Transformation Starts with Action
Why You Don’t Do What You Say You Want To Do
Three years ago I became slightly obsessed with a question. Why do people not do what they say they want to do? Myself included.
Eating better. Drinking less. Exercising. Starting a project. Sometimes just keeping appointments and showing up for things they planned. The intentions were real and I felt committed but then it fizzled.
Before the work I am doing now, a portion of my clinical practice focused on dependencies. Binge eating and alcohol specifically, because I could relate to them. What my patients and my training consistently showed me was this: it was never about what someone was dependent on. Some people eradicated one dependency only to have it replaced by another. The problem was always what sat underneath. What discomfort or pain was being numbed. What was being made bearable.
That became my entry point into the bigger question. To understand what was really driving behaviour, I needed to look beneath the surface, at what was happening subconsciously.
The Navigator, the Maps, and the Territory
I use this metaphor to explain the different levels of mind. The mind operates across layers: conscious awareness, subconscious processes, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. These are not located in the brain. The brain is the biological interface that processes and transmits signals. It is not the origin of mind.
The conscious mind is the navigator. It decides direction, it is logical and deliberate. The subconscious mind is the maps. Patterns and processes built from experience, belief, social conditioning, and culture, it’s habitual. The non-conscious is the territory itself. The full expanse of what is possible. Autonomous and primordial.
When each level is doing its job and all three are aligned, there is coherence. Action becomes consistent. Resistance drops. Decisions are clearer, even difficult ones. And when that alignment is present, the non-conscious has space to surface, bringing insight and opportunity you could not have manufactured.
Doing what you say you want to do becomes consistent. Not always effortless, but doable and not a battle.
The Trap: Two Kinds of Wanting
Here is where most people get stuck. Myself included.
There are two kinds of wanting and most people cannot tell them apart.
The first comes from the ego. These wants are driven by social pressure, the need for validation, love, acceptance. There is urgency to them. They are usually future-oriented: “when I get this I will be happy” “when I have that I will have enough” “I need to do this now before someone else does”. Ego wants are not inherently bad, they can generate real motivation. They are just not the full picture. Follow them without awareness and life becomes a constant hustle. Because ego wants are not truly yours. They belong to a perceived separate self that believes it is alone and finite and must fight for its place.
The second kind of wanting comes from life itself. It feels intuitive and you are drawn to it like a magnet. It could be the interest that has been with you since childhood, the thing you cannot let go of, the idea that does not make logical sense but when you sit with it, when you allow yourself to entertain it as something you actually can do, it feels like relief, for me it felt like the slow release of a pressure pot, the contraction that gave me decades of digestive issues resulting in two hospital visits expanded. Sometimes “the want” from life itself is so simple and so comfortable that it feels unfamiliar. You want to turn away from it, I couldn’t face mine for a long time. But it stayed and I allowed it in.
These “life wants” are part of why you are here. They are what life has decided it can do through you. From the outside, both can look identical. The same behaviour, the same effort, the same striving but the maps underneath are completely different.
How To Tell The Difference
Ego wants feel hard. Inconsistent. Stressful. When you achieve them they are often unsatisfying, and you find yourself immediately moving to the next target without pause.
Life wants are energising and fulfilling. Supported by synchronicity, by opportunities you could never have planned for. There is satisfaction along the way. Often no defined end goal. You feel nourished in the process itself.
What To Do With This
Pay attention to life. Notice where life is pulling you. What feels stressful, notice what feels exciting. What opportunities are appearing without you forcing them. This is how life communicates.
Bring awareness to what you are doing to please others, what you are doing because you think you should, or what you are doing to keep up with the success you think others are showcasing or what you are doing because you believe it will bring validation. That is ego.
And be careful of the manifesting industry. A billion-dollar machine that has spent decades telling people to visualise harder, affirm louder, and vision-board bigger, without ever asking whether what they are trying to create is actually theirs in the first place.
Where To Start
Awareness first. You now know that two kinds of wanting exist and that the ego can hijack desire while the conscious mind runs with it unchecked. That combination is the recipe for stress, dissatisfaction, and suffering.
