‘Our shadow is waiting patiently for us to come retrieve our power from the dark recesses of our unconscious mind.’ Debbie Ford

Self Sabotaging behaviours are in place,
One: to confirm our Limiting Beliefs, to keep them in place, to keep proving them to be the truth.
Two: to be loyal to ALL our Values.
Ultimately to make sure we are SAFE.

Resulting in,
One: When we are trying to do something, achieve something which is impossible or not safe, too dangerous, or which we don’t deserve, according to a limiting belief we might have, it won’t allow us to do it. It’ll sabotage us.
Two: When we are trying to do something, achieve something which is not meeting one or two of our core values, our energy will be stuck, as consciously we’re taking action towards a certain goal, to meet certain values, and subconsciously our energy is pulling in the opposite direction, as some of our other important values are not going to be met by that goal. Conflicting values literally creates an energy lock in our body.

The main motivators of our self sabotaging behaviours are SAFETY (fear) and SHAME.
Our subconscious wants to keep us SAFE from everything which it’s learnt to be unsafe, which is programmed into the subconscious as our limiting beliefs, beliefs about ourselves and life which we accept as true without absolute proof.

Shame is a belief (and physiological experience) that there’s something fundamentally wrong with us, we’re unacceptable, unlovable, undeserving, or unforgivable.
These learnt behaviours to keep ourselves safe have been very useful while we still had real trauma, or wounds, around what happened to us, and in my experience they won’t be released until the trauma which caused them is healed at a deep and thorough emotional & energetic level, as they would still be experienced as true by the body memory, with overwhelming evidence of its truth. Whether these behaviours were instilled as a result of trauma, or less harmful, practical safety measures, what is truly unnecessary is for these behaviours to hang around many years beyond their necessity, just because they can, simply because we’ve never questioned them.

To demonstrate how significant our subconscious auto responses, reactions, to life are, I quote the energy psychology expert Dr George Pratt, ‘One neuron fires per second at a conscious [nervous system] level, while 1 million neurons fire per second in the subconscious [nervous system].’ This is often demonstrated with the iceberg analogy, where the largest part lies below the water level, representing the subconscious and the small peak above water level, being the conscious mind.

So along with all our auto body functions governed by the subconscious nervous system, the 1 million (subconscious) neurons are pretty much responding to the limiting beliefs, conflicting values, patterns of behaviour, and possible vows that may have been made in the subconscious. Imagine the power of aligning those 1 million neurons with the one neuron which is firing our conscious intention!?

This can be done through the tedious process of ‘using mind power’ to force the 1 conscious neuron’s intention upon the 1 million subconscious neurons. As some experts say, 4 weeks to 6 months of daily reprogramming, to create a new habit. Or, it can be done by communicating with the subconscious, asking questions, understanding its motivations, its purpose. By doing this, the subconscious and its ‘good intentions’ are being acknowledged and brought up to consciousness, connecting it with the 1 neuron firing our conscious intention. I believe that while the conscious intention and subconscious patterns and beliefs are kept separate, not communicating, the conscious intention remains powerless. Once we’ve exposed the subconscious, and convinced it that we no longer need it to ‘keep us safe’ and aligned it with our conscious desires and intentions, a permanent shift occurs. The 1 million subconscious neurons are aligned with the one neuron of our conscious intentions, choices. ‘Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.’ Albert Einstein

This is the power of questions, simply questioning the subconscious seems to diminish its power to sabotage, it can only sabotage while its truth is unknown to us.

Author's Bio: 

Holistic Life Coach, specialising in self sabotaging behaviour, getting to the root cause of what keeps clients stuck.
Author of the E-book: Exposing the Forces that Sabotage Us