Have you ever found yourself eating a donut shortly after promising yourself you’ll give up sweets? Dorie Olds and I discuss how your mind works. This episode will explain a lot of things about how your mind works. Visit Healing Your Families and School of Creation to learn more.
Emmalou Penrod
I’m talking to Dorie again. And Dorie, welcome. Thanks for joining me.
Dorie Olds
You’re very welcome. I’m excited about our topic today.
Emmalou Penrod
So am I. We’re going to be talking about how your mind works. And for me, the human mind has always been the most fascinating creation in the world. And Dorie, you teach a class on this, right?
Dorie Olds
I do. I do, I actually teach a class, it’s a self-hypnosis course, seven classes. And this is the second class in the series. So it’s very beneficial to understand how the mind works, and what aspects are showing up and how to work with each of those aspects.
Emmalou Penrod
Let’s start with the different parts of the mind.
Dorie Olds
Each hypnotist may have a different way of explaining this. But the way that I have explained it, and Emmalou, we were in agreement with this. We have three spheres of activity in one mind. So it’s one mind, with three spheres of activity. One activity is the conscious mind. The other activity is the subconscious mind, and then the superconscious mind, and each one of those all work together, but they all have their own part to play and they all act in their own unique way.
Emmalou Penrod
I love that analogy. And you showed me the graphic you have to illustrate that. It is beautiful. So the conscious mind, my understanding is that it’s just what you know you know. This is the information you take in with your five senses. And you also describe this as the chooser. Can you tell me why you call the conscious mind the chooser?
Dorie Olds
Well, as we get older, in growing up, there is a demarcation line. And we talked about that in our last episode, where as a child, you don’t have that line. Everything just goes in. And then, as you were growing and get to be about eight years old, then you start discerning. Then you start looking at it. This is true. This is true, what’s happening here. And so the conscious mind is the gatekeeper, so that everything that comes at us isn’t just going into our subconscious mind. It’s filtering, asking, Is this true? Is this not true? Is this what I want? And it can be a really good thing. And it can be a really bad thing, depending on what it is filtering. And so it is the chooser. It is the judger. It is the one that decides what is to be taken in or not in that way. And then the subconscious mind just accepts it, either accepts everything or not. And that’s part of that hypnosis process is that therapeutic process. Sometimes you want something to go in. I’m really beautiful. I feel good about myself. I know I can, all of these positive things. And then because of the suggestions that have been given to us in the past, when the mind was more open as a child or at other places, we may have those ideas that are limiting and not allowing the positive in. And so that’s where as a hypnotist, you’re wanting to help someone take out those areas that are preventing the good to come in. And then keeping in those areas that are keeping the bad from coming in. So that’s the work. That’s our job as hypnotists is to help someone have what they want. And that’s why we discussed that. And then we’ve set up those sessions with what they want. The subconscious mind, through repetition, things will go in, if you repeat it enough, anything will go in. And that’s where we need to make sure what are we repeating, what are we saying out loud. Our words are really powerful. If I’m continually repeating to myself, “I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” Then the subconscious mind accepts that. Once it accepts it, it creates an energy where that becomes true. That becomes your reality. That becomes true. And you’ll find obstacles in your way where you will find that hard, where you’ve accepted that.
Emmalou Penrod
That’s what I call self talk. That constant chatter is going on in your head. And if you think about it, you examine your self talk. A lot of us would never talk to anyone else the way we talk to ourselves.
Dorie Olds
That is so true. We would never talk to anyone else the way we talk to ourselves.
Emmalou Penrod
Yes.
Dorie Olds
And then the superconscious mind is directly connected to the Infinite Intelligence. And that’s where we have ideas come in, things that aren’t from us. We’re being given information, whether it’s an answer to prayer, or we’re having a focus. That is our connection with that infinite intelligence. And it’s pretty amazing as you walk through your day actively aware of that and using that on purpose. What an amazing life you can have.
Emmalou Penrod
Oh, I agree. I agree. And I think we forget about this part of our minds. This is where our insight or inspiration, and some of us, if we have negative self talk, we start to reject that insight, any information from the superconscious.
Dorie Olds
Yes.
Emmalou Penrod
And our conscious mind isn’t aware of what’s in our subconscious. But our superconscious is aware of everything that’s in the conscious mind and in the subconscious. And it also is most interested in what is for our best good.