Next, understand the layers. Let the conscious mind navigate, knowing that pulls will come from both ego and life. Work on the maps, the subconscious patterns, so they are current and not from childhood and that they reflect what’s actually your true “want”. Question and reframe the beliefs that hold you back.
When your conscious and subconscious minds are aligned, you create space for the non-conscious to move through you. For life to bring insights in a language you can receive. This is where you begin to access clear knowing. Your own claircognizance.
That is when doing what you say you want to do stops being a struggle and starts being natural and you flow with life.
If you’re ready to look at life from a different perspective this is a powerful place to start.
∞ Buy my book TURBULENCE
∞ Follow me on YouTube for lots of enlightening conversations.
∞ If you want help in rewiring the subconscious mind with self hypnosis you might be drawn to MindScript – its revolutionary.
The Story We Tell Ourselves
Something I continue to reflect on in my work as a psychotherapist is the extent to which people suffer through believing the stories they construct about themselves and their lives.
Narratives around self-worth, the need for external validation through relationships or career, and ideas about how life is “supposed” to unfold often become the lens through which people interpret everything that happens to them. When life does not conform to these internal narratives, the mismatch is frequently taken as evidence of personal inadequacy. In this way, circumstance becomes proof of a story that was never true in the first place.
What is rarely recognised is how little control we actually have over life. We can influence outcomes to a degree, but control is largely an illusion. Where we do have meaningful agency is in our inner life: how we meet what life presents, how we relate to experience, and how we orient ourselves internally when reality diverges from expectation.
When I began to understand how humans are wired, the layered architecture of experience, from unconscious survival mechanisms, to conditioned subconscious patterns, to conscious self-reflection, it became clear how easily we are hijacked by evolutionary drivers that once served survival but are poorly adapted to the psychological demands of modern adult life. Much of what people take to be “who I am” is, in fact, inherited patterning running on outdated software.
Encountering non-duality and analytic idealism reframed this entirely for me and gave me the language for what I had intuited at a very young age. These understandings gave me the permission slip I needed to re-organise myself and live life from a different liberated perspective. Recognising ourselves as part of the whole shifted my orientation from a life organised around the preservation and validation of a personal identity to a life understood as participation in experience itself.
Seen from this perspective, life is not primarily about “me.” It is about embracing life and experiencing life fully. It is about participating in the unfolding of nature through relationship with other sentient beings and with the natural world. It is about the textures of experience, the memories formed, the learning that occurs, and what is shared back into the wider field of being.
This orientation supersedes the tyranny of personal narrative. Identity becomes less a fixed story that must be defended and more a temporary interface through which life is lived. As that shift occurs, much of the suffering driven by self-referential thinking begins to unwind.
From here, there is full permission to choose identity, much as an actor chooses a role. The choice, however, is not arbitrary. When identity work is approached with depth and precision, identity is shaped in dialogue with nature’s guidance. It is built upon values, upon what genuinely matters, and formed through conscious intention so that we can inhabit a role that is both expansive and deeply fulfilling within this human experience.
If you’re ready to look at life from a different perspective this is a powerful place to start.
🌀 Buy my book TURBULENCE
Follow me on YouTube for lots of enlightening conversations.
If you would like to have a one-on-one conversation with me to explore how I might guide you, Book A Private Conversation With Jo Swann
Body Intelligence is your Superpower.
How Can Body Intelligence Guide Us Through Life’s Most Difficult Moments?
Our body intelligence orchestrates the creation and development of our physical form, beginning with the intricate process of embryonic growth. It knows what we need, it has access to its own pharmacy, fighting off viruses, infections, healing us from within, yet we rarely ask for its guidance. We’ve forgotten how to communicate with it. In our most difficult moments, this disconnect becomes even more pronounced.
When life feels chaotic, overwhelming, or uncertain, we instinctively turn to external sources for answers. Seeking solutions through overthinking, numbing, or distraction. But the real guidance we need is already within us.
The body carries an innate wisdom within the nonconscious mind, constantly maintaining and healing itself. This intelligence feeds information to the subconscious mind, just below our level of awareness. Although it operates beneath conscious thought, we can bring awareness to it. This is how body intelligence guides us. Learning to communicate with this inner intelligence is the key to understanding what we truly need, especially when we’re lost, stuck, or facing major life challenges.
