Pages

Sunday, January 8, 2012

The Power of Mental Scripts

Our minds are continually using language  to report our beliefs of the way the world is to ourselves.  By taking control of this language, you can harness the power of mental scripts.  You are probably aware of several of these mental scripts as they make their way from your subconscious to your daily conversations, but there are many more scripts that are running through your head that you may not be aware of but still have a profound affect on your life.  The more a script is repeated, the more it is believed to be reality, and the more your body manifests itself according to that script.  For example, the person who has the mental script of "I'm really funny", has that meme running through his head throughout the day either consciously or subconsciously.  Because he or she believes they are funny, they act in a way to manifest that belief by telling jokes and laughing frequently, thereby becoming someone who is funny.  This belief and mental script may even make its way into the individuals daily conversation in the way of a story starting with, "I did the funniest thing today...".  This concept holds true for nearly every aspect of your life.  It is important to understand what your personal mental scripts are and make sure that they are what you want them to be. 

The common ones are likely easy to identify and come up in daily conversations with those close to you.  For example the mental script, "I'm doing well" is a common theme that usually holds true unless you reply with something like, "I'm feeling under the weather".  While there are many positive scripts there are many negative ones as well.  It is important to identify the negative scripts and modify them to achieve a positive outcome.  Some common negative daily scripts include, "I'm fat", "I hate my job", "I hate X political party", "I wish I were rich", "I like fast food (I'm lovin' it)", etc.  By having these mental scripts or ones similar, they manifest themselves in reality.  Instead of thinking to yourself, "I'm fat"(even if you are), It would be better to think, "I have weight to lose, and I'm on my way to losing it", or "I enjoy eating vegetables more than sugar".  By changing the script to something positive, your belief changes and your body begins to manifest its new belief.  While the common scripts are typically easy to identify by looking at what complaints come up in conversation, there are many more scripts which are buried deeper and harder to identify.  For example, people often hold themselves back unnecesarily with scripts like "I don't deserve to be rich", or "I'm not a people person".   By digging deep with some self reflection, one can dredge up hidden mental scripts that are holding you back and change them to positive ones which will lead to real benefits. 

It is also important to understand where your mental scripts come from and begin to regulate those influences on your beliefs.  Advertising is a very powerful force to building mental scripts.  McDonald's, as I alluded to previously, has the theme, "I'm loving it".  When you hear this over and over while staring at a cheeseburger, you begin to believe this to be the case as your mental script changes and accepts it as fact.  Eliminating advertising to prevent this is an option, though incredibly difficult in today's world, but you could also work on changing the script that is being thrown at you.  For example, you could develop a script that "I do not trust McDonald's", or "McDonald's is unhealthy and distastful" thereby effectively blocking their influence on your mental scripts.  Advertising isn't the only source of mental scripts however.  Politicians, coworkers, friends, family, church, etc. all play a role in building your mental scripts and they have been since your birth.  Once you begin to limit the influences of others on your scripts you can then begin to create your own scripts.  Creating your own scripts free of the influence of others is incredibly difficult to do, but by doing so you will open doors to creating a life a freedom and greatness.

2 comments:

  1. AKA "defects of character",
    original sin (off the mark)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mental scripts are very valuable! I've really turned my life around by paying attention to this. It was a very difficult transition, and requires you to confront your deepest thoughts/desires/emotions/problems, but entirely worth it. Its not enough to identify your scripts however. You have to actually sit down, reconstruct new ones, and practice rehearsing them and using them. Eventually they come automatically and that's when you begin to see real positive change. Its hard but worth it! Thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete