Rewiring Our Subconscious

Using Our Conscious Mind To Rewire Our Subconscious

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.” - Stephen Covey

While we often believe our choices define us, the truth is that the vast majority of human behavior is governed by subconscious and automatic systems. These systems evolved to help us survive in a complex world by minimizing the energy cost of decision-making and reaction.

Modern neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and systems theory suggest that over 99.9999% of what we do each day is processed outside of conscious awareness, including our habits, preferences, emotional responses, and even the framing of moral dilemmas.

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” - Archimedes

This gives us an opportunity in leverage. One way to gain immense leverage of changing the world around you is to leverage our conscious minds to influence how our subconscious and automatic systems work.

These systems are not inherently good or bad. But without awareness, they operate reactively. With awareness, they can be trained, refined, and repurposed toward greater coherence and alignment.

The vast majority of your life, your emotions, reactions, decisions, and perceptions, is not driven by rational thought or conscious intention. It is governed by deeply embedded automatic and subconscious systems that evolved to ensure survival, efficiency, and social cohesion.

These systems are not flaws. They are ancient and brilliant. But left unchecked, they can lead to misalignment with our values, our environments, and the deeper harmony of the universe. The unique gift of human consciousness is that it allows us to observe these systems and participate in their refinement.

Below is a map of core subconscious systems that shape your life, along with examples of how conscious awareness can intervene, rewire, and align them with a good life.

1. Automatic Nervous System

Overview

Your nervous system continuously balances two opposing but complementary modes:

1. Sympathetic (Flight-or-Flight)

   1. Increased heart rate

   2. Dilated pupils

   3. Adrenaline and cortisol release

   4. Heightened alertness and muscle readiness

2. Parasympathetic (Rest-and-Digest)

   1. Slowed heart rate

   2. Deepened breathing

   3. Improved digestion and recovery

   4. Calm and grounded awareness

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Uses breath to return to calm during conflict.

2. Sleeps deeply and wakes with presence.

3. Holds steady energy through challenges without collapse or panic.

4. Thrives by staying grounded in chaos, becoming a stabilizing force for others.

5. Can hold space for others’ dysregulation without absorbing it.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Easily triggered into panic, shutdown, or hypervigilance.

2. Suffers from chronic fatigue, insomnia, or gut issues.

3. Reacts with irritability or withdrawal when stressed.

4. Struggles to find peace internally, creating instability around them.

5. Avoids responsibility due to low energetic capacity.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Practice daily breathwork (e.g., box breathing, coherent breathing) to signal safety to the body.

2. Use mindfulness to notice physical sensations as they arise (tight chest, fast heart), and respond with breath, not fear.

3. End showers cold to strengthen parasympathetic rebound and vagal tone.

4. Practice conscious exposure to challenge with slow exhale and present awareness.

5. Over time, this builds capacity to stay regulated under pressure.

2. Hormonal Regulation

Overview

Your bloodstream is constantly bathed in chemical messengers that influence mood, motivation, and perception:

1. Cortisol: stress

2. Oxytocin: bonding and trust

3. Dopamine: motivation and reward

4. Serotonin: mood regulation and contentment

5. Melatonin: sleep-wake cycles

6. Testosterone/Estrogen: sex drive, aggression, mood

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Manages energy, mood, and motivation through diet, movement, and sacred routines.

2. Uses natural means (sunlight, fasting, sleep) to balance dopamine and serotonin.

3. Embodies vitality without overstimulation.

4. Channels libido, drive, and aggression into creative service or relational depth.

5. Has presence that inspires trust and energy in others.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Addicted to caffeine, sugar, or substances to modulate mood.

2. Either emotionally flat or erratic.

3. Burned out, depleted, or restless.

4. Uses sexuality manipulatively or repressively, not as sacred union.

5. Feels out of sync with their own body and others’ rhythms.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Wake with natural light and avoid screens after sundown to realign melatonin and cortisol cycles.

2. Use weightlifting or resistance movement to regulate testosterone and dopamine pathways.

3. Intermittent fasting or mindful eating can reset insulin/leptin sensitivity and cravings.

4. Use affirmations and visualization to change emotional states that influence hormonal feedback loops.

5. Anchor hormonal rhythms to sacred daily rituals (sunrise prayer, walking meditations, gratitude journaling).

3. Pattern Recognition and Predictive Modeling

Overview

Your brain doesn’t just process reality, it predicts it before you’re aware:

1. Flinching at sudden motion

2. Interpreting facial expressions or tone

3. Filling in missing parts of a sentence

4. Seeing patterns in randomness (e.g., faces in clouds)

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Spots patterns of suffering and systems failure and builds elegant solutions.

2. Sees interconnection and synchronicity, can anticipate the unseen.

3. Makes wise decisions that ripple positively across time and communities.

4. Uses foresight to protect others and uplift systems.

5. Reads subtle cues in relationships and environments with discernment.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Ruminates obsessively about imagined threats or past failures.