The majority of time, it’s busy keeping us alive, ensuring our heart beats, our lungs expand and release and bodily functions continue. Yet, our body intelligence is a bridge to deeper sources of power with the ability to guide us through this human experience. Unlike the thinking mind, it does not use language or words, body intelligence speaks through inspiration, intuition, and sometimes dreams. It also communicates through the environments we gravitate toward, the people who capture our attention, and the places that feel inexplicably ‘right.’ Sometimes, its guidance is subtle; a book that resonates at the perfect moment, a podcast that shifts our perspective, or an unexpected encounter that provides a new path.
Beyond Instinct: The Depth of Body Intelligence
Body intelligence is often misunderstood. It is not instinct. Instinct is reactive, impulsive, and wired for short-term survival. While powerful, instinct alone doesn’t necessarily lead to long-term positive outcomes because the world we live in today is vastly different from the one our species was designed for. Our ancient survival mechanisms, once essential for avoiding predators and securing resources, can now lead to misplaced fears, stress responses, and habits that no longer serve us.
Body intelligence, on the other hand, is adaptive and deeply attuned to what we truly need. It provides clarity when the mind is in chaos, offering subtle nudges toward what will restore balance, provide fulfilment and well-being.
Homeostasis: The Key to Receiving Clear Guidance
We can however find ourselves in a paradox. Our ability to receive and act on body intelligence depends on homeostasis, yet in life’s most difficult moments, homeostasis is often what we lack.
Homeostasis is a state of balance among all body systems, and when we are overwhelmed, disconnected, or living mindlessly, this balance is disrupted. In these moments, we can’t hear the body’s guidance. If we suppress its signals with over-medicating, overstimulation, or numbing behaviours, the messages don’t stop, they simply get louder. Ignore them long enough, and they manifest as physical illness.
The key isn’t to wait until balance is lost, it’s to cultivate habits that sustain homeostasis. By maintaining a baseline level of stability, we ensure that when life’s turbulence inevitably hits, we are still able to navigate.
In Chapter Four of Turbulence, I provide five ways to maintain homeostasis, along with a tool to help people reconnect with their body intelligence, allowing them to access answers uniquely tailored to their own life journey. The body’s wisdom can guide us in what to eat, where to be, who to surround ourselves with, how to move, when to rest, and how to show up in the world.
The more we listen to our body intelligence, the more we trust and the clearer the communication becomes.
Ian’s Story
I once worked with Ian, a 65-year-old CEO who initially sought help to reduce his daily wine consumption and loose a few kilos. But as is often the case, the issue wasn’t really about alcohol. The thing is never about the thing. The habit is simply a coping mechanism, a way to find comfort from deeper discomfort.
As we delved deeper, Ian realized his drinking wasn’t about dependency, it was about a loss of purpose. Despite his outward success, he felt bored, uninspired, and disconnected from the sense of challenge that had once driven him.
Through the Body Intelligence tool, Ian sensed a subtle but persistent urge: “Find your tribe”.
At first, he didn’t know what it meant. But instead of dismissing it, he listened. He explored new activities and was unexpectedly drawn to a group that combined outdoor adventure, personal growth, and, surprisingly, flying lessons.
Skeptical but curious, Ian decided to give it a try. He found himself immersed in new challenges, meaningful conversations, and experiences that reignited his sense of aliveness. His energy shifted. He lost weight naturally, without trying. He reduced his drinking effortlessly. And most unexpectedly, he fell in love with flying.
Ian’s journey illustrates that in difficult moments, we often seek relief, when what we actually need is to reconnect and listen. What we think is the problem is often just a symptom of a deeper need.
When he tuned into his body’s wisdom and followed its guidance he discovered another level of potentiality in his life.
This is the power of body intelligence. It leads us beyond surface-level struggles, guiding us toward the experiences and connections that bring us back to ourselves.
Body intelligence is our super power, capable of guiding us to everything we need. It whispers before it shouts. And when we truly listen, we realize: our body has been speaking to us all along.
If you’re ready to begin, or deepen, your own journey of connecting with your bodys intelligence and returning to your true nature, this is a powerful place to start.
