Mindset Matters: Facing Your Shadow and Directing Your Life

Mindset matters. As humans, mindset is one of our most potent creational tools. But why is it so important? The mind contains sets of beliefs and perceptions that work to create your personal reality. Mindset is the driving force behind much of what you create and do.

How to effectively direct our mindsets is only sometimes apparent. Distortions and misconceptions cloud our ability to see and use our mindset. Trauma and fear cloud or distort mindsets, blocking the ability to create the life of your dreams. Traumas and fear narrow our mindsets as if one could only see life from a small tunnel. Understanding how to recognize and transform mindsets based on fear and trauma is of the utmost importance if you want to connect with a life based on collaboration, connection, and compassion.

Mindset creates your reality whether you are aware of it or not. You will have more influence over the events of your life if you are aware of how mindset works. Mindset interacts with your subconscious, which contains the larger quantum fields of possibility and probability. If you realize how mindset interacts with your subconscious, you can rewrite the programs within the subconscious and change your life.

A mindset of non-judgment becomes vital in this process. There is no reason to beat yourself up. Our society and institutions should teach about the importance of mindset more openly, and some evidence suggests people within power have deliberately suppressed this knowledge throughout history.

If self-judgment prevents you from examining your mindset, try using the beginner’s mindset. At the heart of the beginner’s mindset lies the idea that the universe is born anew in each moment from within itself. Your experience is also part and parcel of this same process. Even if you didn’t know something five years ago, you can begin fresh and new in this moment — the perpetual beginner.

A significant challenge in managing mindsets is the specter of trauma. Trauma blocks awareness and presence, making you less aware of your mindset. Trauma (biological, psychological, or spiritual) causes disconnection from the Self.

We experience Self in the grandeur of the present moment. When we become disconnected from the present moment by trauma, memories of past pain or worries of an uncertain future replay like a skipping record swirling on repeat. When you feel the grind of the skipping needle across the record of your life, again, I recommend giving yourself grace and extending self-compassion. These acts of self-compassion can bring you back into the moment.

Our mind and body’s trauma response is not without its purpose. At the initial time of the trauma, this disconnection provides a defensive function that removes attention from the challenge of the trauma. Once the initial event passes, this disconnection becomes maladaptive and takes you away from the present moment. If you use it too often, you live on autopilot with little self-awareness.

Ancients knew about this process; the Vedas describe koshas, maladaptive energies that create films that block your energy fields and prevent you from connecting and experiencing the divine. Acknowledgment and Awareness act like Windex to wipe away the film of these koshas.

I’m no stranger to the development of koshas. A catastrophizing mindset has been a part of my subconscious operating system for most of my life. It’s a mindset I’ve worked on addressing and transforming over the past decade.

In some recent introspective work, I discovered the roots of this mindset buried in connections to religious beliefs absorbed from my family system at a young age. These beliefs were about fear of punishment from an all-knowing supernatural being who watched everything I did. This belief was being projected onto other people and systems and, at times, paralyzing me with fear. Luckily, through awareness and acknowledgment, I realized I had developed a kosha. This mindset kept me from pursuing my dreams and connecting with the essence of my being.

I thought that old mindset had left me long ago, but beliefs and mindset can be tricky. Difficulties with awareness and acknowledgment develop because, when denied or repressed, these traumas store themselves in the shadows of the subconscious.

These shadow aspects of beliefs that become hidden from view require acknowledgment or awareness to bring them to light. Acknowledgment is a pitfall for folks trying to stay in purely positive thinking — looking at your shadow can be painful and difficult. Acknowledgment of painfully buried belief does not mean you surrender as powerless to a troublesome belief you have; it’s quite the opposite. Acknowledgement is power. It brings the belief to the light of awareness to allow transformation. Unfortunately, if someone has had a lot of trauma, this awareness can come with a significant amount of emotional or physical suffering. However painful, this realization process is a normal part of life and an essential step to lessening the baggage you store in this shadow self.

I sometimes like to think of the process of releasing buried pains as if I had eaten some poisoned or rotten food. There is no other way to deal with it than to get it out — as ugly as that process may be. Afterward, I feel better.

Once you acknowledge a mindset you wish to change, you can set a new intention. When you place this new intention, you may even realize how much automatic attention you gave to your uncovered idea. The focus of your attention is critical in this stage. The more you focus on the newly desired mindset — the more it shows up in your experience. In a future article, I will detail the multi-dimensional nature of people and how your mindset draws out a specific portion of their personality. Stay tuned!

As you hone your ability to focus your attention, the programs within your subconscious will change. With each moment of focus on the new mindset — you create new grooves in the record of your life, and you will hear the song of your new mindset more often. In physical three-dimensional reality, this process takes time. Although mindsets can shift quickly, don’t expect to transform lifelong patterns in one day. It took me almost ten years of introspection to get to the bottom of my supernatural sky-being projections. Give yourself some grace and make little changes each day — you will be more likely to succeed in your transformation.

As you change — you may also be tempted to judge yourself. Past traumas, follies, or errors that were mainstays of previous mindsets will become apparent to you as you grow in awareness. You might feel a tendency to label them as having been nasty or negative. Try not to judge yourself; remember, no one in their right mind gets mad at a five-year-old because they can’t do calculus. There is a lot of stuff we need to learn. You didn’t know then what you understand now, and that’s ok. You are on the path to self-awareness and growth — give yourself a break or a pat on the back.

Changing mindsets in our day and age can be highly challenging. This work, however, will completely transform your life. Your pains and traumas could lurk within your subconscious if you haven’t done the work. Exposing them to the light of awareness will change your mindset and the direction of your life. Build your support systems, bolster your self-care, transform your traumas, and start steering the ship that is your mindset toward your dreams.

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Dr. Dan