BITESIZE | Break Free From Subconscious Habits and Take Back Control | Dr Bruce Lipton #581

0:01Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 498 of the podcast with the inspirational Dr. Bruce Lipton. In childhood, our subconscious minds can take on unhelpful beliefs that drive our habits and thinking throughout our lives. In this clip, Bruce shares that reprogramming this hidden part of our mind is not only possible, it also has the potential to completely transform our lives If I think about what I see around me, both in my job and if I just look out at the public, I see a lot of people trying to make changes They're trying to change their behaviors, but I don't think they realize that their behaviors are driven by their beliefs.

1:04So they change their behaviors and it lasts for a few weeks or even a few months. But because they've never rewired their belief system, the behavior never sticks in the long term. What's your perspective on that? That's exactly what's going on in the world because people think that my mind, and I say the mind, I go, yeah, well, they say the mind like there's one single entity. There's a big mistake. There are two minds that work together. They're interdependent. I have the conscious mind and what is called the subconscious mind. Each of them has a different function and a different way of understanding life and responding to life.

1:44So let's start with the conscious mind. That's the latest evolution of the brain. It's right behind your forehead, a lobe of brain called prefrontal cortex. This is the seat of consciousness. I say, well, what is consciousness? I say, well, that's your personal life, your personal identity. That's where your spirit enters into your biology is through the creative conscious mind. Creative is the emphasis. The other mind, which was here long before that, was called the subconscious mind, and by its definition means below consciousness, things that the biology has controlled that you have no control over.

2:17What's your pH in your blood? What's the temperature of your body? What's your respiration? All of these are controlled by the subconscious. And the subconscious is a million times more powerful a processor than is the conscious mind. So I say, so what's the point? Ah, the subconscious mind's not creative. Subconscious mind's got programs. It's a hard drive. So if you look at the brain as a computer, you would say the subconscious is the hard drive with programs in it. But the keyboard is where you can type your information in. So I say that's like the consciousness. Conscious mind. Conscious mind is the one that is creative, can type on the keyboard, put in wishes and desires and what you want.

3:03Subconscious mind is not creative. It's basically a hard drive with programs. Once you push the button, the program unfolds. folds, you have no control over it at that point. It's just an automatic process. Now the question is this, which mind is controlling our lives? Everyone thinks their conscious creative mind, my wishes, my desires, my aspirations, consciousness, they believe that's what's controlling their lives. I go, well, this is problematic because everybody has great wishes to be healthy, happy, be in love, great job, and they fail at doing that. And then they feel like victims because they say, oh, I wanted to be healthy.

3:43I wanted to be in love. I wanted a great job. It's not happening. And then they go, well, then it must be the source outside that's interfering with me. They take on victim. Well, victim by definition means powerless. They feel powerless in the unfolding of their lives. I go, there's a great misunderstanding. And that is, imagine your body's a vehicle and the conscious mind is looking through the windshield and it's driving you to where you wanted to go, happiness, love, health, and all that. I go, that's one job of the conscious mind. But the other job of the conscious mind is to think. I go, so what?

4:22Well, thinking is not looking out at the world. Thinking is looking inside. A thought is inside. So the moment you are thinking, consciousness is no longer looking at the outside. Consciousness is looking for something on the inside, a thought. Where am I? What am I doing? where am I going, why this, that? And I say, well, wait, if the consciousness, the conscious mind is not looking out the windshield and it's inside, how come you don't crash your car? And the answer is when the conscious mind is thinking, the subconscious mind with the programs is autopilot. It takes over. Okay. So whatever program you got in your subconscious mind, it's running when you're thinking.

5:08And then I go, oh my goodness, science has recognized we think 95 % of the day we're in thought. 95 % of the day your conscious mind's not running the show, it's inside thinking. So 95 % of the day your life is being controlled by the programs that you downloaded in the subconscious. Then I go, well, wait a minute. If my programs are not very good, And it turns out 60 % of the programs in the subconscious are disempowering, self-sabotaging, or limiting beliefs. So more than half of the programs are actually interfering with your life. I said, well, I would notice if I was playing one of those programs.