Dorie Olds
Yes.
Emmalou Penrod
That’s what I’ve learned is that our superconscious will not force us if we’re not ready.
Dorie Olds
Yeah, one of the ways to know what’s happening with us, a thought creates a feeling. Now sometimes people nowadays are not seeing that. They’re seeing a feeling in a little different way. This is what’s accurate. A thought creates a feeling. Any feeling we have has to have a thought first whether how fast that came in, and the thought creates the feeling. Then the feeling goes to a response, or reaction or behavior, some kind of activity, behavior activity. And when we notice the reaction, the response or the behavioral activity, and ask ourselves, “Hmm, how is it that that happened? Or I felt that way? What must I be believing to have had that happen?” Then we begin to be aware of what’s in our subconscious mind.
Emmalou Penrod
I love that. So what’s your response when someone says, “He made me angry?” Is it possible for someone to make you angry?
Dorie Olds
I think they can be a trigger. And they can punch the certain areas within you that create that anger. And it’s our job to take care of those triggers so that it can be different. And so the answer is no. And if we are not taking care of our internal thinking, we’re not organizing, taking care of, aware of what’s happening with it, things can happen with us. We can find ourselves automatically doing certain things or feeling certain things, and no, no one made you.
Emmalou Penrod
You know, and I hear this a lot like with road rage, that if another car pulls directly in front of you on the freeway, there’s no choice but to become angry. And I totally disagree with that. What do you think?
Dorie Olds
Well, I think that can be true for certain people. And what you do after that experience is over, is you say, “Okay, do I want to have this again?” And then you start looking at, “What must I be believing?” and doing on your own or you go to a hypnotist and say, “Here’s what’s happening to me. I want this to be different.” And then it can be different. Whether it’s a short time or a long time depends on what’s happening and where you are with that area. And you can have it be different. Sometimes you have no choice because of what’s already in the subconscious, in that moment. Sometimes you don’t have a choice.
Emmalou Penrod
I’ve heard of some people considering, “You know, maybe that other car, maybe they have an emergency. There could be a reason they’re driving like that. I hope they’re okay.” So, it reinforces what you said earlier, that it begins with the thought. We don’t have to feel hurt. If we greet someone and they don’t respond, we can think, “Well, maybe they didn’t hear me.” We have choice as to how we respond. I think Viktor Frankl describes it in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that there is that moment between action and response, when you still can make a choice. And you look him being in a concentration camp where you think, “Well, there was no choice but to despair and give up.” and he didn’t.
Dorie Olds
Well, my focus is that when someone is looking at how they’re feeling, is noticing what is happening, they’re thoughtful. They’re looking at that, then there’s the choice. When someone hasn’t had any experience, hasn’t had any awareness whatsoever in that moment, then there isn’t. And until they begin to say, “How can this be different?” then they begin to have that choice. And I think someone that you’re describing has already made a choice has already said, “Okay, this can be different.” You can tell yourself that, “Well, I don’t know what they’re doing or no need to get upset now.” They’re doing something because they’ve had some thought. They have some awareness, and then yes, there absolutely is choice. And I believe that Viktor Frankl is able to describe that because he became aware, I do have a choice. He became aware and there was a moment before he was aware and maybe he was having certain feelings that he became aware of, “Well, I have a choice here.” And then from that moment on, he had a different experience. And so it depends on where someone is. So I totally agree with you.
Emmalou Penrod
So first, we need to be aware that there are three parts of our mind three spheres, we need to know how they interact. And then what else do we need to understand about our minds?
