The subconscious is always open to suggestion.

Those suggestions that were installed during the formative years by your family and culture, whether you agreed to them or not, become the seeds of habits that direct your life today.

We are all privy to it. Some conditioning is outdated and not in current alignment with who you are today; some you will wish to keep!

The subconscious mind is also open to re-examination.

As an adult, you can decide if aspects of your programmed subconscious align with who you are today. Peering into your life and examining how you live is a reflection of the subconscious.

The subconscious is programmed, and the brain is shaped by its contents.

Most people are unaware that they can change the mind. Without this awareness to actively pursue changes, it remains the same.

Change must be done by the conscious mind.

If this is your first experience engaging in a mind change, select a problem or issue that you are ready to dive into and keep it simple.

What is the power of mind?

You've heard the idea that if you change your mind, then your life will change too. Maybe you tried and noticed no change, or you sensed a shift to some degree, or maybe you experienced a miracle.

What gives?

Most of us don't learn how to take advantage of the vast resources the subconscious mind offers and have no idea adjustments can be made. Unless you read about the subconscious, you might also believe that you need professional help to change or heal your mind. Truth is you have been changing your mind your entire life!

I admit I was relieved when I realized that my thoughts, emotions, and images were manageable because they can get pretty intense in there. Learning that the subconscious does affect health, relationships, and business motivated me to understand deeper states of mind and how I can effect change.

When I was thirteen, my mother died suddenly. The next day, two things happened to make life normal again.

1. My four siblings and I returned to school.
2. My December Teen Magazine arrived in the mail.

We know our lives can change instantly, yet when sudden change occurs, we experience shock and confusion, not believing something like that could happen to us. To distract ourselves, to make life ok, we intuitively reach for the feeling of normalcy, tried-and-true familiarity - our routines.

We want to be at home involved in the same things and people we know and love. We want to go home, to our lives of yesterday.

Have you ever heard someone say we are trying to

keep things as normal as possible, especially for the children?

The value of, and the desire for, normalcy is a part of the brain's healing process and it is miraculous really. Let me explain.

First, the brain's primary job is to keep us alive.

The brain and body adapt to crises by making instant internal changes, ones designed to keep us alive and protect us in the aftermath. We might pass out, hear an explosion but not see it, forget pain, or find the help we need.

We don't question ourselves enough.

When we regress to feeling 'small', are feeling emotional, or are stuck, we don't realize that the experience could be the result of a decision we made years ago. To illustrate this point, read about M.

When a top attorney sought services, she (M.) emotionally related that she was on the verge of losing her position with a prestigious firm because she 'couldn't argue.'

Even after hours of preparation, when she went to court to 'fight' for a client, she stuttered, stammered, and lost her train of thought.

As a result, she felt highly stressed, anger, shame, and hopeless, which made her communication skills deteriorate even more. Although this fear seemed to lurk in the background of her mind, she noticed that the fear and resistance to fighting increased as her work stress increased.

Here is what she discovered in the first session with me:

Do you ever feel like you can't do or be enough?

You're a getter-done person who has to-do it all and is involved in everything to make it perfect so everyone can be happy.

Maybe you feel compelled to care for someone, anyone, who is ailing.

In hurting families, the elephant in the room is the silent shifting of parent-child roles, and some children catapult into hero status. When parents lose control, are distracted, or weaken, children rise and take charge, not only of themselves but for the parents.

The parents weaken, and child gets bigger and more potent believing they know better for the parents' life.

The child hero archetype is a creative fantasy within the child. It can be an image of omnipotence along with a driving need to rescue.

Heroes are born in families where parents are abusive, addicted to substances or activities, have mental illness, or live highly stressed. They are frequently absent, or chronically ill.

Belonging is not a simple thing to feel.

The first law of order in family constellation work (@BertHellinger) is that everyone belongs to the family. Without exception, we all belong to our families, culture, country, and world-at-large.

The desire to belong remains one of our deepest needs, and it is not an option. We believe we make it an option.

You can belong if,,,

When,,,

Where you allow me to,,,

If you give me,,,

You can't belong if...

You do not,,,

If you do,,,

This law of order can be tough to reckon with, causing conflicts in the family.

A reader wrote:

"As a former practicing physician, I am dismayed that the dialogue on many important medical and health-related issues has become restrictive, full of misinformation, and threatening. I've been making decisions based entirely on fear, How can I take charge of my emotions and responses?" R.P., NY

Following Part One, How Influence Priming Causes Us to Lose Ourselves, or How We Are Manipulated to Have Increased Anxiety During Covid, now, we can recover our personal authority and stop unhealthy media coverage from increasing anxieties. (READ PART One HERE!)

While writing Part Two, I stumbled onto a personal dilemma. Do I make a bulleted list of ways to increase awareness of media manipulation and recovery of personal charge? It seemed to me that these qualities and actions that define our well-being warranted more discussion, for my sake too!

In upcoming newsletters, I intend to explore the issue more deeply and intermix helpful strategies. First, let's define personal power.

What is Personal Power?

Through months of quarantine, you might have fallen into ruts, felt emotionally frazzled, and confused. In this newsletter, I share thoughts about 'new' normal conditioning and the tactics used by those in media and authority to raise stress and anxiety; in already difficult circumstances intentionally.

There's a difference between education, where the process of learning involves uncertainty and the effort towards mastery, and the deliberate confusion that media creates designed to trigger submission, fear, and loss of self.

This article is not about whether you should wear a mask or not wear a mask and does not speak for or against recommendations and mandates from any authorities. I write to awaken you to the relationship between deliberate installation of fear and anxiety-related emotions, and the effect of media manipulations on your emotional and physical health.

When I was five, my family moved from a small town to a slightly larger small town in Ohio, where my mom's Italian parents lived. At the insistence of my maternal grandmother, my parents physically relocated the home they purchased to a new site, less than a block down the street from its original location, and to my grandmothers' back yard.

From that moment on, my parents' tension, and smoldering words between my father and grandmother shifted to a climate and feelings I did not understand but felt. However, I imagine the undercurrent of anger over my grandmother's control over her daughter is what shook the foundation on which we lived.

It's a melancholy morning as I watch the snowflakes fall and sip hot coffee. A white Christmas has always been the most exciting gift for me since childhood. Our first and last Christmas in this home was white.

This year our home is quiet and less twinkly due to the residential move in three days, but joy fills my heart as I recall the years gone by,. These memories reside here energetically, but all the love and happiness will go with me.

With our daughter in Europe and other family members at a distance, love cannot be pigeon-holed into only time spent together or a place. There is also love when we respect the need for distance for safety and health. We miss people we love and experiences of laughter, love, conflict, and togetherness.