5:50No, that's the part. I said, why wouldn't you notice it? Because why are you playing the subconscious program? Because you're not paying attention to what's going outside in the world. You're looking inside at a thought. So I said, well, then when the subconscious programs are playing, you yourself don't even see those programs. Other people see those programs and they respond to your program. And just to conclude with this, it's very simple, which a point that I've made for 40 years. And that is this. You have a friend. You know your friend's behavior very well. You happen to know your friend's parent.

6:25And one day you see your friend has the same behavior as their parent. So you volunteer, you go, hey, Bill, you're just like your dad. Step back from Bill. I'll tell you why, and you already know, because I know what Bill's going to tell you. He's going to say, how can you compare me to my dad? I'm nothing like my dad. And the fact is, but everybody else sees that he's like his dad. The only one who doesn't see it is Bill. And here's the problem. We are all Bill. every one of us 95 % of the day are creating our lives with programs that we don't even see them playing we only see the result of those programs because the result is not supporting us when we have negative programs yeah you said there your friend bill yeah we could substitute the word friend for partner right because people see this all the time with their partners they do they can see that oh you're behaving just like your mom or your dad's and a person resents that when they hear it yeah because there is this disconnect yes i think for many of us yeah between you know what we think our behaviors are and where they've come from and what they actually are which i think speaks to a lot of your work, which is how can we take back the steering wheel?

7:51How can we start to be the architect of our life, of our health, of our happiness? But also there's a couple of things that are worth pausing on. One is what you said about 60 % of the programs that are running are negative. They're self-sabotaging. And it kind of fits with what I see, which is people struggle to make the changes in their life permanent because they're concentrating on the behavior. Oh, I want to meditate every day. Oh, I want to do this every day because it's going to help me, which can go so far. But if you don't go and rewire the underlying belief, I kind of feel that our behaviors will always fall back to the level of our beliefs.

8:38100%. It's 100 % because Because unless you change the amount of time that you're running your programs. And I say, what does that mean? I say, well, why am I running a program? Because my conscious mind's thinking. And then I say, well, what if you're not thinking? What if you stay what is called present or you stay what is called mindful? I go, this is the cool part. Because I say, this turns out science has recognized when we fall in love. What happens when we fall in love is we stop thinking. because what you've been looking for your whole life is now in front of you. The idea of thinking is disconnecting.

9:15It's like, no, you want to be here. So I guess what? Science has recognized when you fall in love, you stop thinking. I go, yeah, but then what happens? I say, well, if you're not thinking, then you're not playing the program. And I go, well, then if I'm not thinking, then who's running the show? I go, the creative conscious mind. So I say, your life could be blah, blah, blah, blah. Then you meet somebody. 24 hours later, you have a completely different life experience. I go, what is it? I say, you fall in love. I say, what is it? I say, you experienced something we call the honeymoon. What's the honeymoon?

9:48Heaven on earth. I go, well, wait, every day was blah, blah, blah. Then 24 hours after you fall in love, you're creating the honeymoon. I go, yeah, because you're not creating your life from your program. When you stop thinking, you're creating from the conscious mind, which is wishes and desires. So when two people get together and they first get together, neither of them are playing their subconscious programs because they're in a creative mode and they're creating that heaven on earth honeymoon experience. I go, well, this is great why the honeymoon is so wonderful and lovely. I said, but shortly down the road, you have jobs, you have to start thinking, you have planning, you start thinking.

10:29I go, so what happened? They said, well, the moment you start thinking, then you, you know, resort to going back to the program. Well, I say, yeah, but guess what? Your partner has never seen your programs because you never played them once you started being in love. And all of a sudden these negative things come out and your partner looks at you and goes, who are you? Where did that come from? Because they never saw this. And then as the relationship continues, more and more of the programs from both partners start manifesting. So that idea that they may say, oh, you weren't like that when we first met.