Dorie Olds
I think a lot of it comes down to what do you want? I think that is a really important thing to understand. How do I want to feel? How do I want my body to function? How is it I want to be experiencing my day, my week, my month? And what is it that creates that? What are the thoughts? What is my self talk? What are the things that other people are saying to me? When someone says something to me, and maybe they’re wanting me to behave in a certain way, or they’re wanting to manipulate me and it’s not like a master major manipulation, it’s just they want you to feel sorry for them, or they want you to perform a task for them. And they’re saying things and doing things in a way to create what they want to have. And being aware of what our environment is, and then keeping focus on what do I want? What do I need to to say to myself? What do I need to be bringing in? How do I support myself in having the experience I want. And it does take some thoughtful time and energy. And then it’s practicing every day, using those statements, changing the “I can’t” to “I can”, changing, “I am feeling kind of crappy today.” to “I am having a really good day.” changing those thoughts into a positive thought until we begin to feel that and then we’ll begin to have that experience. And we begin to have the life we wanted to have. We begin to have the year we want to have. We begin to have the day we want to have. And it is really about practicing. It’s about being aware of it. And it’s about practicing every day. And noticing when you slipped and, “Oh, I got angry. Okay, now what could I’ve done there?” And you go back and you see what can I change? It is about consciousness, and it is about awareness on a more constant way, without it being burdensome, without it being hard, simply just noticing, and then changing, just changing small things every day.
Emmalou Penrod
That is golden, I love it. Now I want to tell you about an experience I had. And I think you’re gonna be able to figure out where I could have improved. When I was a young mother, I was aware of the fact that I would lose my temper with my children. And I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to be that kind of a mother. I wanted to be much more loving and patient. So I would make a firm resolve every morning, “I will not lose my temper today.” And some days I would make it till 10am. And it wasn’t until years later that I figured out how I could have been more effective. What are your thoughts?
Dorie Olds
Well, first of all, the affirmation that you’re using is getting in your way.
Emmalou Penrod
Yep.
Dorie Olds
For the subconscious sometimes hears the word not, sometimes doesn’t. So it’s really a roulette. And when you put a word at the end, I will not fear. And you notice that in some of the sacred writings, it says “Fear not.” So, “I will lose my temper, not today.” That’s how I would have said it.
Emmalou Penrod
Yeah, yeah, that’s what I decided. I need to focus on what I want. I was just setting myself up to lose my temper. And then once it happened, bam, the day was over. I did think, “Try again tomorrow.” But if I had been able to focus on, “I will remain calm and patient.” or focusing on what I want. And you’re right, our subconscious mind doesn’t always recognize a negative. My subconscious was probably hearing, “I will lose my temper today.” And I did.
Dorie Olds
That’s right. Well, I have a similar story. I think as moms we want to be good moms. We want to take care of our kids and create a good environment. And I had an experience where I had my youngest daughter was a trigger for me. And I would get really upset and I’d have the same thing. “Okay, I’m going to stop, I’m going to stop being angry.” Now, I didn’t know hypnosis. This is where the value of these videos on the value of learning about how to work with your mind is so important. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t clear how to do that. When I was and then I sat and I asked a question and I said “What’s needed here? How can I have this be different?” And that Infinite Intelligence through this superconscious mind gave me an idea. And I was given the realization that I was feeling like a bad mom. So whenever my daughter would talk to me, and she would ask me to do something that I couldn’t do in that moment, because I wasn’t at home, because I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. And then I got divorced. And I wasn’t a stay-at-home mom. That thought came up, “I’m a bad mom.” And I didn’t know that until I sat down with this and thought, “How is it that I’m always getting so upset with her and angry?” And I had that realization brought to me that this was what was happening. Then I could look at that and say, “Okay, even though I’m no longer an at home mom, I am a good mom. I take care of my kids. I care about them. And I want them to do well. And the next time that she made that very exact same statement, the exact scenario happened again, I remember stopping, knowing her, nothing happened, no interruption, that trigger was gone. And I was able to be really calm and relaxed there and say, “I can’t do that right now. But can we do it? Can we do it this way? Later in the day?” And she’s like, “Okay.” It solved the problem. It was so beautiful. It was so wonderful, because I had changed and saved myself. That feeling, that thought of being a bad mom. And that changed everything. And it was really, really sweet that we had a different relationship than the anger that I was finding myself having.
Emmalou Penrod
That is so empowering. Awesome. And this is how we help parents.
Dorie Olds
This is.
Emmalou Penrod
I think that being a parent is tough under the most ideal situations. Because I was a special ed teacher myself, I think that if parents have a child with special needs, and actually if you look at it, probably every child has special needs. And does anyone have any two children that were exactly alike, and they just had to learn one way of doing things and it worked with all their children? But even now, at this time, parents are expected to work from home, oversee their child’s online classes. keep everyone happy, cheerful and wearing a mask. I think right now parents are frontline workers.