🌀 Buy my book TURBULENCE
If you would like to have a one-on-one conversation with me to explore how I might guide you, book a FREE 20 minute call
And remember:
You don’t need to fix yourself.
You just need to remember who you are.
The Realisation That Changed Everything
Our world culture is built on a belief so deeply ingrained that most people never stop to question it. A mind and body confined to the small frame of an individual. Living a short, limited life on a spinning planet.
We’re told that what we see, touch, and feel is real. That it’s all made of matter. Solid, permanent, reliable. But when we believe everything and everyone is confined by space and time, a sense of limitation becomes the default setting. From that perceived limitation, scarcity is born.
Scarcity breeds the need to prove ourselves, to be right, to compete, to hustle. It fuels a world driven by comparison, rivalry, and fear. No wonder we’re exhausted. No wonder the world feels like it’s unravelling. No wonder there is so much conflict and suffering. But what if this individualistic belief isn’t true? What if we’ve misunderstood the nature of reality and we are not separate living things at all. What if there’s another way to live?
When I saw the truth in reality, everything changed
A few years ago, I had a realisation that flipped everything I thought I knew. I saw clearly that I wasn’t a separate self struggling through life. This wasn’t my one shot at being alive. It wasn’t all about achievement, pressure, and what I did between birth and death. Life stopped being something I needed to conquer. It became something I could explore.
To feel. To laugh. To cry.
To rest when I needed to.
To love fully. To be kind to strangers.
To connect deeply with animals, people, and nature.
The challenges didn’t disappear. But I stopped taking them personally and I released the judgement and resistance that I would have once held onto so tightly. Problems stopped defining me. And over time, they lost their power to make me suffer.
Pain is part of life. But suffering? That’s a different story.
Suffering is what we add when we believe the thoughts that tell us we’re broken, unworthy, not safe, or not enough.
Science is catching up with ancient wisdom
For thousands of years, ancient cultures and mystical traditions have pointed to the same truth: We are not what we think we are and there is an underlying connectivity to everyone and everything. Now, in a beautiful full circle, quantum physics is beginning to reveal it too. Matter is neither solid or permanent and there is no “hard problem of consciousness”.
Atoms, the basic building blocks of everything, are 99.999999 percent empty space. What we think of as “solid” is actually energy. Patterns of vibration in invisible fields. Everything we see, touch, and interact with is energy, appearing in a temporary form.
Trillions of atoms come together under the influence of gravity, environment, or a conscious observer, and they form what we call matter. But at the deepest level, it’s not solid. It’s energetic potential and it’s relational.
This means that reality, as we experience it, isn’t fixed. It’s a dynamic dance of perception.
So what does this mean in real life?
It means that everything we experience through our senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell isn’t the full truth. It’s perception. And perception isn’t the same for everyone.
A bat, a bird, a whale, or a frog all experience the same environment completely differently. Even we humans can shift perception dramatically for example, under the influence of psychedelics or altered states.
So if reality is experienced differently, depending on the observer, then what is the world if everything that is experienced is so subjective?
What is it that is constant for all of us? It’s the observer, the awareness of the content of experience.
So, could it be that consciousness isn’t something that arises from the brain, but the field in which all experience happens? “Mind blown?” … I know, stay with me. What if awareness or consciousness is the constant… and everything else arises within it? If that’s true, then we’re not isolated individuals. We are awareness itself, experiencing life through temporary forms. This means we are indeed limitless energetic potential.
That idea may sound vast, but it can be experienced by everyone and have massive positive impact on your everyday life.
When you realise your experience of the world is shaped by your perception, and your perception is not fixed, something powerful opens up. You can question your beliefs!
You can look at the thoughts that have shaped your story and realise they’re not universal truths. They may feel real and that’s ok, feel them, give them space but don’t believe them, don’t let them identify as you.
Beliefs like:
I’m not good enough
I don’t have enough
I’m unlovable
I have to hustle to be worthy
This is my one life to prove myself
When someone dies, I’ve lost them forever
These beliefs are not facts. But we live as though they are. And that illusion keeps us stuck.
Four life changing insights
Living from this new understanding takes time to integrate. But even one glimpse is enough to begin the shift.
Here are four insights that have stayed with me:
Freedom
You are free to question every belief you’ve ever had. And change it.