2. Misreads neutral cues as danger or rejection.

3. Makes impulsive decisions that harm themselves and others.

4. Is blind to repeated patterns of self-sabotage.

5. Builds narratives that reinforce victimhood or blame.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. When triggered by a negative prediction, pause and consciously ask: “What else could this mean?”

2. Keep a “pattern journal” to decode personal behaviors, emotional spirals, or repeated life themes.

3. Use meditation to watch thoughts without identifying with them, weakening old prediction loops.

4. Build new pattern libraries by seeking novelty and positive surprise (travel, art, relationships).

5. Consciously shift narratives from fate to feedback: “Life is trying to teach me, not trap me.”

4. Sensory Filtering and Attention Biases

Overview

Your brain filters millions of stimuli, only surfacing what seems “important”:

1. Not feeling your clothes until you notice them

2. Hearing your name in a noisy room

3. Hyper-focusing on threats while ignoring beauty

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Chooses where attention flows, toward what nourishes, not what drains.

2. Notices beauty, nuance, and harmony in people and places.

3. Stays attuned to silence, stillness, and meaning amid noise.

4. Can hold paradox and ambiguity without fragmentation.

5. Models deep listening and focused presence.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Distracted by superficial inputs, doomscrolling, gossip, noise.

2. Fixates on negativity, threat, and scarcity.

3. Cannot focus on what matters; always chasing stimuli.

4. Misses signs of love, opportunity, or warning.

5. Struggles to be present with others or themselves.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Use mindfulness or focused-attention meditation to strengthen the prefrontal cortex’s control over attention.

2. Interrupt rumination by training selective attention toward beauty (e.g., daily noticing of five beautiful things).

3. Practice “reverse filtering” by consciously looking for what is working, alive, or sacred in each moment.

4. Limit exposure to sensory overload (social media, ads, toxic spaces) to reset your filters.

5. Build mental immunity by curating inputs, books, nature, music, like a sacred garden.

5. Memory Retrieval and Emotional Conditioning

Overview

Memories are not stored neutrally. They are emotionally encoded and physically reactive:

1. A smell triggering nostalgia

2. A place bringing up dread or joy

3. Emotional flashbacks from trauma or failure

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Remembers pain with grace, not bitterness.

2. Uses past emotions as insight, not identity.

3. Feels emotions fully but does not drown in them.

4. Rewires past conditioning through conscious ritual, reflection, and forgiveness.

5. Serves as a teacher or healer for others with similar wounds.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Emotionally hijacked by unresolved traumas.

2. Projects old stories into new situations.

3. Defines self-worth by past failures or betrayals.

4. Gets triggered easily by people or events that echo past pain.

5. Avoids emotional intimacy to prevent re-experiencing hurt.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Use tools like IFS (Internal Family Systems) or journaling to revisit painful memories with compassion and new meaning.

2. When triggered, ask: “What age is this pain coming from?” and offer that part inner safety.

3. Pair old memories with new sensory inputs (e.g., safe touch, positive visualizations) to recondition their emotional charge.

4. Use EMDR, somatic practices, or expressive arts to help the body process and re-store memory differently.

5. Create new identity statements: “That was real, but it is no longer who I am.”

6. Defensive Emotional Reflexes (Amygdala-based)

Overview

Evolution hardwired us for social and physical survival:

1. Fear → freeze or flee

2. Anger → defensive aggression

3. Shame → withdrawal

4. Jealousy → resource protection

These reactions happen before reason, especially in social situations.

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Has awareness between stimulus and response.

2. Can name and investigate fear before acting.

3. Does not personalize feedback or assume malice.

4. Uses fear as a signal to grow or listen deeper.

5. Offers forgiveness where others would retaliate.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Immediately reacts with blame, shame, or withdrawal.

2. Feels unsafe in neutral or loving environments.

3. Holds grudges and reacts impulsively.

4. Pushes people away as preemptive defense.

5. Cannot pause to reflect before harming others or self.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Train conscious pauses when emotionally activated. Identify the feeling before acting: “This is fear, not truth.”

2. Use “Name it to tame it”, naming your emotion reduces amygdala activation.

3. Consciously choose to respond from values rather than emotion (compassion instead of retaliation).

4. Practice heart coherence (focus on breath and gratitude) to override amygdala hijack.

5. Replay emotionally intense situations in your mind with new, aligned responses to rewire reaction pathways.

7. Circadian Rhythms and Biological Clocks

Overview

Your body cycles through predictable energy states based on light and time:

1. Morning cortisol spike (wake-up mode)

2. Midday energy peak

3. Evening melatonin release (wind-down mode)

4. Deep sleep and dream phases

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Syncs life to natural light, meals, and movement.