11:03It's true and it's not true, right? They were like that, but you never saw that aspect of them because they were present. They were operating from the conscious mind. The creative mind. Yeah. The other thing I just wanted to pause on is what you said about driving the car. Because I think some people, Bruce, may think, what is this? Conscious, subconscious? you know, what exactly are you talking about? You know, everything I do in my life is conscious, right? Most of us have experienced driving. When at some point we've totally switched off, we're daydreaming, we're going through our job list, whatever it might be, yet we still stop at the red light.

11:43I think that's so powerful because it shows us for anyone who's skeptical, it's like, well, wait a minute. If you're not consciously thinking about the road, who on earth is, right? Your subconscious brain is still monitoring the cars, the traffic signals. Do you know what I mean? And I think for anyone who's - Driving is a habit and a habit is a program. You learn to drive by repetition. You practice, you practice. What's the point? When you first got in the car, you were so conscious aware of everything, what's going on out the windows, the mirrors, the engine. Now you've been driving a car for a while.

12:18You get in there, you put the key in And you're thinking about where I'm going to go, what I'm going to do, and all this stuff. So let's just say you and I are in the car, and we have this great conversation. My focus is on you. Your focus is on me. I'm driving the car. And all of a sudden, I realize I'm not paying attention to the road. And, you know, like, oh, my God, we're at the exit already. How did that happen? I ask two questions. This is where it comes down to. I say, what was your conversation about? Oh, well, we talked about this, and we talked about that. Then I asked, well, what was on the road when you were having the conversation?

12:51He answers, I have no idea. And the point about it was what? You were not driving the car. The program was driving the car. You had no idea what was on the road. The program did it. And I say, but that's 95 % of our lives. Yeah. Where do we get these programs from? The brain is a computer. It's the most fabulous computer humans have ever experienced. But I can't do anything with it until I get programs. Well, how do you get programs? The brain of a child from three months before birth to about seven years of age is not operating at consciousness at any level, really, okay? A child's brain, up to about seven, is primarily in a vibration called theta.

13:36Theta is hypnosis. I said, why? How many rules must a child learn to be a functional member of a family? How many rules must a child learn to be a functional member of their community? I go, a thousand rules maybe or more. I said, so how's an infant going to learn? Are you going to study at the school, read a book, go to a classroom? I say, infant can't do that. Nature handled it by saying, okay, first seven years, you're in hypnosis. You want to know how to live? Watch your mother, watch your father, watch your siblings, watch your community, download their behavior. and now you know the rules of living in that community.

14:17Well, you're copying other people's behavior and if the people you're copying are living a great, wonderful, happy, productive life, well, that's great because you just downloaded that. But I'll give an example of my personal life. My mother and father had a dysfunctional relationship. Guess what I'm downloading? I downloaded dysfunctional behavior. Why is that important? because 95 % of my life was coming from the program I downloaded from my father. I was manifesting dysfunctional relationship unconsciously because when my conscious mind was busy, my father's behavioral program was playing. I couldn't get a relationship off the ground.

14:59I mean, I think people will get this, Bruce, in the sense that I think more and more people now are familiar with the idea that our childhoods, Yes. how our parents are, you know, the beliefs that we take on, they have basically run the rest of our life unless we do something about it, right? So we don't realize until we have a reason often as adults to go, wait a minute, where did I actually get this belief from in the first place? You know, I've had Gabor Mate on the show many times before and he talks about our childhoods and how our childhood experiences impact our adult behavior. You know, you use the word programs, but essentially it's the conditioning we get at that age, isn't it?