Meaning
The meaning of life and your purpose becomes simple. It is to experience life. Consciousness experiences itself through form. Through you, through me, through everything. That’s it. You can slow down. Life is not a race. Simply by existing you are fulfilling your life’s purpose.
Limitlessness
You are not a fixed, separate, confined self.
You are not your ego which is a construct of your mind.
The voice of fear, comparison, and shame is not the truth.
And you don’t have to believe it.
Connection
If consciousness is the space in which everything exists, then we are already connected. Not metaphorically, but literally. We are one awareness, appearing in many forms. When you feel that, love becomes the natural response. You don’t have to like everything and everyone. But you can meet life with more compassion, more kindness, more understanding.
This is the realisation that changed everything. And I believe, deep down, it’s one we’re all ready to remember.
If something in you stirred as you read this, trust that.
The journey of self-enquiry doesn’t require you to believe anything blindly. It does not require faith. It simply invites you to look again. To question what you’ve been told. To see what’s actually true, not just for the world, but for you.
My book As Intense As It Gets, It’s Just “Turbulence” offers five practical tools to help you navigate this deeper exploration. One of them, the Awareness Anchor, gently guides you back to your place where enquiry can begin. My book contains a QR code for audio’s that guide you.
If you’re ready to begin, or deepen, your own journey of seeing through the turbulence and returning to your true nature, this is a powerful place to start.
🌀 Buy my book TURBULENCE
And remember:
You don’t need to fix yourself.
You just need to remember who you are.
Overwhelmed By Life’s Turbulence?
Overwhelmed by life’s turbulence? An email arrived today with a question. “What Advice Would You Give to Someone Feeling Overwhelmed by Life’s Challenges and Turbulence Right Now”?
The first thing I would say is: “Welcome to the full spectrum of being human.” There is nothing wrong with you. Nothing lacking. I’m not saying this to be smart or spikey, life for all of us will always be full of challenges and if we don’t have the right awareness, skills and tools we will suffer.
Overwhelm and challenges are not signs of failure. They are part of the human experience, an invitation to growth. Resisting what is happening only amplifies the suffering. Learning to navigate turbulence, however, strengthens you, expands you, and equips you for greater opportunities ahead.
I created A.T.L.A.S specifically for moments like these. A clear set of tools to help you find your way.
1) Awareness Anchor – Expand Your Perspective
Recognise that this is a chapter, not the whole book. Even death is not the end, it’s simply a transition. Whatever you are facing, it will pass. Expand your awareness and notice that your thoughts, feelings, and sensations are transitory. They are not you.
Expand further. Who are you, really. Who are you in deep sleep, when your challenges don’t exist? If they are absent there, they cannot be essential to you. Life has a way of bringing answers in its own time. Trust that, while also staying practical. Use your tools, navigate the turbulence, take small actions, and allow the path to unfold.
2) Thoughts & Feelings – Engage Your Curiosity
Use the power of curiosity to distinguish between thoughts and feelings that serve you and those that don’t. Ask yourself:
• Are these thoughts true? Or are they laced with fear, built on “what ifs” and “if onlys”?
• What would life look like if these thoughts and feelings weren’t true?
• What happens when I set them aside?
Compartmentalise. Let go of what isn’t useful, and move forward with what is.
3) Locus of Control – Own Your Response
Life will throw what it wants at you, but you decide how to respond. We have far more power than we realise to control our inner state. The situation itself is neither good nor bad, it’s the meaning we attach to it that shapes our experience.
Pay attention to where you place blame. Notice what you decide to believe as “truth.” If you want to change your life, you must change the way you think.
Pay attention to where you place blame. Notice what you decide to believe as “truth.” If you want to change your life, you must change the way you think.
4) Adventurous Awakenings – Step Beyond the Known
You are designed to do hard things. You can do hard things.
We’ve all heard stories of people overcoming challenges beyond comprehension; physical, emotional, or psychological. They weren’t superhuman. They were human, just like you. When we step beyond our comfort zone, we discover hidden sources of power we never knew existed. It’s outside our zone of comfort that we expand. Don’t fear the hard things. Embrace them. They are gateways to your next evolution.
