About Blocks and Barriers
Q - What is the difference between a block and a barrier?
A - A block is a single subconscious program that has developed around a single event where a barrier is a series of interrelated blocks. When what is preventing forward movement is a single block, removal of that block allows the behaviors that were once difficult, if not impossible to perform, to become easy and automatic.
When what is preventing forward movement is a barrier, removal of a single block may improve outcomes slightly, but does not eliminate the ineffective response or behavior. Only the removal of the entire series of interrelated blocks will eliminate the behaviors.
When behaviors are repeated over and over again, they form patterns or habits and then just run automatically. The habits are then triggered by some stimuli, which can be external or internal. Internal stimuli include such things as self-talk and expectations.
Once the old, ineffective patterns are replaced with new effective ones, the new ones are as easy and effortless to maintain as the old ones were. The difference is that the desirable patterns delight us where the undesirable ones irritate, disgust and depress us.
The good news is the subconscious mind is very cooperative in getting us exactly the results we desire once it understands what will lead to our happiness and physical survival in our current world. And updating the old patterns is fast and easy with the right input.
Q. Why do blocks and barriers form in the first place?
A. The subconscious does not use logic to formulate its conclusions. It simply takes whatever data it receives and tries to make sense of it, not through logic, but through connecting pieces as in building a story. A story doesn't need to make logical sense, it just needs to flow coherently from one concept to the next. That is how the subconscious mind works. Once it buys into the rightness of something (forms a belief) it builds a story around that belief by looking for things in the outer world that fit with (or validate) the story and it ignores things that don't fit.
In time the subconscious mind has gathered enough external "evidence" to build a complete story and the story gets filed away for future reference. Again, like a fairy tale, the story doesn't have to make sense. An example of this is a subconscious story that formed as a result of a mother celebrating the healthy days of a mostly sickly child with cookies and milk. The child, now an adult that is over 100 pounds overweight and wanting to lose the weight and get in shape, can't because every time he tries he must have cookies and milk. Clearly this belief is not serving the adult who is now desperate to get healthy and fit, but who devours cookies and milk each time he tries. Why is this happening? Because the conclusion of the story which formed around the concept of health in childhood is that "cookies and milk equal good health." Ending this craziness is as simple as updating the subconscious program, but that cannot be done at a conscious level.
Q. Is that why people sabotage themselves?
A. There is really no such thing as self-sabotage, though the above scenario certainly does appear to be that. The subconscious rules, and it works 24/7 throughout your life to preserve your conceptual self first and your physical self second. What appears to be self-sabotage is simply the result of having a subconscious program intent on preserving the conceptual self (in this case the concept of a happy, healthy child) in a way that does not support the current reality or current conscious desires.
When the conscious and subconscious minds are not in alignment, the subconscious conceptual survival mechanism always wins. Will power is useless in this situation. The only way you will actually do what you want to be doing is to align your conscious desire with the subconscious concept. And there are only two ways to do that: 1. You can change your conscious desire, which many people do but the only way we cantake this approach is to settle for less than we are truly happy with. 2. You can change the concept at the subconscious level.
Option 2 is obviously the best option and there are several ways to do that if you know what the block is. If you don't know (the individual that could never lose weight because of the cookies and milk message had no idea this was there) you need a process like RAMP or AMP to get to the program that needs to be updated.