Engaging with the Subconscious Mind.
All of your habits, thoughts, and beliefs occur at the unconscious layer of being. Without having to do anything, your actions, relationships, and life are commanded by an invisible force that catalogs every experience you’ve ever had. This is true for all of us. However, men may be less familiar with the impacts of this subtle power and how to engage with it.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning. Once considered pliable only at certain developmental stages, science now recognizes the human brain as malleable and able to change throughout a person’s life, with the development of new perspectives and enhanced awareness.
Being able to engage in an inner dialogue that reshapes our mind’s ability to see things in a positive light, rather than getting stuck in thoughts that deteriorate our sense of who you truly are. This is a powerful shift in perception. It creates a new reality affecting what men in particular, experience internally and how men react externally.
Guided Visualization Practices for Transformation
Guided visualization exercises are meant to be enjoyed regularly. Some practices ask you to envision yourself and your challenges using different lenses of awareness. This helps give perspective and makes space for new awareness. Engage with exercises with a sense of curiosity. There is no right or wrong way to practice. Each person has unique needs. Trust that you always have the answers within, and recognize that you possess exactly what you need to grow, heal, and thrive. This is an area where men often struggle to create balance.
Creating Sacred Time & Space
Make a commitment to yourself to spend at least 15-minutes each day to consistently engage your healing practices. Create a private space in your home where you can relax and connect with your inspirations and emotions. Adorn the area with empowerment items that allow your inner needs to manifest into being and your deeper insights to emerge as truth. Some decor found in nature includes feathers, rocks, seed pods, flowers, tree bark, and lichen. Add personal photos, treasured talismans, and whatever feels sacred and uplifting.
Time to Just Be
Although it’s important to create consistency with your practices, it’s equally valuable to give yourself some time “off” from your practice schedule and your daily routines, to do only what feels most nourishing. This is a beautifully supportive practice in itself. I set aside Sundays as my day where I get to dawdle, tantalize my senses, and explore inspirations in each moment.
This might mean delegating responsibilities to others, keeping my calendar open for spontaneous outings, wandering in Nature without an agenda, locking myself away in my personal sanctuary to create art, or perhaps doing nothing. This negative space in my weekly routine assures me time for rest, renewal, and replenishment, which carries me forward throughout the rest of my week.
It’s likely that if you have young children or other demanding responsibilities, reserving an entire day will feel improbable, if not impossible. Have a light touch and get creative about taking small bites of time to honor the art of unstructured self-nourishment.
Start with five-to-ten-minute mini moments scattered throughout your week, as you reflectively pause and ask yourself, “What would nourish me in this moment?” Feel into the energy of this desire and, if possible, honor your inner request. By giving yourself brief yet regular breaks to explore your deeper wishes in the present moment, you develop new neural pathways and a greater sense of calm, creating spaciousness within that can support you to carve out more space in your scheduled life.
Realistic Mindset about Healing
Does engaging in psycho-spiritual practices mean that you will never meet adversity again? Of course not. What it does mean, is that when difficulties arise you’ll be better resourced to deal with them. With tools for self-care, new neuropathways of calm, and an ever evolving internal landscape of compassion, acceptance and clarity, there is greater capacity to handle life as it comes, even when the waters get rough. Men often have high expectations and will benefit from taking the time to embrace this process.
Transcendence isn’t about living a perfectly harmonious life but about finding the joy within the disharmony of life. This is the essence of healing. Not to strive to fix, or even to cure, but to embrace a mindset of growth and resilience, in the face of inevitable challenges men often face.
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