We’ve all heard stories of people overcoming challenges beyond comprehension; physical, emotional, or psychological. They weren’t superhuman. They were human, just like you. When we step beyond our comfort zone, we discover hidden sources of power we never knew existed. It’s outside our zone of comfort that we expand. Don’t fear the hard things. Embrace them. They are gateways to your next evolution.
5) Sense of Abundance – Align With What Truly Fulfils You
Your imagination is limitless. You can do anything within your mind, just think of your wildest dreams, or the sensation of flying in a dream. Your mind is infinite.
And yet, you are also housed in a finite human body. The insight? True freedom is found when you integrate both. What if you blended the boundless nature of your mind with the richness of your physical experience? Abundance is not just about what you have, it’s about what you notice.
Ask yourself:
• What does abundance mean to me, right now?
• What truly brings me joy?
• What lights me up?
The more you lean into gratitude for the everyday joys, the magic moments of life, simple interactions, nature, animals, the richness of presence the more freedom and fulfillment you bring into your life.
Final Thoughts
Overwhelm is not a sign of weakness. it’s a sign of growth knocking at your door. By anchoring yourself in awareness, investigating your thoughts, owning your responses, expanding your limits, and aligning with true abundance, you learn to navigate turbulence rather than be consumed by it. And in doing so, you transform not just the moment but yourself.
If this has resonated with you, you may want to grab a copy of my new book: Turbulence – Master The Five Tools Of A.T.L.A.S. It may just transform your LIFE. It transformed mine.
The Root Of All Suffering
To find the answers, you need to know the problem. Most people don’t know the problem.
Most people think the problem is the food, the alcohol, the procrastination, the lack of willpower or determination, the laziness. But these are not the problems—they are the coping mechanisms, the comfort from discomfort.
If we take one step back, we can see that the problem might be the thoughts and feelings we attribute to circumstances. This is a fair assessment because thoughts and feelings are indeed the cause of all psychological suffering. However, we still haven’t landed on the real problem.
Before we unpick this, I’d like to share how I came to realise the importance of knowing the true “problem.” Are you familiar with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams? In the book, a group of super-intelligent beings develop “Deep Thought”, a supercomputer designed to calculate the answer to the ultimate question of life. After 7.5 million years, the computer finally reveals the answer: 42. The problem? Nobody knew the question.
This got me thinking. We can find endless answers to what we think are our problems, but until we know the real problem, the right question to ask, we will spend lifetimes trying to work it out.
So let’s unpick this…
It’s widely recognised in psychology that all psychological suffering is caused by thoughts and feelings. You might disagree when you first hear this, but think about it. Circumstances themselves have no inherent impact, it’s our response to them that carries significance. Even physical pain, though real, is amplified by the thoughts and feelings we attach to it.
For example, after my recent foot surgery, I could choose to focus on the pain: What if it never goes away? What if I can’t run as far as I used to? Or I could acknowledge that my feet are sore, thank them for the hundreds of thousands of miles they’ve carried me, and tell them, We’ll be just fine.
Or let’s revisit March 2020, when COVID halted worldwide travel, putting our travel business in serious financial difficulty. We could have suffered by filling our heads with Why is this happening? This is wrong. The decisions being made are unfair. What if the borders don’t open for 12 months? What if we run out of money and have to close the company? Or we could focus on pivoting the business, finding ways to create value, investing in learning new skills, and helping our community.
You get the drift.
It’s the thoughts and feelings we create that cause the suffering—not life itself. When we don’t process these thoughts and feelings, we repress, suppress, vent, or escape from them. They get stuck in us as energy, leading to disease, dysfunction, and even more suffering.
So we seek solutions. We look for help. We look for answers. Some find temporary relief. Some try a holistic approach—yoga, sound healing, acupuncture, meditation, breathwork, exercise and these can help a great deal. Others turn to medication. Some fall into addiction.
So what’s the answer? How do we end the suffering?
To find the answers, we need to know what question to ask, we need to know the actual problem. People have many problems, all unique, yet the patterns are the same. And underlying all of it is the truth: we have forgotten who we really are.
We misidentify ourselves as separate, finite selves, overlooking that we are infinite, powerful beings – human beings, beings having a human experience. Perceiving ourselves to be limited, we don’t feel safe, we don’t feel equipped to deal with life, we feel isolated.