Dorie Olds
I totally agree. It’s a lot on their plates, isn’t it?
Emmalou Penrod
How understanding how their mind works so they can use their full mental capabilities, use all three spheres, and understanding how their child’s mind is working. So, what are some supports we can give parents?
Dorie Olds
I think that one thing they could do that would be supportive is to understand what their triggers are, noticing where they’re going into the negative anxiety, stress, intensity, upset, and maybe even writing those down for themselves. So they can see where those things are happening.
Emmalou Penrod
Ooh, I like that.
Dorie Olds
And I like to turn things around. So we have one statement like “I can’t.” The easy one of course is, “Yes, I can.” And looking at the thoughts they’re having, or the experience and, “What was I feeling? What was the thought in my mind? What was the emotion?” And if it’s anxiety, then you would look at, “Okay, what can I trust? Where can I relax? What is it that I can be in a different space?” And I think trust is a really good place. And I’ve had experiences in my life that were very intense. And what I learned through those very intense experiences is that I can trust that infinite intelligence. I can ask for help. I can ask for support in the moment and I can feel that energy coming in. And no one is alone. And whatever the words you want to use, we have that support, whether we call it angels, whether we call it guides, whatever you call just energy or universal source energy, there’s all kinds of different words, we do have that. Each one of us has that. And you can ask for that support. And you can feel that. Another thing is to look for the triggers, just look for the triggers. What is triggering me in the different places and looking at trusting life? I think trusting life is a really important thing. And there are people who are feeling like the world is going to end. And I mean, I’ve heard some of these things they are talking about and it’s like, “Is that really true? Are you just saying those things because you’re wanting to trigger other people? Because some of them sound really crazy to me.” You look at all the events that have happened in the world that we know of and in our history. We’ve gone through that. The human race has gotten through it. We will be getting through all the things that we need. And you can you can personalize that and say, “I, we as a family or I am getting through this.”
Emmalou Penrod
You have survived 100% of all the bad days you’ve ever had. And I love what you said, the opposite of fear is faith. And I also loved what you said, and I want to second that, that we can trust in our higher power, whatever we choose to believe in, have faith, trust. I love that being aware of our trigger words. And a quote that has empowered me is, “Change your thoughts; change your life.” I think we can be aware of our self talk, stop it. You mentioned replace it with something more positive. When we make a mistake, we are so quick to notice it. And we harp on it. We could do 50 good things in a day and make one mistake. And which one do we remember?
Dorie Olds
Where do we put our focus? On that one thing, yes.
Emmalou Penrod
Instead of doing that, let’s put our focus on everything that went well, all the contributions, our successes, however small.
Dorie Olds
There are places where we can each of us work on our own self. I, you and you’re giving some really good suggestions and ideas. And there are places where someone may need to get help. And I say, go find a hypnotist, go find in your area, whatever, wherever you are. And there are some that work, you know, and other areas online and other ways. Find a hypnotist and have them help you in those places where you could use some help.
Emmalou Penrod
And sometimes we need that objectivity.
Dorie Olds
Yes.
Emmalou Penrod
We may want to try to solve it all ourselves. But maybe we need someone who has that objective perspective, and can see things that we’re not able to recognize.
Dorie Olds
Yes, totally. I call it two types of hypnosis. I call it self hypnosis and facilitated hypnosis. And there is the argument, all hypnosis is self hypnosis. Which is true because we have to accept that. But there are places where we do need help from a facilitator, because we on our own behalf of what we’re not seeing. And if you think about somebody on a mountain, standing on a top pillar, they’re looking out over the whole area seeing all seeing far away, where can’t they see? Under their own feet.
Emmalou Penrod
Wow. Yeah.
Dorie Olds
So we all need help. And every person needs a hypnotist including the hypnotist. I have my own place I go when I need my help in in those areas.
Emmalou Penrod
Yeah, yeah. Now and you teach the self hypnosis class. I teach a workshop. And I know it’s a powerful tool. So there are some things that parents, anyone can do to manage their stress, improve their confidence.
Dorie Olds
Yes.
Emmalou Penrod
And it all comes down to understanding how their mind works and how to communicate with their superconscious. We both use muscle testing. Should we talk about that for a minute? How does muscle testing work with helping us communicate with the mind?
