Resilience: The Key to Entraining Your Subconscious Mind

‍"For fast acting relief, try slowing down.”

~Lily Tomlin

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When I step back and look at the overall pace of technology and humanity, I am in deep reflection of how we have lost step with the rhythms of nature, and forsaken it for the faster and faster drumbeat of a more tech-filled world; faster doesn’t necessarily mean sooner or quicker gratification. Faster often means frenetic and stressed. When we behave and speak from a frenetic and stressed vibration, we are forgetting that often slower means sooner, that slower is often the faster way to attain, connect or achieve. I love Lily Tomlin’s line from an old commercial ad for Tums, a supplement used to settle an upset stomach. The ad went, “For fast acting relief, try Tums!”(of course for a stressed out acid-stomach), but Tomlin’s take, “For fast acting relief, try slowing down”, is the wiser course. Maybe a slower pace is a bigger key than we’ve estimated. Maybe such is the key to increasing the skill of resilience which allows us to entrain our subconscious minds with new ways of being and experiencing life. How can we be sure that slower is faster? What are the benefits of embodying the concept of “slower is faster” and how does that impact our subconscious mind?

I wasn’t convinced of this until I read the book, “Words Can Change Your Brain” by Dr.  Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, years ago. One of the suggestions I used was to shift the energy in a personal relationship and it still informs my communication style to this day. We had been dating for a few years and were having the same argument over and over again, and not getting anywhere. Most of us can think back to a conversation that we’ve felt stymied in. The suggestion was to slow down your speech so that there’s 1-2 seconds of a pause between each word. It’s an experiment, so you’re not expected to talk like that forever, but just to practice and be aware of what arises in the course of a 10 minute or so conversation.

I was pleasantly surprised when in our practice, the slowness of the speech (or the gap in between the words) helped me understand my own feelings about things that my fast speech was keeping me from knowing about myself. I began to get in touch with my subconscious content, which was actually cheating me out of a deeper connection with my beloved. As well, this allowed me to hear him differently, and gave space for a different conversation to arise. In the course of this exercise we were able to connect faster than if we would have let our triggers do the talking in a fast paced and high-pitched way. This helped me to be sure that slower is indeed faster, especially in the times where we are feeling stressed to have immediate gratification. This is where resilience comes in and where we can begin to realize the benefits of embodying the concept of “slower is faster” by first understanding what I mean by faster versus slower. 

The faster brainwave state of beta has less power or amplitude than a slower brain wave state of alpha or theta. One Scientific American article, entitled, “What is the function of the various brainwaves?”, states that, “ the beta waves are of relatively low amplitude, and are the fastest of the four different brainwaves” (Hermann, 1997). Lower in amplitude means lower in volume and energy. For reflection, how effective do you feel when you’re rushed? We are in a beta state during our normal waking consciousness, where we are reactive and respond to our immediate environment. Recall past instances of making decisions when you were stressed, in a beta brainwave state.

Regardless of whether you were being rushed externally, or whether you felt pressure internally, feeling rushed wasn’t fun. Such inner pressure often gives way to hurtful words, impulsive acts, or poor decisions. How many of us can remember a time when we acted too quickly from a place of stress only to understand that if we had simply waited it out and had more resilience in the face of internal pressure, we’d have chosen differently. Another scenario, doing lots of busy work and burning yourself out, while producing little to show for your efforts. We make the mistake that faster will produce more and get us the results we want sooner. But the beta brainwave state responsible for fast action under stress has a faster frequency, yet a smaller amplitude, less power and less energy than slower frequencies. The impact is often less effective, or produces more struggle with little reward.

The benefit to embodying the concept of a “slower is faster” way of living, comes from understanding that the energy produced by slower brainwave states gives us access to our intuitive skills and creative abilities. “Alpha brainwaves are slower, and higher in amplitude” and  “theta brainwaves are typically of even greater amplitude and slower frequency” (Hermann, 1997). Slowing down allows us to access the space where we can entrain the subconscious mind with new information. This causes us to behave in ways more in alignment with our conscious intentions, thereby getting us there faster than using the stress-filled methods we often default to. The energy generated from the slower brainwave state which turns on when we slow our nervous systems down, via meditation or contemplation, is louder and thus more powerful than the smaller, faster frequencies, emitted when we are stressed and lacking in resilience. 

How then, does cultivating a method for slowing down, or building resilience allow us to entrain our subconscious mind and what are some practical steps to get us there?

Dr. James Doty, author of “Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything”, advises developing a habit of slowing your nervous system down with slow-rhythmic breathing, or what Depak Chopra refers to in his book, “Quantum Body”, as “whole body breathing”; “yogic breathing” or “healing breathing”. While there are many breathing patterns the key is to “exhale more slowly than you inhale” (Chopra, 2023). Specifically, it means breathing from the lower abdominal area, while letting your upper chest stay relaxed. Stress makes us chase after the breath in the attempt to take a deep breath, only to lift our shoulders and chest in demonstration of inhaling deeply.

Yet such only deprives us of a full breath, because it causes the diaphragm to lift up, restricting the lungs from a full inhalation. If you anchor your focus on the tip of the nose (ancient yogic secret) you can quiet the mind noise a little faster, and this increases interoception  or our sense of feeling the inside of our bodies and experience a deeper sense of self. Practicing even a short time, say 7-9 cycles can make the difference in slowing down your brainwaves to alpha or theta. The entrainment of our subconscious minds happens in the state of flow, another term for alpha and beta brainwave states. Once we get to the slower pace, the sense of relaxation we achieve from slowing down the nervous system creates more space. Much like slowing my speech down created more space for a new conversation to evolve organically, with my beloved. Once we are in a relaxed and focused state, the second practice can entrain the subconscious mind easily.

Dr Doty suggests we entrain the subconscious mind by employing the power of rituals. Because “the subconscious responds deeply to strong emotions associated with a particular behavior”, “ritual is one of the most potent ways of aligning our conscious and subconscious minds into focus, allowing us to enter a flow state”, he writes. A ritual can take many forms. The key ingredients are your flow state (meaning slower brainwaves), your clear intention, and a series of actions that help you maintain a state of focus and relaxed positivity. I like to journal and practice meditation and visualization.

I also like to focus on a burning candle as I let good feelings of a flow state wash through my body; or visualize my intention while holding a rose quartz crystal, or a garnet (for finances) as my feelings of positivity through me. I have also had other rituals that worked for me during times of stress, like hiking and convening with nature. The key is to remember that in a flow state (in the slower brainwave state) you are in alpha and/or theta, and those states are associated with feeling relaxed, refreshed and aligned, without doubt or fear intruding on your process. Slower is faster.   

While the notifications on our phones and the deadlines we all face in our modern world place demands on our attention, will you take up the slower pace that Lily Tomlin recommended? If you don’t believe “to get there faster, try going slower” is relevant, why not experiment and see what happens? You might just surprise yourself. 

For more information about booking a session with Lani so she can help you align your subconscious mind with your conscious intentions, simply book a session with her via our online reader’s portal. To get started on your unique ritual, visit our crystal garden, or choose from our wide selection of candles or journals to entrain your subconscious mind with new intentions for manifestation.  

References:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22/

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