Tools Of The Mind

Overcome Your Resistance To Taking Action

Help You Deal With Tough Times

Why Do You Need Tools Of The Mind?

Short answer as to why you need tools of the mind is this:

Your mind is either working for you or, more typically, working against you.

The parts of your mind that are working against you and your best interests are largely unconscious.

The strongest evidence that this is happening is when despite your best intentions, for example a New Year resolution, to lose weight or stop smoking your efforts are sabotaged from the outset by another unconscious part of us that actually likes and wants to smoke and over eat.

This is often referred to as the "knowing doing gap".

The source of your inner resistance that stops you doing what you know you need to do.

The source of your inner personal resistance that lies beneath your conscious awareness, and that sabotages your best attempts at any form of managing personal change, has been described as a form of Immunity To Change.

In summary, this means that there is some part of you that really doesn't want to change because it is quite happy with things as they are.

It is important to understand that your failure to achieve a personal change goal isn’t the result of a lack of will-power, it’s your "emotional immune system" trying to protect you.

Here is why this happens and, more importantly, how to deal with it.

In this article we're not delving into the world of therapy or theory, our focus is entirely practical and pragmatic.

If you are undergoing any form of professional therapy or support please talk to the professional who is supporting you before in engaging with any of these tools.

These tools of the mind will help you overcome your resistance to taking the action that you know you need to take, and will help you deal with tough times.

These are all things that I have done or still do, and so what follows is based on personal experience.

I have no financial interest whatsoever in any paid-for products or services referred to below.

Tools Of The Mind [1]

Can you hear the voices?

How to stop those negative self-sabotaging voices in your head

I'm not suggesting that you are psychotic or delusional, so let me express this another way, do you ever experience repetitive thought patterns - a kind of inner narrative that runs in the background of your mind?

We can particularly prone to this when we are tired, under pressure, stressed and run-down.

I experience this in the night sometimes, and what happens is that my head seems to be invaded with repetitive negative thoughts which go round and round and on and on.

They are invariably negative and often destructive and self sabotaging. On odd occasions when I have been under great pressure over long periods of time these thoughts can seem to have a life of their own and sometimes feel (and I must emphasise that I say this only metaphorically) like demons running riot in my head trying to destroy me. In my case they attack my judgement and my feelings of self-worth.

Aside from times of great stress, the other occasions when negative and self-defeating thought dialogue (or self talk) often kicks in is when we set ourselves big targets and attempt to push ourselves out of our comfort-zones.

Most of us experience negative self talk from time to time and that isn't surprising given that so many of the thoughts, patterns, associations and beliefs that drive our behaviour, operate outside of our conscious awareness.

It is even more unsettling to discover, as I did a few years ago, that despite "doing lots of work on ourselves" and getting involved in personal development and self improvement activities, that there are often still deeply buried beliefs expressed in unconscious self talk that still have a significant influence over our choices.

In the course of undertaking a large "goal setting" process some years ago, I was amazed to discover that I had a quite deep resistance to the idea of achieving financial success easily, and I had a deep resistance to the idea that anyone actually listens to me.

For an "old-hand" at personal development, this was a sobering realisation that despite literally years of active involvement in personal growth there were still deep seated areas of resistance in me that were whispering deeply corrosive and damaging self talk within me.

I have now learned a number of powerful mindfulness based tools of the mind for dealing with this problem, so thankfully it doesn't trouble me for very long now, and I will explain this more fully in this and accompanying linked pages, but this does take a while to master.

If (as I did) you need immediate results in the short-term there is another technique.

I discovered, that by changing the tracks that were playing in my head - by changing my self talk - I removed the resistance, I performed much better and best of all - I felt better.

As I originally had no experience of mindfulness based tools of the mind, nor did I have the time to master them, I used a Self Talk CD programme.

Tools Of The Mind [2]

Can you switch into "peak-performance mode" instantly and on demand whenever you need to?

This is another type of situation that can be dealt with most effectively with a powerful mindfulness based approach to "tools of the mind", however, in the short-term a very powerful tactical approach is to use NLP.

In my view, everyone can benefit from a basic grasp of some of the key concepts of NLP.

What NLP can do is give you a powerful and easy to use tool for controlling your emotional state at will and on demand, and thus allowing you to do whatever you are good at to the very best of your ability.

Even more importantly, using NLP to achieve a personal peak performance at a "mission critical" point is in certain situations key to major breakthroughs and success.

There may also be other situations where gaining control over your emotional states can be very helpful, such as getting over a broken relationship or dealing with a major set-back.

If have shared a detailed experience that helped me to earn over $300K on a business deal some years ago. You can read about it here.

I can thoroughly recommend that you get up to speed with the basics of NLP as part of your tool-kit of tools of the mind. For a brief overview of NLP take a look at this short video:

Tools Of The Mind [3]

Are you interested in one of the most powerful tools of the mind that I have ever seen or used for goal setting and achievement?

"Cybernetic Transposition" is a unique, proven and science-based series of processes which when used and applied as set out in this system gets all levels of your mind working together and moving you in the same direction, at the same time, towards the realisation - or manifestation - of your goals.

