A Bouquet of Fresh Pencils For Hypnotherapy

Erasing Old Mental Blocks Written On the Subconscious Mind

“Don’t you just love New York in the fall? Makes me want to buy school supplies.  I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils….” Tom Hanks writes to his mystery AOL pen pal (Meg Ryan) in the iconic movie “You’ve Got Mail”.

Can you smell fresh pencils just thinking about that pencil bouquet?  Our whole body, mind and spirit carry memories from early childhood which can feel as though they are happening right now, in the present moment. 

With just a smell, a feeling, or a sound bringing us into a scene, our minds consciously conjure up visions at the drop of a hat.

Imagination is one of our superpowers!

Our minds are also enormous libraries– where the subconscious mind is nearly a 24/7 record of experiences and feelings going all the way back to in utero!

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just find the memories from the past which might be holding us back as easily as we can imagine a bouquet of fresh pencils?

Such as finding the one event that is the root cause of our confidence issues?  Our migraines? Our fears of using our voice, promoting ourselves at work, or saying NO to an aggressive boss?  Or how about getting beyond challenges with food? Perhaps even…. whatever makes us want to run for the hills when speaking to our mother?

Ugh!  Why is it so hard to identify and unwind the mental blocks keeping us from what we want to experience in life due to fear, uncertainty or not feeling worthy?

Because they are stored behind an invisible wall in a memory bank which serves as a repository of learned programs to help the brain work efficiently, like a computer which has a “stored rules” language like modern day computer operating software. 

There is a reason you don’t have to learn to walk again every morning, right?

Imagine a huge football field of computers as your subconscious – and the endzone is your conscious mind. Our lives operate at only 5% consciousness – that’s the endzone. 

The rest of our minds are operating on a massive field of subconscious systems which keep us thinking, feeling, and functioning beyond our conscious controls. 

Some might wonder what on earth is going on there, behind that invisible wall.  Most do not – as it is still so mysterious, and out of sight, out of mind.

Now, the secrets of the subconscious mind are beginning to reveal access points as our appreciation for the body-mind complex expands exponentially through advances in science, quantum physics, spiritual practices, meditation and a surge in complementary health practices.

The clues to our subconscious lie hidden in 2 million years of evolution as the brain and nervous system grew and adapted across a multiplicity of environments where the governing rules were survival oriented.

That is still the case for our minds in this recent modern industrial/digital age.

Today, we understand most humans automatically think 50-70,000 thoughts per day -- most of which are negatively predisposed due to evolutionary survival conditioning.

We also realize that the brain consumes 20% of our overall caloric intake, with patterns and habits organized around principles of efficiency – to maximize our operating power – and yes, keep us alive.

Additionally, we understand that the brain has four primary wave frequencies 0-30Hz – the higher frequencies, or our “logical thinking brain” not coming in until about 7 years of age – making us incredibly impressionable prior to that time.

The one key thing we cannot understand about the subconscious mind is this:

The subconscious mind does not recognize TIME in relation to our maturity.

Therefore, past perceptions of reality from the ages of 0-7 (most often) will filter into our present adult reality in ways we cannot consciously identify, thereby warping our beliefs of what is “true” about ourselves, and our personal power.

These old subconscious beliefs, based in highly charged emotional experiences will form deeply embedded neural pathways of thought which will block us back from living in a fully empowered state.

Essentially – we can have a child’s belief set running an aspect of our adult lives with no conscious awareness of it, and no ability to consciously interrupt it or stop it.

So, if we have a serious event when we are in our younger years prior to the age of 7 and “wide open”, we will believe our experiences are the only reality offered to us.  This forces us to hardwire emotions coupled with the interpretation of the event into a neural network creating what is referred to as a “limiting belief”. 

Example:  I was left behind at kindergarten pickup and no one came to get me because there was a new baby in the house and therefore “I don’t matter”.

The belief “I don’t matter” formed in kindergarten will be the root cause of a belief system which continues to self-affirm and permeates our feelings about our place in the world throughout the rest of our lives affecting jobs, relationships, health, and choices.

This childhood “belief lens” will be one of the filters for all our life experiences, even while our adult self knows it is not rational, and false.

Not all experiences which affect our adult lives via subconscious memory happen during ages 0-7 years, though many issues we identify in hypnotherapy will trace back to these vulnerable times.  

It is challenging to get our minds around the fact that an event that happened at the age of three has impacted our entire life trajectory.

Yet that can be the case.

Who wants to think they have an inner raging five-year-old who was never heard at the dinner table running the board meeting at 40?

Yet, that can be the case.

The younger wounded version of us is still alive and well, living on in the present moment as the old subconscious neural network memory vibrates like a string.  The subconscious, in its evolutionary developmental format, is doing its job:  It is working to protect us from ever going there again across the horizon of learned experience.

When we experience a fear, or an issue that we cannot consciously identify – most often the subconscious will know what it is. All we need to do is find it.   And we do that by going into a gentle relaxed state in hypnosis and instruct the subconscious to locate it, and it will.   

So many of my hypnotherapy clients will comment at the end of their session, “I had no idea… xyz situation from my past was influencing my life like that….”

The subconscious has its own filters full of emotion and patterned memories, which operate not so much on impact – rather on meaning.

It is the meaning of events that calibrate their wounding power, and deriving meaning is a unique application of the soul’s pathway of life on this planet – a much bigger conversation than we have time for here, most certainly.  

We are all unique, meant to be here and to build, learn, and evolve.  We lose so much self-belief and personal value in our early years through fear states, hurt, confusion, and circumstances.

We once held the mistaken belief we would forever be stuck that way, as though our emotional and mental restrictions must be accepted like the color of our eyes. 

That is absolutely not true, and that perspective is changing - fast.

Hearts are opening with the healing that hypnotherapy provides – and freedom from anxieties, phobias, and pains from early years soften and disappear into the distance once they are brought to conscious awareness.

When you think of a bouquet of pencils now, remember that it is your experiences writing memories formed long ago into your subconscious mind which may be determining how and why you see the world the way that you do.

And like pencils, if there is something stuck, or holding you back, you can erase its influence by finding it, letting it go and writing something better in its place.

Until the next time,

Be kind to yourself.

Lydia