The Sunday News
Living life to the fullest with Selusweyinkosi Mhlanga
It’s interesting to note that people grow and develop towards that which influences them. Have you noticed how one family can have most or all siblings doing the same career? This is most common with sports or music.
We often assume that the family would be gifted in that field but the truth is that they would have been influenced by their siblings or parents in some cases to like that job or career. Anyone can put in effort in any field and succeed, if they have the right attitude but because they would have seen and heard from close range what happens in that career, they fall in love with that career before their eyes.
We become interested in what we see or are exposed to and we develop an interest to partake in it hence the aspect of role models. You may have absolutely no clue about what someone does but if you shadow them for a while over time you will not only develop interest in what they do but you will pursue it because your subconscious absorbed it through your experience in that particular field.
The subconscious, which is defined as a data bank, is the unconscious part of the mind which stores your beliefs, previous experiences, memories and skills. The subconscious stores this through receiving ideas, emotions, a memory or an image from your conscious mind.
This part of your mind is powerful in that it stores images, actions and reactions to make life easier for you in future.
It also serves to protect you from harm by causing you to react fearfully to a situation that scared you before or made you uncomfortable. Therefore, through your thoughts, images and reactions, you teach your subconscious how you want to deal with situations.
We should, therefore, be aware of what we are feeding the subconscious. What kind of thoughts and images are we feeding the subconscious? Ever watched a horror movie and later became afraid of the dark or thought you heard sounds that were simply not there? The truth is your mind knows that the movie is fictitious but still you become afraid when you think of what happens in the dark. That’s because the subconscious does not differentiate what is real and what isn’t. If anything is repeatedly experienced by you it is eventually taken as real by the subconscious.
What are you reading, watching, listening to? Everything that you absorb, believe and hear repeatedly tends to influence you in future. You should be careful what you expose yourself to depending on what kind of life you want.
People who read or watch encouraging content are usually more confident than those who don’t. Other people watch happy movies and maintain their peace of mind while others follow storylines of sad movies and even cry and get sorrowful over fiction.
What do your circle of friends talk about?
What kind of friends do you have? What do you do mostly with your friends? Do they influence you in the direction you want your life to go or are they always weighing you down with their issues?
Sure, everyone has issues but if we are all going to walk around depressing others or allowing ourselves to be depressed by others what kind of people would we be?
If your friends can’t accept advice or consolation then they may not influence you the right way. We all know that friends have a great contribution in your life and if it’s not towards progress you might want to find new friends.
What kind of influence do you have on your colleagues, neighbours, family members and most importantly, your children? Be the kind of person who strives to bring hope where there is despair, bring order to chaotic situations and lead by example especially where children are concerned. Children absorb everything they see and what we tell them because their minds are still in their formative years. You want to make sure that you influence them in a way that they will see life as worth living and be encouraged to reach the sky.
Monitor your children when it comes to watching TV and using the internet. Make sure they are not watching violent or inappropriate content that might cause them to think that such is acceptable in society. As a parent you are responsible for forming that little mind at its early age and screening what they are exposed to early in their childhood would do them a lot of good.
Social media, religion, culture, traditions, beliefs, food and the media all influence you. What is important though, is to monitor what you allow in your subconscious if you are to be in control of what influences you.