So, the problem is misidentification and the question to ask is “who am I”.
This is not about spirituality or religion, and you don’t need to believe me. I invite you to conduct your own investigation. Because until you know who you really are, no amount of therapy, therapeutics, medication, or hedonism will satisfy you or end your suffering.
Once you discover who you really are, you finally understand what the problem has been all along. From there, you learn new ways to navigate this human experience. You gently align with your true nature, your purpose. You find yourself suffering less and less. Your family and friends start to notice a difference. You light up from the inside. You feel energised. People and circumstances show up serendipitously at the right time to support and inspire you.
If you’re wondering where to begin this investigation, I invite you to read my book, Turbulence: Master the Five Mind Tools of A.T.L.A.S. to Navigate the Storm. We begin with the problem, giving you an anchor, and move on from there—re-mapping your life toward freedom and fulfilment.
The Subconscious Mind and Mental Constructs
In a recent workshop, I shared transformative insights into how we perceive reality, form beliefs, and navigate life’s challenges. At its heart was a simple yet powerful truth: while we often feel trapped by our thoughts and experiences, we are not bound by these limitations. We can access a higher awareness that shifts us beyond our mental constructs and leads to profound transformation.
The Two Lenses Of Sense & Perception: We experience the world through two primary lenses: sense and perception. These filters shape how we interpret reality, leading us to believe that we are finite, limited beings. This interpretation often creates the illusion of separation, reinforcing the idea of a separate self. But this belief is far from the whole truth.
The Subconscious Mind and Mental Constructs: Our subconscious mind, which governs 95% of our behavior, is vastly more powerful than the conscious mind. It operates based on survival instincts and deeply ingrained patterns. While these instincts were designed to keep us safe, they often lead to the creation of mental prisons: constructs rooted in fear and conditioned beliefs. These subconscious mechanisms influence how we think, feel, and act, often without our awareness. When we recognise that change is needed we often rely on willpower, determination and we might even recruit rational thinking. However these are functions of the conscious mind which is indeed limited in scope and energy. For lasting self-regulation and transformation, we must work with the subconscious mind, where the real change happens.
The Separate Self and Coping Mechanisms: As life unfolds, our subconscious mind draws on catastrophic thoughts, emotional reactions, and past experiences to create a separate self, what we might call an ego. To cope, we develop mechanisms, beliefs and behaviours. Many of which are maladaptive. These strategies reinforce the illusion of limitation, keeping us trapped in patterns of suffering.
The Awareness Anchor: A tool for real transformation. The good news is that we are not defined by the constraints of sense perception or the mental constructs of the subconscious mind. We are far more powerful than we realise. The Awareness Anchor is a practical tool that allows us to connect with this truth.
The Awareness Anchor is not magical thinking; it is an experiential tool that immediately shifts your inner state. By accessing this place of calm, peace, and expansiveness beyond the mind-body complex you can move into higher states of consciousness, such as alpha or theta brainwave states. In this state, the subconscious mind becomes more accessible, allowing you to re-map beliefs and dissolve limiting constructs. With consistent practice, the Awareness Anchor becomes a powerful refuge, a place you can return to whenever needed to find comfort in discomfort and begin the process of lasting change.
Tools, Support, and Next Steps: The tools and skills I share, including the Awareness Anchor, are accessible to anyone and can be learned through my free Hansah Life YouTube Channel workshops or explored in my book, As Intense As It Gets, It’s Just “Turbulence”. If you’re looking for deeper guidance, I offer one-to-one coaching and my upcoming Mastery Coaching course, Navigating Life’s Turbulence: A 6-Week Journey to Re-map Your Life with A.T.L.A.S.
Whether you need a co-pilot for part of the journey or simply want practical tools to support your growth, these resources are here for you.
Strategic Psychotherapy and Clinical Hypnosis – A Winning Combination
Strategic psychotherapy and clinical hypnotherapy can offer several advantages over traditional talk therapies, especially for certain individuals and specific issues. However, it’s important to note that the effectiveness of therapy can vary greatly depending on the individual and their unique circumstances. Here’s why these therapies might be considered more effective in some cases:
- Focused and Goal-Oriented: Strategic psychotherapy is highly structured and goal-oriented. It focuses on solving specific problems and achieving specific outcomes, which can make it more efficient for clients seeking solutions to particular issues.
