THE SOURCE OF PROCRASTINATION
This may sound familiar: You want to start a project, and you want to reach a positive goal. However, you postpone the start, because every time you try to act, for some unknown reason, you experience feelings of anguish, confusion, and fear. He tries to use willpower, but it doesn’t work. Little by little, you start to lose motivation and enthusiasm. And eventually you end up dreading the idea of starting that project, as it involves too much effort and stress.
The source of procrastination is a subconscious destructive belief about fear of failure, insecurity, or a feeling of unworthiness and perfectionism, all related to past negative experiences. If some of these memories are too painful, the mind chooses to suppress them.
It can even go back to when you were still in the womb, when you absorbed any negative emotions your mother might have experienced during her pregnancy. If she was less than 7 years old, considering that her mind was not able to filter all the information she received, it is most likely that she perceived a harmless event as distressing. This left a disturbing impression in your mind and your subconscious brain imprinted it as a negative experience. Today, renowned neuroscientists, including Professor Gary Schwartz, suggest that there are scientifically-based facts that we record such destructive memories and false perceptions not only in the brain, but also in the tissues, organs, and cells of the body. These “Cellular Memories” carry the imprints of all the experiences that have happened to us and the way we feel about each one, like files stored in a computer.
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT
You have a conscious intention to change your life in a positive way, but you feel stuck, unable to take the necessary steps to reach a goal. The silver lining is that you are not dealing with laziness, lack of discipline, low determination, or willpower. There is nothing wrong with you, or with your abilities and mental abilities. The cause of your delay pattern is connected to these destructive memories!
Let me bring up a metaphor that will give you the whole picture. You love to paint and you dream of becoming a famous painter. However, when he was a child, his school’s art projects were lacking, his art teacher often said that he had no talent, therefore he could never become a successful artist. You experienced a feeling of rejection! Even though this comment could have been incorrect, you perceived it to be true. This painful memory registered itself in his brain and his body tissues, and eventually became a subconscious false belief, even if he forgot everything and moved on with his life!
YOUR INDOOR ALARM SYSTEM
Now, as an adult, every time you try to take the first step towards this goal, you feel blocked in some way. Without you noticing, an alarm goes off in your body that prevents you from taking any action. If you’re sabotaging a project and putting off starting over and over again, you’re not doing it on purpose. These subconscious negative patterns prevent you from moving forward and moving forward.
Its function is to protect you from experiencing rejection and failure again, by keeping you from getting hurt. So even if you forgot some traumatic experiences, their memories still exist deep in your mind and in your cells. They act as a fear-based defense mechanism, penetrating the body every time you try to act. They always run in the background, like a hidden computer virus. Every time they give off their protective warning signal, the body triggers the autonomic stress response (“fight or flight”). Many harmful stress hormones and chemicals, such as adrenaline and cortisol, are released in the body. The immune system temporarily shuts down to divert all available energy towards the external threat. Blood flows from the digestive system and from the brain to the muscles, preparing to meet the challenge. The body reacts as if the threat is real, even if there is no real threat. At a time like this, it’s hard to think rationally and it’s easier to withdraw and give up. If this happens repeatedly, it not only affects your personal success, but in the long run, it also has a detrimental impact on our health.
HEAL THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Here’s the tricky part: Merely noticing an unconscious fear or negative memory doesn’t resolve your tendency to procrastinate. Nor can you get rid of these inner fears and insecurities simply by applying willpower, commitment, or discipline, which are functions of the rational, cognitive brain. The subconscious mind is much more powerful and stronger than the conscious one. Execute your actions, even if you are not aware of it. It always prevails over the conscious mind!
So in order to solve your procrastination problem, you need to cure the root cause. You need to reprogram the wrong “software” stored in the computer of your mind and body. You need to heal those negative and limiting beliefs, and transform them into healthy and positive beliefs! There are successful and scientifically proven ways to achieve this:
1) The most powerful and effective way to reprogram negative subconscious conditioning is by using hypnotherapy. It allows you to directly reach the subconscious mind and communicate with it in its own language. Through hypnosis you can neutralize destructive memories and false beliefs that trigger the body’s stress response. You can replace them with positive and true beliefs, completely reprogramming the brain.
2) Another way to arrive at some results is by considering take small portions of shares. For example: Your goal is to exercise every day to reduce weight. Imposing these unrealistic expectations on your mind will trigger the stress response in your body. To avoid this, and at the same time take some action, you can start by putting on your gym clothes, (don’t put on your running shoes yet), as if you were going to the gym. But instead, stay home, keep your gym outfit on, and eat a regular breakfast. Do this for a few days. After a few days, your subconscious mind has become familiar with this new routine, and since more action has been taken, you feel safe. Next time, after you put on your gym clothes, you can also put on your running shoes and stay home for a few days. Now, after putting on your clothes and shoes, you can take your car keys out of your bag and place them near the door.
Then get on with your breakfast or your morning chores. If you have any gym equipment at home, you can put on your gym clothes and shoes, and take your breakfast to the treadmill. Get on your treadmill and eat your breakfast, without turning on the machine.
Even if you have taken small new actions, your subconscious mind does not feel threatened and there will be no stress response. Do not be impatient. Eventually, after many microscopic actions, you’ll reach the point where you subconsciously feel confident and comfortable going to the gym, so you can begin to really exercise and enjoy it. This will feel like an inspired action, rather than an unpleasant activity. You have managed to reprogram your beliefs in your subconscious mind.
3) NLP and visualizations they are also an effective way to achieve results. You can do a visualization, every night before you go to sleep, visualizing yourself in the gym, exercising, feeling totally safe and enjoying it, until you feel something has shifted, like a block has been cleared!
Once your subconscious mind has been reprogrammed, you will feel and start acting differently. You will feel positive, enthusiastic, inspired, motivated, sure of success, when thinking about a goal that you want to achieve! Instead of being afraid to take action, the thought of moving forward will feel fun!
It brings you a sense of peace and relief, rather than effort. From then on, you will feel as if you are moving down the river, without tension or resistance. You will notice that small synchronicities will begin to manifest around you. You will start attracting small miracles on a regular basis, positive things and people will appear in your life, all conspiring for you and helping you move towards your dreams! You’ll feel like you’re on the right track! All other steps will follow effortlessly.