2. Treats sleep as sacred.

3. Has rituals that honor each phase of the day (e.g., sunrise, twilight, night).

4. Seasons life with effort and rest, like the Earth.

5. Lives in tune with planetary cycles, not productivity cycles.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Stays up late with blue light and overstimulation.

2. Eats erratically or emotionally.

3. Ignores body’s calls for rest, repair, or rhythm.

4. Treats the body like a machine, not a temple.

5. Feels depleted, disoriented, and detached from time’s flow.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Anchor your day with sunrise and sunset rituals to entrain circadian clocks (e.g., prayer, walking, lighting candles).

2. Keep sleep and eating times consistent as an act of spiritual devotion to the body.

3. Use light therapy or darkness intentionally to reset circadian timing.

4. Time important activities to natural energy peaks (creative work in the morning, socializing in afternoon, rest at dusk).

5. Create seasonal rituals (e.g., winter stillness, spring activation) that harmonize body and cosmos.

8. Instinctual Drives and Evolutionary Programs

Overview

These drives are ancient and automatic:

1. Hunger, thirst, and sex

2. Fear of falling or sudden loud sounds

3. Craving sugar, warmth, or human touch

4. Stress response to a baby crying

5. Desire to belong to a group

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Acknowledges primal drives and channels them into service.

2. Practices sacred sexuality, ethical ambition, and mindful consumption.

3. Cultivates presence in hunger, desire, competition without being consumed.

4. Transcends evolutionary programs through self-awareness and spiritual devotion.

5. Becomes a steward of life force, not a slave to it.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Ruled by unconscious cravings for food, sex, status, or safety.

2. Uses others for gratification or control.

3. Overreacts to scarcity, rivalry, or rejection.

4. Lacks discipline and mistreats the body.

5. Lives in fear of not “having enough” or being left behind.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Use sexual energy (brahmacharya-style or tantra) to fuel creative, spiritual, or service-based action.

2. Practice conscious fasting, mindful eating, or abstention to bring urges into awareness and realign them.

3. Track cravings and ask: “What does this urge really point to?” Often, deeper needs are masked.

4. Use vision quests, martial arts, or cold exposure to make friends with survival instincts and consciously lead them.

5. Turn the animal into the ally: integrate primal power with soulful purpose.

9. Cultural and Societal Programming

Overview

Much of your worldview was not chosen. It was imprinted by institutions, media, religion, education, and family before you could reflect critically.

1. Beliefs about success, love, power, gender, race, morality

2. Roles you are expected to play

3. Internalized norms of what is “realistic,” “worthy,” or “true”

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Decodes inherited beliefs and rewrites scripts.

2. Challenges injustice with compassion, not ego.

3. Lives by deeper laws than law books, truth, justice, mercy.

4. Guides others to question the matrix.

5. Builds new cultures from values, not conformity.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Blindly obeys authority, trends, and status cues.

2. Measures worth by comparison, followers, wealth, or fame.

3. Feels shame for being different or questioning norms.

4. Perpetuates systemic harm without reflection.

5. Values safety over truth.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Reflect: What beliefs were handed to me that I never chose? Identify, examine, and consciously release them.

2. Engage in “deprogramming sabbaticals”, time off from media, news, institutions, and expectations.

3. Practice symbolic acts that break conformity (e.g., clothing, naming, rituals, speaking truth).

4. Study countercultural role models who embody freedom and service.

5. Build micro-communities or families of choice that reflect your re-chosen values.

10. Attachment to Systems of Safety

Overview

Humans attach to people, structures, and institutions that provide stability. But we often mistake attachment for truth. When something feels safe, we assume it is good or right, even if it’s misaligned.

1. Dependency: “I need this person/system to feel okay”

2. Codependency: “I will abandon myself to keep the connection”

3. Independence: “I can’t trust anyone, I must do everything myself”

4. Interdependence: “We support each other from a foundation of wholeness”

High-Performing (Aligned)

1. Finds core safety in presence, purpose, and divine trust.

2. Engages in relationships, roles, and communities with openness and resilience.

3. Can walk away from what no longer aligns without collapse.

4. Teaches others to ground into self-trust and spiritual connection.

5. Serves as an anchor when systems break.

Low-Performing (Misaligned)

1. Clings to relationships, jobs, beliefs, or identities for survival.

2. Panics at change.

3. Betrays own values to avoid abandonment or loss.

4. Measures safety by external conditions, not inner alignment.

5. Lives in fear of losing what was never truly secure.

Using Our Consciousness To Gain Leverage Through Rewiring

1. Develop a morning grounding practice that anchors safety in your own breath, being, or connection to Spirit.

2. Practice letting go: give away possessions, end outdated commitments, or release rigid plans.

3. Rewire the nervous system to feel safe in uncertainty by facing small unknowns daily with curiosity.

4. Use mantras or prayers like “I trust the unfolding” to soothe the attachment circuits.

5. Learn to remain open-hearted in endings, seeing them as portals, not punishments.