Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
Rewire an automatic identity into a chosen new self through knowledge, experience, and repetition
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 82%
Dispenza frames change as a neurological, biological and chemical process rather than positive thinking. You first learn the information (the what and why) until you can teach it, installing the neural hardware. You then become conscious of the unconscious thoughts, behaviours and emotions that run automatically, so you can catch and interrupt them. Making a genuinely different choice feels unfamiliar because the conditioned body pulls you back to the comfortable past. When you apply the knowledge and embody the elevated emotion, you have an experience that enriches circuitry and teaches the body chemically what the mind understood intellectually. Repeating the experience conditions mind and body to work together until the new state becomes subconscious and innate: you have become the knowledge.
Origin
Developed by Dr Joe Dispenza across two decades of teaching and research combining neuroscience, epigenetics and quantum physics, and refined through seven-day immersive events and studies with the University of California San Diego.
Core principles
- 01If you change, your life changes; nothing changes until you change
- 02By mid-life ~95% of who you are is a set of automatic subconscious programs
- 03Neurons that fire together wire together; unrepeated learning prunes within days
- 04The body becomes the mind through repeated emotion, then dictates your choices
- 05Change requires crossing from the known into the uncomfortable unknown
How to run it
- 1
Learn the what and why
Absorb the information until you understand it well enough to teach it back to someone. Understanding assigns meaning, which makes the how easier and installs the neural hardware.
Pro tip If you can't explain it, it isn't wired in your brain yet.
- 2
Become conscious of the unconscious
Observe your automatic thoughts, behaviours and emotions from the outside (metacognition) so you can see the program you have been running.
Pro tip Get so conscious of an unconscious thought that you would never go unconscious to it again.
Watch out People often wait for a crisis or diagnosis to force this awareness; you can choose it in a state of joy instead.
- 3
Make a different choice
Decide and act differently even though it feels uncomfortable, uncertain and unfamiliar. This is the moment you begin to cross from the old self to the new.
Pro tip The amplitude of a firm decision carries enough energy that the choice becomes a moment you never forget.
Watch out The conditioned body will send signals urging you back to the familiar; expect the voice that says start tomorrow.
- 4
Apply and embody the experience
Personalise and demonstrate the knowledge so your behaviours match your intentions. When actions equal thoughts you have an experience that enriches circuitry and produces a genuine feeling.
Pro tip Heart-centred elevated emotions tend to produce the most dramatic biological changes.
- 5
Repeat until it becomes you
Keep repeating the experience so the body knows how to do it better than the conscious mind. It then becomes a subconscious program: you have become the knowledge.
Pro tip You are no longer meditating to heal; you meditate to change, and when you change you heal.
Watch out Reverting to the old personality and stress chemistry can bring back the old condition.
In the wild
A woman arrived at a seven-day event in Denver camped in a lounge with a wheelchair, scooter, oxygen and crutches, five serious health conditions, living on six foods and many medications, unable to think greater than she felt. Over the week she learned and practised the information. During a group walking meditation at the end of the event she was seen out of her wheelchair, smiling and walking. Months later at a follow-up in Dallas she took the stage without any of those health conditions, unrecognisable as the same person.
→ A person given little hope reversed multiple health conditions by systematically changing her internal state.
Rather than waiting for a diagnosis or betrayal to force change, a person rises from their morning practice believing in their future more than their past. Combining a clear intention with an elevated emotion, they stay conscious of the old self and rehearse the new one, learning and changing from a state of inspiration instead of suffering.
→ Change is initiated proactively from an elevated state instead of being forced by a crisis.
Common mistakes
Trying to change at the behaviour level only
Changing a single physical habit while the underlying emotional currents stay the same means the old drivers reassert control and you revert.
Mistaking positive thinking for change
Thinking positively while the body feels miserable never reaches the body; the first step is becoming conscious of unconscious thoughts, not affirmations.
Quitting at the point of discomfort
The brain changes most right at the point where you feel you can't go further; giving up there keeps you in the familiar past.
Is it for you?
Best for
Someone who has tried to change a habit, health pattern or emotional response and keeps reverting to their old self.
Not ideal for
People seeking a quick one-time fix with no willingness to sit with discomfort or practise daily.
From the transcript
“if you change your life changes and nothing changes in our life until we change”
“95% of Who We Are by the middle of our life is an unconscious set of thoughts behaviors and emotions that are automatically programmed into…”
“it's literally breaking the habit of being yourself and Reinventing a new self”
From the episode
How To Unlock Your Mind & Master Your Life - Dr Joe Dispenza - #741
Dr Joe Dispenza