Subconscious reprogramming is a powerful tool that can boost your success. Most of our beliefs are formed during childhood, between ages 0 to 7, when we absorb the “rules” of society and learn how to be in our communities. I don’t know about you, but I probably wouldn’t go 20 years without upgrading my laptop or phone. I mean, check out this photo. Imagine still using the same operating system as that 2004 Siemens phone.
The same goes for our mindset. While some beliefs serve us well, many become outdated as we grow up. The world changes, and so must our mindset.
For example, if you grew up in an unstable or volatile environment, you may have a belief that “connecting with people is unsafe” making it hard to build healthy friendships as an adult. Or, if money was a source of stress in your family, you might have a belief that “money is bad” which might be limiting your financial success.
Using subconscious reprogramming, these limiting beliefs can be replaced with more empowering one’s that will serve you better towards your life goals. There are also common misconceptions, that it’s “evil” or “too woo.” Let’s explore what subconscious reprogramming really is. For a deeper dive, check out my previous posts on Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and the subconscious mind.
Table of Contents
Myth-Busting Beliefs on Subconscious Reprogramming
Myth 1: Subconscious reprogramming is evil or manipulative.
The truth is that some of these subconscious reprogramming techniques have historically been used in unethical ways, and it’s important to acknowledge that. However, that shouldn’t discredit how profoundly transformative it is when used with integrity.
Work with a trained practitioner that you trust; they’ll have you awake, aware and fully engaged in the process. It’s also important to mention that your subconscious mind is a highly moral part of you and won’t accept changes that go against your values or highest good. It’s #1 job is to keep you safe. This is one of the reasons trained practitioner’s will ask, “Is it alright with your subconscious mind to do this change today?” before starting any technique. It’s important that the subconscious mind is onboard and ready or the process won’t work.
Myth 2: It’s a form of brainwashing.
People are worried that someone else might control your mind, like you see in those hypnosis shows where people are dancing around like a chicken on stage. Subconscious reprogramming work isn’t like that. You are fully conscious and aware much like if you were doing a visualization or meditation. The mind is relaxed so that is goes into a more suggestible state. Rather than being brainwashed, it’s more accurate to say that you’re self-guiding your own mind toward the change. You have full agency in this.
Myth 3: “It’s all pseudoscience and ‘woo.’
This work is grounded in neuroscience. Watch and listen to the lemon test to experience the mind-body connection for yourself. The body is like a robot, it takes orders from the mind.
The rise in popularity of the mind-body connection and neuroplasticity has has allowed us to understand how we can rewire our brain pathways to help us better align with our goals.
American Stem Cell Biologist Bruce Lipton explains this well in his 10-minute video, and I highly recommend his book The Biology of Belief. It’s not magic.
Myth 4: You’ll see results overnight.
I mean, you night actually see some changes overnight, AND rewiring your brain does takes time.
Just as it took years to build certain beliefs, it takes patience, repetition and a lot of grace with yourself to replace them. Some beliefs are sticky and play out in many different contexts in your life. So you might work through one and realize there are more layers to it or more information gained from it. The subconscious mind also LOVES repetition. That’s why affirmations, visualizations and surrounding yourself daily with these new beliefs is so beneficial.
What is Subconscious Reprogramming?
Subconscious reprogramming is about creating a bridge between the subconscious and conscious mind to:
- Release the emotional charge tied to past experiences
- Create clarity and “paint a picture” of what success looks like
- Reinforce more empowering beliefs
- Align actions and behaviours with desired results
At any given moment, our subconscious mind processes 2.3 million bits of information. However, we can only consciously absorb a fraction of that—about 126 bits. That’s only 0.006%! Our subconscious processes this information by:
- Deleting (ignoring some details entirely)
- Distorting (magnifying or minimizing aspects)
- Generalizing (categorizing based on previous experiences)
And using these filters:
- Time: The time of day or year (e.g., midnight, daytime, holiday season)
- Location: Where you are (e.g., office, home, yoga studio, travelling in another country)
- Mood: Your emotional state in the moment (e.g., excited, sad, stressed)
- Language: How you interpret the words, gestures, or body language
- Beliefs: Deeply ingrained ideas, like “money is bad” or “it’s unsafe to connect with people”
- Identity: Who you see yourself as, at your core
- Values: What matters most to you
Subconscious reprogramming allows us to update these filters so you can optimize that 126 bits of information to be more aligned with your goals. It allows you to tweak the original filters that might be secretly leading to self-sabotage, fear of failure and missed opportunities.