15:42It's 100%. This is why kids essentially grow up like their parents. Well, that's great if your parents have great behaviors and you download great behaviors. There's no problem there. But like in my case, just as I mentioned a minute ago, what if my father has this dysfunctional behavior and I download it, then it becomes my dysfunctional behavior 95 % of the time. Unless you do something about it. Ah, yeah. Which is the key, right? So for anyone who at this point is going, okay, I get what you're saying, Bruce. I have taken on these beliefs when I was a kid. I have downloaded these programs, which are now running my life.

16:25If they then say to you, Bruce, can I do anything about that? What do you say to them? Well, I say yes, but it's sort of like I mentioned that the subconscious is like the program mind in a hard drive. I say you want to change the program in a hard drive, you have to go through a process. You have to push a record button. You have to do some special thing to activate the programming, okay? The idea a lot of people think, well, I'm just going to talk, you know, give myself a good talking to. And I'll keep telling myself, you know, change, change. I go, but when you say I'm talking to myself, I say there's nobody in the subconscious.

16:58So you're really not talking to anybody and you're not changing the subconscious because that's not how it learns. So the only idea is you want to change the programming. You have to know how the programming goes in in the first place. We just mentioned before, first seven years of a child's life, they're in theta hypnosis. That's how the program got in in the first seven years. But you learn programs after age seven. You learn how to drive a car, play an instrument or something like that. And I go, well, how did you learn that? And that was based on repetition, practice, repeating, repeating, repeating.

17:32And that is the second way that programs can manifest by repeating it. Okay. So this is really empowering, right? So we can maybe come back to self-hypnosis later, right? We did cover it in the first conversation. But the second one about repeating our behaviors consistently. Okay, so in the first seven years of our life, and for the three months before we're born, we are downloading certain programs from the world around us, our caregivers, for many of us, it will be our parents, right? Right. Now that has the most influence or has a major influence on who we are later on in life. But you're saying that we also download programs later as evidenced by the fact that we learn how to drive.

18:23We might learn the piano. We might learn all kinds of new skills, which then become habits. Yes. So that means we are capable of learning new behaviors and skills later on in life, which is empowering. But there's a fact in learning that it's not like, oh, one time I got in the car and then I learned how to drive. I said, no, you had to get in the car and practice how to drive. So it's the repetition that should be underscored. For me, I think about that through this lens of if we are regularly repeating intentional behaviors or we're regularly repeating behaviors intentionally with enough repetition and practice at some point, it will go from conscious to unconscious.

19:13Absolutely. Okay. So one question that I ask myself each morning as part of my sort of morning routine is what quality do I want to showcase to the world today? Okay. And I want to get your opinion on this, Ruth, because I do this after a meditation where I'm really sort of tuned into myself and I'm trying to intentionally decide how I want to be that day. So often it will be, I want to show the world the quality of patience or I want to show the world the quality of compassion. And by setting that intention in the morning, I'm much more likely to exhibit that behavior throughout the day. or if something happens where I'm tempted to be impatient, I'll be like, oh, Rangan, you said this morning you want to show the world around you the quality of patience.

20:07Now, I believe, and I know this to be true in my own life, that by doing that regularly and by repeating it regularly, and of course, I'm not perfect. It's one of those days where I didn't, by reminding myself that evening and the following morning, hey, Rangan, you could have been more patient then. Next time that happens, try and react in a different way. before you know it, at some point that becomes your default behavior. Now, do you agree with that? And do you think that's a sort of helpful practice for people to do? Well, absolutely. Because what are you doing? You're setting up a practice, a habit, a repetition.

20:41What is a habit? It's a program. If you just say it once and let it go, it's like a few minutes later, you're going to be back in the old program anyway. But it's the conscious mind that has an opportunity to observe and go, wait a minute, I didn't mean that. Oh, wait a minute, I really want to say this. All of a sudden, ah, then the conscious mind steps in and says, let's change the behavior. And the more you practice it, the more it becomes downloaded as a program. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest.

21:22If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my bite-sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across, and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel-good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it free of charge at drchatterjee.com forward slash Friday Five. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

22:01Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversational Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.