Dorie Olds
And I am going to let you explain that, but yes, I do. And it is quite remarkable.
Emmalou Penrod
The body doesn’t lie. And an ideomotor response is one way to connect with your superconscious.
Dorie Olds
But explain ideomotor because maybe people don’t know what that means.
Emmalou Penrod
Okay, I’ll give you an example. It’s called the sway test. If you hold something in front of you. And it’s something for example, maybe there’s a supplement you’re considering, you’re wondering, do I need this. If you hold it in front of you and just kind of stand balanced, you will feel your body moving towards it if it’s something that will benefit you. You will feel your body pulling away, for example, if you were holding a container of gasoline. And just imagine this, holding a glass of clear pure water or holding a container of gasoline. This subconscious controls your body. Things you don’t even have to think about breathing, digesting your food, your heart beating. So it will respond and that’s one way to communicate with your superconscious, the other parts other than your conscious mind.
Dorie Olds
That’s a great explanation. And this is something people can practice at home, and take up different things in their home or at the grocery store and just practice and see, am I going towards it or away? That’s a really good practice someone could start doing.
Emmalou Penrod
And as you practice it, you can apply it to other decisions. And I loved what you were talking about analyzing, figuring out what are your trigger words. And you can visualize different results like you have a decision to make. And you’re thinking, I can make choice A, choice B. And then visualizing, using that part of your mind that allows you to see in the future. Which result are you more inclined to move towards? All different ways of using self hypnosis, reinforcing a thought. I loved what you were saying. implanting those positive thoughts, repeating them, getting them into your subconscious. Some people use affirmations. I think that’s another way of doing that. But repeating them while you’re in self hypnosis takes out that critical part of your mind. Have you ever noticed that when you’re not feeling really confident, if someone pays you a compliment, you immediately discount it?
Dorie Olds
Yeah, like that’s, actually it’s not so much now because I’ve practiced and yes, it’s something that does happen. I want to go back for a minute to what you were explaining about muscle testing. And one other way I’ve used it I call energy add, energy drain. So when you have a thought, I’m going to use the simple one, I can’t, and I can because those are two simple ones to to use. You think of I can’t, I can feel it right now is that energy add? Or is that a new energy drain, it’s immediately I can feel it going down, energy draining, I can feel that. It’s as if I can feel that my energy going down into my feet, rather than staying up around my heart or my head. When I say I can, that energy is coming up from the floor all the way up. And it’s even going up through my crown and out my crown. It’s an energy add. And that’s one way for me when I’m in a place where I’m noticing a thought or noticing an experience and I don’t quite know is this energy add or energy drain? If it’s energy add, I know that what I’m saying is the truth to myself because that Infinite Intelligence that will tell us if it’s true or not. Or if it’s energy drain, then I know what I’m saying, even though my subconscious mind wants to support it, because it’s been, it’s accepted that in the past, it’s not true. And therefore I can say, Okay, I can tell it’s not the truth, even though part of me is feeling like it is. I’m going to just repeat this truth. I’m going to repeat the true statement until all parts of me believe it because I can tell it’s energy add even though a part of me is going well, I don’t know that can’t be true. Blah, blah, blah. Because I’ve trained myself through that self hypnosis, whether I was aware of it or not to believe that negative statement was true. And so that’s another good way is energy add or energy drain. As I’m saying the statement, is my energy going up? Or is it energy going down? And because of that, the same thing with muscle testing, because of that connection with Infinite Intelligence, you will be you will know, you will know.
Emmalou Penrod
I love that. Have faith. Trust that Inner Intelligence. I love it. Beautiful. Well, do we have any other words of wisdom on helping parents understand how their mind works, or anyone.
Dorie Olds
Focus each day and practice, practice, practice.
Emmalou Penrod
I love it. Dorie, thanks so much. Once again, it is absolutely wonderful to get to talk to you and you have a great day.
Dorie Olds
You too, and I loved it. I love the way you describe things. It’s awesome.
Emmalou Penrod
All right. Okay, so next time, we’re going to talk about tools in the toolbox. Just like you wouldn’t want a hammer to be your only tool. You’ll want several tools to use.
Dorie Olds
Alrighty, see you later.