Hey you, nice to see you again. In this post I want to go deeper into the Concept of Self or Self-Image, same same. And the two words might cause something different in you, when you read or hear them out loud. It might seem a play of word to you, I assure you it is not. It is a way to help you make the connections in your brain easier and your understanding deeper.
Neville talks a lot about this Concept of Self, he also calls this States. States are finished, everything is now. Seth has said that every moment is a new moment and in every moment you decide, which you and which world.
This is where everything springs from. The Concept of Self. Or the Self Image. I have been diving a bit deeper into this, I find it extremely fascinating. What I’ve come to learn, what Seth and Neville had tried to explain to me already but dr Maxwell Maltz with his book Psycho Cybernetics really hit it home for me, is that everything is decided by your Concept of Self. The Self Image that you hold, that I hold, determines behaviour, it determines beliefs and emotions.
I will write that again: The Self Image that you hold, or the image that you hold of yourself determines your behaviour, it determines your beliefs and your emotions.
Pretty BIG. This means that you can go at something with Will Power, but if you only come at the game with that, it’s a guaranteed losing game. Why? Because if your self-image stays the same, nothing will change. You will do something, sabotage yourself so to speak and go back to the comfortable Self that you know. Why? Because you know it, because you feel safe there, because … whatever. The because really doesn’t matter here, it’s almost like arguing for limitations. What matters here is how do you change your Concept of Self then and what can you expect when you’re at it?
Let me give you a quote from dr Maltz’s book, which by the way if you are interested in it, drop me a line at Monique@moniquebjagroe.com
Why Not Imagine Yourself Successful?
Realizing that our actions, feelings, and behavior are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the lever that psychology has always needed for changing personality.
It opens a powerful psychological door to gaining skill, success, and happiness.
Mental pictures offer us an opportunity to practice new traits and attitudes, which otherwise we could not do. This is possible because, again, your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined.
If we picture ourselves performing in a certain manner, it is nearly the same as the actual performance. Mental practice is as pow- erful as actual practice.
“When I first made this assertion, and when others began making it, it was a radical idea; that you could practice in your imagination and achieve comparable results to actual physical practice. Today, it is widely accepted, having been proved by countless trials and experi- ments. Athletes of every stripe routinely rely on mental or imagination practice.
Psycho Cybernetic,, Dr Maxwell Maltz, Chapter Three
Freely translated plus some added knowledge from Seth and Neville:
You decide upon the new Self Image, how he or she behaves, what are their values, how do they dress, talk, respond. Write all of this down. Read it often and get acquainted with this version of yourself. Because as you know, since all exists now which means also every version of you exists now, this version is already out there. You can’t feel her or him yet because you are focused on a different version of yourself, the one that you are being NOW.
You begin practicing being this person in your imagination for about 15 minutes a day. And you don’t have to go on pretend to be that person, you will automatically become this version of you as long as you do your practice. But if this “fake it till you make it” does work for you, then of course you can. There are so many ways to Rome. And so many versions of you that have their own way of getting there.
And of course watch your thoughts and your speech, aka mental diet. You can also throw Affirmations in there. This part, is will power though. You might feel like this is too much work and too much effort, but the question is how much does the old version of you hurt? How done are you with that part of your life that you would like to change? That will get you from here to there.
What to expect, then?
This is also very vital to understand and I hardly hear anyone talking about this. Dr Maltz refers to it as the inner thermostat, like an automatic thermostat that keeps reverting back to a particular amount of degrees. If you are used to being a 30 degrees person, and you want to be a 50 degrees person with everything that comes with that, you will first want to automatically revert back to the 30 degrees. Here’s where the imagination and practicing comes in.
Then the body. What will happen in your body, because trust me something is bound to happen there too, depending on the level of change your aiming for.
Our bodies are big antennas and it is through the body, through feelings and sensations in your body, even illnesses and pains that you can find out what you are thinking and believing in the moment. You can feel into the body to determine, find out what you are thinking in the moment and what you are feeling about live, money, work and love. Your parents, your spouse, the world, etc. Your body is beautiful encyclopedia on YOU.
So what is very likely to happen is that your body will start physically reacting to your new thoughts and imaginings, and based on how it is reacting you can deduct what your beliefs are about this new State, this new Self Image, this new Concept of Self.
For instance, if you are working on feeling more loved and your going great and all of a sudden you fall sick for whatever reason, you can say with certainty that you somehow feel very uncomfortable with changing and it is up to you to find out why or to soothe yourself into pushing through, have conversations with the parts of you that are afraid and soothe them. Don’t just ignore them, there’s vital information there.
Understand that I’m writing about specifically this, so you know what you might expect and you are able to push through instead of giving up and reverting back to the “safe calm feeling ” of the State you are trying to leave, or the self image you are in the process of changing. Be aware, be determined and stick to your plan.
Lastly, life is supposed to be fun and all of this is to get into even more fun.
Have a beautiful day wherever you are. Love you’s
Monique
Ps, here’s a video that I am sure will do something extra for you on this journey,