- Rapid Results: Both strategic psychotherapy and clinical hypnotherapy often yield faster results compared to traditional talk therapies. They are designed to produce quick changes in behaviour and thought patterns, resulting in positive long term change.
- Bypassing Conscious Resistance: Clinical hypnotherapy works by accessing the subconscious mind, which can be more effective for clients who have trouble engaging with more traditional, conscious-level talk therapies. This can be particularly beneficial for issues deeply rooted in unconscious processes, such as phobias, addictions, limiting beliefs and certain behavioural patterns.
- Combination of Techniques: These therapies often combine various techniques from different therapy models (like clinical-behavioural therapy, NLP, etc.), providing a more integrated and versatile approach. This can be more effective than therapies that adhere to a single school of thought.
- Empowerment and Autonomy: Strategic psychotherapy empowers the client by focusing on developing strategies and skills that the client can use independently. This aspect of self-help can lead to more sustainable long-term change.
- Addressing Subconscious Beliefs: Clinical hypnotherapy is effective in identifying and altering deep-seated beliefs and attitudes that might be difficult to access through traditional talk therapy.
- Customised to Individual Needs: Both therapies are highly individualised, taking into account the unique background, personality, and needs of each client, which can lead to more effective treatment.
It’s crucial to remember that while these therapies can be highly effective, they are not universally superior to all forms of talk therapy. The choice of therapy should be based on the individual’s specific needs, preferences, and the nature of the issues they are dealing with. As with any therapeutic approach, the skill and experience of the therapist also play a critical role in the effectiveness of the treatment.
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The Nature Of Reality
As human beings we spend the majority of our lives seeking happiness & contentment but this is a futile search that will end in misery.
Happiness is not something that we will “find”. It’s not out there to be purchased in the form of a new house or car, a holiday, or a new pair of shoes. Granted, these things are pretty awesome, but they will only bring short lived happiness and the search will begin again.
Happiness can not be found in anything external because it’s already inside every one of us. We just need to unveil it, remove the layers of conditioning, materialism and trauma and there we find a place of peace and happiness that we can return to anytime we want.
Getting there could not be simpler. You do not need to spend hours every day in meditation, you don’t need to spend a fortune on self development or manifestation courses. You just need to relax, breathe and take a small trip along the direct path of introspection.
So .. am I saying you just need to sit down, breathe and find happiness within you and you will be happy for the rest of your life? Nope. That would be very boring, it’s lovely for about three minutes but then the bliss ends for me. The power comes in the realization itself, when you unveil your true nature which is happiness and peace you can then approach life from a completely different perspective where you have the tools you need to face anything life throws at you. You also unleash a super power.
Prior to this … lets call it an awakening of your true nature you were resisting nature and the universe you were not flowing with it and allowing nature to flow through you, there were many barriers, tension and a feeling of overall struggle.
When you realize the true nature of reality thats when you flow with it. The vibes of the universe and nature nourish you and provide you with everything required to lead a fulfilled life of purpose. Creativity flourishes, your brain clicks into place and performs effortlessly, your body is energized, ideas appear from nowhere, you meet people that bring great opportunities. It’s like magic !
It doesn’t end there. In time you realize that this super power you discovered within you that’s been with you since you were born, this place of happiness where your true nature lives is actually shared with everyone and everything. It’s an infinite consciousness and when you start to realize it in others a profound change occurs because when we recognize in others a similarity to ourself we feel love and we want to be kind to them.
It was this discovery that gave me hope. If human beings can awaken to the nature of reality, if we can find our own true nature, understand and feel that this is shared with all beings, with our environment and all animals, then this is how we stop the degradation of our planet, stop the exploitation of animals and end the conflict between human beings.
Sure, it will take time. But this is hope. The nature of reality is there for us all to unveil.
If you would like to begin your trip along the direct path of introspection I can highly recommend the teachings of Rupert Spira, he will take you there for free, the best teachings cost nothing but curiosity. You can find out more on his YouTube and website.