Your internal representation impacts your state, the internal emotion condition, and your physiology (ie. body language, heart rate, etc). When you’re angry (state) and dyregulated (physiology), you’ll take different actions then when you’re excited (state) and regulated (physiology) which will then lead to different results. The reality is that you may be doing all the things; reading the books, doing the courses and still not seeing any results. There’s nothing wrong with you! Your programming might just need an update to align you better with your goals.
How Does Subconscious Reprogramming Work?
At the surface, you might hear the words someone is using, their tone of voice or body language. You see the actions (or lack thereof). It’s what’s below the surface though, the things we don’t see or hear that are the real driving force. It’s our beliefs, values, experiences and sense of identity.
These things were learned, many before the age of 7. The goal in the work of subconscious reprogramming is to start bridging your conscious and subconscious mind by leveraging our knowledge of how the mind works. If the subconscious mind isn’t aligned with your desires, it becomes much harder—if not impossible—to achieve them. Here are a few ways we work with the subconscious mind:
- Visualization: By creating a vivid experiences that brings in all your senses, you can start to imagine what success actually look like. You can see it, you can hear it, you can feel it. The more real it feels in your imagination, the easier it is to believe it and start taking the actions that will get you there. You know the saying “seeing is believing.”
- Repetition: The subconscious mind loves repetition. That’s why practices like listening to hypnosis recordings regularly or using affirmation sticky notes are so effective.
- Brain Waves: By getting into a more relaxed brainwaves, the subconscious mind becomes more suggestible and open to receiving new information.
- Internal Representations: Understanding your internal representation—whether you’re more visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or a mix of all—helps us tap into your “unique coding” of processing so that we can make optimal tweaks.
8 Subconscious Reprogramming Techniques
Here are 8 different techniques for subconscious reprogramming:
1. Creating achievable outcomes
Think of it as goal-setting on steroids. The process begins with an interview—a series of questions—some logical and others that might seem unrelated. These questions help you tap into a deeper understanding of what you truly want. It goes deeper and deeper, supporting you in painting a clear picture of what your goal. What it looks like, sounds like, and feels like when it’s fully realized.
Sometimes the hardest part is defining what “it” actually is, and this process helps solidify that vision, turning vague, floating thoughts into something more tangible and achievable. This is then turned into a visualization just for you. All you have to do is sit back, close your eyes, and listen as the practitioner reads it back to you.
It’s a profoundly powerful experience. Often a very emotional one. Sometimes for the first time, you feel so deeply connected to what it is you want. You feel it in your bones. It is so deeply meaningful to you. The final step is future pacing—setting this vision into the future as if it has already happened. I often encourage my clients to take this small paragraph, record themselves saying it aloud, and listen to it every day. This repetition reinforces the goal and serves as a daily reminder of what they’re working toward, creating a powerful feedback loop for success because the subconscious mind.
2. Hypnosis
Hypnosis is like your own personal visualization or meditation. Much like creating achievable outcomes, it starts with an interview process. If it’s your first time being hypnotized, the practitioner will take the time to talk through what hypnosis is and isn’t, align on any expectations you have coming in and ensure that you feel fully empowered and in control of your process. They might do an experiment or two to see just how suggestible you are.
Here are two experiments you can try right now, just for fun.
The Book & Balloon Experiment
The Finger Vice Experiment
The interview process help the practitioner to create a visual around what they desire. This is then embedded into the hypnosis which starts with a relaxing introduction to support your subconscious in getting into a more relaxed brain wave which will make it more suggestible and open to new ideas. This hypnosis is then turned into an audio file that you can listen to multiple times a week to support your desire and change through repetition.
3. TIME Techniques
TIME Techniques (also known as Time Integration for Maximum Empowerment) is a powerful technique and one I use a lot with my clients. It can be used in a few different ways by:
- supercharge your achievable outcome by seeing it in your timeline in the future, or
- release an emotional charge or limiting belief as far back as your subconscious will allow
You can go as far back as childhood, generational or even lifetimes. It doesn’t make sense logically and yet it’s the technique my clients have the biggest results from. This technique starts with the practitioner guiding you to visualize your timeline, your future and your past. This timeline will then be used to drop your achievable outcome to some time in the future or to capture any learnings from your subconscious mind to release an emotional charge or limiting belief.
