Intuitive Mindset: Shifting Your Self-Image to Change Your Life

Let’s begin with some words of wisdom and then go on to unlocking the wisdom behind those words. “You will act like the sort of person you conceive yourself to be,” said Maxwell Maltz in his book Psycho cybernetics.

Before we make an attempt to understand the words of Maxwell, it is important to know a little about his background and what drove him to write the book Psycho-Cybernetics. Dr. Maxwell Maltz was a cosmetic surgeon who ended up developing a system of thought that he claimed could improve our lives for the better.

In his career as a plastic surgeon, he noticed a strange phenomenon. As he notes in his book, it amazed him to see how a slight change in a facial feature led to a complete personality shift in some of his clients and how several rounds of plastic surgery did nothing at all to make others be satisfied with the way they look. After having treated and talked to several of his patients, he realized that it was never about the physical appearance but all about the client’s perception of themselves. In other words, the client’s self-image.

Now let’s get back to the quote we shared in the beginning: “You will act like the sort of person you conceive yourself to be.” To put it simply, we act in accordance with our self-image. To bring a change in our life, we need to bring a change in our self-image.

Can positive thinking change our self-image?

We have all experienced moments when we are feeling down or feeling like a failure and someone who cares about us, comes and tells us how great we are and that we should think positively. Now that might make some of us feel comforted for a little while but it never brings lasting change. Why? Because positive thinking isn’t consistent with our self-image.

For positive thinking to make a difference, we have to really believe it with all our hearts. To make that possible we have to work on our self-image. And an essential element for changing our self-image is to have an intuitive mindset.

What is an intuitive mindset?

An intuitive mindset is characterized by freshness. It does not operate based on habits and conditioning, rather it is very open to new perspectives. When you are in an intuitive mindset, you are more susceptible to being influenced by positive self-talk. In such a state, your mind will believe what you feed it without much resistance.

How do you access the intuitive mind?

The best time to access the intuitive mind is right after you wake up. When you wake up your brain requires a little time to fall back into its old patterns of thinking (which includes your self-image), if you manage to feed the right information into your brain before that happens, your brain will be more likely to accept that information.

For example, if your self-image is that you are a dumb person and you want to start your day by saying, “I am intelligent,” your brain will not offer much resistance to this statement and will take it in. However, if you tell your brain things that are contradictory to your self-image when your brain is in a habit mindset, rather than an intuitive mindset, it will contradict the suggestion and most likely dismiss it. So, the best way to tap into your brain with positive self-talk is to do it when it is most susceptible to fresh perspectives i.e. right after you wake up.

This is also one of the reasons why so many lifestyle coaches advise against checking your phone right after you wake up. Because when you check your phone, you don’t have any control over what you are going to feed your mind.

Mindset shift and sleep

Another important time when your mind is susceptible to taking in new perspectives without offering much resistance is when you are in a drowsy state right before sleeping and while you are sleeping. Now you might be wondering,” How can I indulge in positive self-talk while I am sleeping?” Well, there are two ways to go about it.

Take care of your last thoughts when falling asleep

Make sure you don’t sleep carrying the worries of the day that has passed or the day that has to come. One way to rid your mind of the worries of the day to come is to make a to-do list for the next day. If you have to wake up very early the next morning and have a lot of tasks lined up, you can also prepare your outfit and pack your bag the day before. This will give you the ease of mind and you will be able to focus on the present moment rather than worrying about tomorrow.

Now to get rid of the worries of the day that has passed, one strategy is to allow your mind to process them. You can do this by writing about your day in a diary. However, to end the day well, it is important to focus on things that went well. At the end of the day, take some moments to focus on five things that you are grateful for in your life, write them down, spend some moments in that mindfulness, and go to sleep. This will prime your subconscious mind to think positively while you sleep.

Fall asleep listening to affirmation tapes

This strategy might not appeal to everyone, but if you are someone who is comfortable sleeping with background sounds, I’d suggest you find a good sleep meditation on youtube or some other platform and fall asleep to that. If you are only looking to calm your mind, you can choose a sleep story to listen to but if you are looking for a mindset shift you can select an affirmation tape or sleep meditation that aligns with your goal.

What these sleep meditations and affirmation tapes will do is: they will lead you to imagine yourself as being what you want to be when your brain is most susceptible to believing it. Talking about the power of imagination, Maxwell says in his book, “A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment...For imagination sets the goal ‘picture’ which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of ‘will,’ as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.”

Reinforce the positive beliefs with action

Our goal is to not only influence our intuitive mind but to reach a point where our logical mind, which operates on habit and conditioning, accepts new ideas about ourselves without any resistance. This can be achieved by acting in alignment with the positive beliefs that we are trying to instill in our minds.

For example, if we are trying to replace the belief, “I fail at whatever I do,” with the belief, “I have the ability to succeed at things,” we have to act in accordance with the new belief. In this case, if we are faced with a situation where we need to try something new, we have to pause and think, “What would I have done in this situation if I really believed that I had the ability to succeed at things.” and act in accordance with that belief.

Doing this practice will create a positive feedback loop where your positive beliefs will inspire you to take action and your action will further strengthen those beliefs by acting as evidence for them. You can create the life you dream of if you only believe in your ability to do so. As Maxwell said, “You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.”