the self-transforming mind.”
“That’s what we’re really encouraging here … people not just authoring their minds, but learning to transform their lives,” he explained. “We can make profound changes in our lives almost instantaneously.”
Three Brain Tools
In order to reprogram out brain, we need to understand how it works. The brain runs on three things:
1.Concentration or focus. This is what we focus on during our daily lives. If we’re meditating and focusing on breaking old thought patterns, our brain will respond accordingly. If we’re spending all our time focusing on the same old thought patterns—that’s our brain running on default. We can choose what we focus on.
2. Imagination. Our brain will create what it is that we focus our attention on. We need to step into this full representation of what we imagine. If we can “see” it in our mind’s eye we can transform it into reality.
3. Suggestion. This is what we suggest to ourselves or the suggestions we receive from others. For example, if we are in an abusive marriage where we are told that we’re worthless, not good enough, not worthy of love over and over, then we learn to accept that as the truth. Even if we escape we still have these programs running in your brain—these suggestions need to be deprogrammed. “Anytime anyone says ‘I can’t,’ they’re right. They’re absolutely programming that,” said Scheele.
The brain responds to these three powerful tools, but most of us don’t actually access the full power and potential our brains possess. We cruise along, instead of using the built in “turbochargers” that can get us where we need to go. In order to rise to the next stage of consciousness, “we have to subject our ideas to inquiry,” Scheele said. “You get more of what you reinforce.”
Once we’ve begun to positively program your brain and use it at its full potential, and are able to move into the self-authoring and self-transforming mind, we’ll find ourselves interacting differently in our family systems, work systems, and even in our church or community. We will find ourselves naturally assuming a leadership role. We will feel more self-confidence because we believe in ourselves, because that is how we are programmed.
“The change is coming from within you,” he said. “It’s not an act of willpower. It feels natural.”