4. Parts Integration
Sometimes we feel torn between two conflicting desires, like wanting to relax but also feeling the need to stay productive. Parts integration is a technique that helps resolve these inner conflicts by bringing the two “parts” of you into harmony. By addressing the underlying needs and intentions behind both sides, this process integrates them so they can work together rather than against each other, helping you feel more aligned and at peace with your decisions.
Learn more about parts integration in this video.
5. Anchoring
Anchoring is a technique where we link a physical action (like touching your knuckle) with a desired emotional state, such as confidence or calm so you can easily come back to that state whenever you want. By stacking anchors in one place, you can strengthen the anchor. It can be a helpful tool to connect to empowering emotional states in times of stress and dysregulation or even to perform at your best.
Let’s anchor the feeling of being calm together.
6. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
EFT leverages the 5,000 year old Chinese discovered energy system of the body used by acupressure and acupuncture. Instead of needles, you’ll be using your finger tips to stimulate the energy points in the body in combination with verbal affirmations. It helps to release emotional blockages and stuck emotions by getting the energy meridians to flow again. One analogy I heard recently, is think of EFT like getting your teeth cleaned except for your energy; it’s supports good energy hygiene. I explain it in more detail here.
7. Other belief changing techniques
8. Your month’s story using ChatGPT
This is a technique I recently discovered, and it’s fantastic because you can do subconscious reprogramming on your own! Imagine it’s exactly one month from now.
- What made it a great month?
- What does success look like?
- What are you really excited about?
Take some time to jot down your thoughts. Think about yourself (body, mind, spirit), relationships, home, finances, and work. Allow yourself to dream big and bring in those manifestation vibes. Next, consider the challenges:
- What are you worried about?
- What might block your success?
- Where do you need to grow?
Now, bring it all together with ChatGPT. Using the voice note feature, ask ChatGPT to write a short story in the past tense, starting with, “It is now [date]…” and detailing everything that has happened. Go over the positive outcomes and build an arc where you overcome obstacles. Be specific—what do you see, hear, feel? Who’s with you? Where are you? Finally, record yourself reading the story aloud, and listen to it every day. Keep it around five minutes or less. This repetition will help embed your vision over the next month.
What Can You Expect From Subconscious Reprogramming?
Almost 8 years ago, I started seeing a trauma-therapist, Sherry Dale. She uses the subconscious mind in the work she does and I started seeing her because I was getting very severe panic attacks that took me to the ER at the hospital many times. I had tried everything and nothing was working. So when a friend introduced me, I thought hey I might as well. After only 2 sessions, I’ve never had a panic attack again. Here’s an article she’s written about the relationship of trauma, the subconscious mind and emotional triggers. Subconscious reprogramming can support big and small trauma. If you’re suffering from big trauma, I highly recommend Sherry Dale.
This work is at the core of why I wanted to have a deeper understanding of the subconscious mind and be able to support others. It can slo be used to support smaller, mindset shifts that can support you to:
- grow your business by achieving consistent cashflow and attracting ideal clients
- Build healthier, more connected relationships with people and money
- Gain confidence in a new role
- Make healthy changes like quitting smoking, losing weight or sleeping better
Through the process with subconscious reprogramming, you’ll gain more clarity on what you want, conviction that you can actually do it and commitment to the process since it will take time. You might also feel lighter and notice that you react differently especially if you’ve done TIME techniques. It’s an ongoing process that requires patient and practice.
Subconscious reprogramming isn’t just about deep transformation, it’s also about the everyday habits and changes that can make a real difference in your life. You might notice improvements in your decision-making, self-confidence and your relationship with yourself.
You’ll feel more empowered and more in alignment within your own life and that is powerful stuff.
Closing Thoughts
Subconscious reprogramming is a accessible, safe and powerful tool for transforming limiting beliefs and stepping into a more aligned, authentic version of yourself. My hope is that this article gave you a clearer understanding of what’s possible when you start working with your subconscious mind. These are some of the techniques I use with my clients to help them unlock greater fulfillment in life and work.
If you’re curious about how subconscious reprogramming could support your journey, I’d love to connect for a 30-minute fit call to explore what that might look like.
Remember, personal growth is a journey that unfolds in layers, and every step is worth celebrating. The world needs your unique brilliance. Keep embracing your potential, and keep shining.