I stumbled over Stuart Lichtman’s Cybernetic Transposition process several years ago and I have to tell you that in my view and direct experience it is the most powerful process for goal setting and achievement that I have ever seen or used.

Read all about Cybernetic Transposition and download the basic material for free.

Tools Of The Mind [4]

Is your brain balanced? And why this matters more than you may realise...

You may find this hard to believe but at the current stage of evolution of the "average" or "normal" human brain - the "left brain" and the "right brain" do not communicate easily or much at all.

In practical terms the chances are that your brain is just not balanced, i.e. the different centres of the brain literally do not - frequently cannot - communicate.

The same is also true for the "the emotional centre" and "the reptile brain" or the survival instinct).

This lack of brain balance, is the underlying evolutionary and neurological reason why we experience life the way we do and why we suffer so much, and as a species why we inflict so much suffering on each other.

It is also the root cause of all of our personal internal conflict and inner resistance or immunity to change.

So improved and more frequent and conscious communication between these different brain centres makes sense, not least as it is a route to peace, insight and all the benefits attributed to advanced emotional, pschological and spiritual development.

This is why I feature binaural beat meditation products on this site as tools of the mind. You will more discussion and links to further resources about the neuroscience of brain balance and why it matters here:

Hardware reasons why we think, the way we do

Brainwave entrainment and here is a detailed review based entirely on my 8 years of experience with a binaural beat meditation product

Tools Of The Mind [5]

The most powerful long term tools of the mind involve some form of meditation practise.

Meditation whether assisted by a binaural beat technology product or not will - given sufficient time and practise - give you a more balanced brain.

The reason for this is that the effect of many meditation techniques is that it gives you an increased degree of control over your mind and and specifically a large degree of freedom from the incessant flow of thoughts and internal chatter - your "monkey mind" as it is called.

Another major by-product of practising meditation techniques is that meditation will help you relax and relieve stress - which is particularly beneficial if you are experiencing hard times.

Ultimately, if you do enough of it, meditation will help you realise increased or higher states of insight and perception.

So the reason why I feel that meditation is the most powerful of all long term tools of the mind is quite simply that the state and quality of your mind has a very large bearing on the quality of your experience of life, particularly during tough times and very specifically with regard to the whole business of "how to change your life".

There are many meditation "tools of the mind" resources on this site and I refer you to the following pages and associated articles and links to further resources:

Meditation Techniques

The purpose of most meditation techniques is firstly to give you a degree of control over your mind and to give you a large degree of freedom from the incessant flow of thoughts and internal chatter - your "monkey mind" as it is called – and secondly to help you relax and relieve stress.

Mindfulness Meditation

The practise of mindfulness meditation is about being aware of the present moment. It is a powerful life skill, as it reduces stress and it dramatically enhances your capacity for adaptive and holistic thinking - necessary qualities in mastering the art of how to think effectively.

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness based cognitive therapy is about learning how to step out of automatic reactions to thoughts and feelings and reversing the downward spiral by being present.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Mindfulness-based stress reduction has used present moment awareness as an effective way to help treat everyday stress, as well as the more significant stresses experienced by people with HIV, heart disease, and other serious chronic health conditions.

Thich Nhat Hanh

His mindfulness teachings and practices have very wide appeal to people from various religious, spiritual, and political backgrounds. He is is one of the best known and most respected Zen masters in the world today, prolific author, poet, and peace and human rights activist.

Tools Of The Mind - Key Themes

Powers of the mind

The powers of the mind in the subconscious areas are considerable and can make a significant difference to how you interpret and respond to what happens to you, to the things that you attract, and to your overall quality of life experience. But these subconscious powers do NOT create everything that happens to you. The true source of the powers of the mind is in the transcendent or spiritual area of your mind - you could call it your super-consciousness.

Body n mind

There is a very powerful connection between "body n mind". Our minds are the repositories of all of our pre-programmed reactions and response patterns. Our bodies are the vehicles through which our emotional reactions arise and are expressed. Emotion is your body's reaction to your mind.

Tools Of The Mind - Further Resources

Can I change my mind?

This whole site is about learning how to think effectively and the precursor to that is learning how to not think, because: a quiet mind is an insightful mind and a resourceful mind; and a quiet mind makes visible the autonomic and repetitive cycle of your thoughts, reactions and responses. The purpose of this article is to provide you with a framework or mental model to enable you to successfully address the "can I change my mind" question. This framework involves 4 key stages and 10 steps within these stages.

Thinking skills

This article [and the associated articles that follow] presents a number of ways of improving your cognitive capabilities and provide you with a range of practical tools and resources to do this successfully.

Renewing your mind

Renewing your mind is a process of transformation and is based on practices, not beliefs, that will have a profound and positive effect on your life. The start point for renewing your mind is to become aware of what is going on in your mind and particularly that which is going on outside of your conscious awareness. Here are some initial pointers and practices...

Consciousness - The Deus Ex Machina

In this article we are redefining deus ex machina, the god in our machine, as consciousness. The purpose of this article is firstly to offer a personal, experience-based perspective on consciousness and secondly, to offer some potential ways of exploring, living with and developing your connection and relationship with consciousness.

Return to Home Page