MARILYN LUIS DIAS
In the recent Karvy debacle, where interim restrictions imposed by SEBI on the stock broking firm prevented it from executing or settling trades, I find myself caught up in the mess with some of my shares and cash held up in Karvy’s beneficiary account till the matter is sorted out.
Now, my knee-jerk reaction would be to panic and stir out of control, creating undue stress for myself and accomplishing not much else.
Based on previous programming, my subconscious would direct me to go into the ‘fight or flight’ mode without giving me time to assess the situation and decide on an appropriate response. This would lead me to make hasty decisions that most probably wouldn’t bring about the best outcome for me.
For instance, in my panic-stricken mode, I might decide to pull out of the stock market altogether, to not trust the system at all. Or I might lose out on potential gains and current savings by not having the patience to wait things out and take the best line of action or recourse available to me.
As you can see, none of the options above have a positive outcome. When we operate by our reflexes, we don’t leave much scope for reasoning or thinking. As evolved primates with larger brains, we are afforded the opportunity to navigate our way in this world, not only through instinctual behavior but also by engaging our conscious mind in thinking, planning and decision-making.
We have the free will to choose how we will respond to a given situation or to not respond at all.
The problem kicks in when we allow ourselves to go into auto-pilot mode, which is our subconscious at work with all its pre-programmed behaviours based on observations in the past and passed-on beliefs. God help you if most of these perceptions are inaccurate. Then you would be making wrong choices in the now based on behaviours, hard-wired in your head, from the past.
If you want a successful life, you must allow your actions to be a result of conscious thinking, which draws on current and historical resources to arrive at any conclusion. Engaging in knee-jerk reactions which are reflexive and pre-programmed by nature isn’t the best way to go about life. It quite possibly might lead you down a path of missed opportunities, riddled with stress and anxiety.
According to Dr Bruce Lipton, a stem cell biologist and best-selling author internationally recognized for bridging science and spirituality, rich people stay rich and poor people stay poor because of their programming. If they’re programmed with certain beliefs in their growing up years, that is what will manifest unconsciously in their adulthood. So for example, the poor have ingrained in their thinking that they’re not good enough and life will always be hard for them and it will be their lot to struggle. And as they believe, that’s how it will be, for, according to Dr Lipton, 95% of our life is based on those programmes that come from our subconscious and only 5% of our life is lived using our creative conscious mind. So, your life is being lived, even though you think you are living it, being unaware of your subconscious behaviours kicking in most of the time.
Likewise, the rich make the right moves unconsciously based on the programmes they downloaded (behaviours observed) when they were little, from their parents.
So you need to ask yourself, what programmes are limiting you? Are you unconsciously sabotaging yourself to make sure your programme remains true, even though it might be an inaccurate representation of what is?
