05 Jan How to Prepare Your Mind for Sleep | Inspirational Podcast

Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you in part by Book of Zen, makers of wearable inspiration for a better world. Today’s podcast has been edited and adapted from the book The Victorious Attitude by Dr. Orison Swett Marden, published in 1916″¦

Would you not think yourself fortunate to have an assistant of great ability who was available free of charge, day and night, and so susceptible to instructions that even your slightest mental suggestion would be faithfully carried out? If you had such an assistant, and knew that in spite of their great ability they would be able to do what you suggested only in proportion to your belief in their power to do so, would you not be careful to entertain no doubts of their ability to carry out your wishes or suggestions?

Now, just substitute for this personal assistant your subconscious self, that part of you which is below the threshold of your consciousness, and try to realize that this self is actually the sort of assistant I have just described, capable of carrying out all your desires, of executing all your purposes, of realizing all your ambitions, to the exact extent of your belief in its powers, and you will get some idea of what it can accomplish for you.

This assistant is closer to you than your breath, nearer than your heart beat, a faithful helper, walking by your side all through life, to execute your faintest wish, to carry out your desires, to help you to achieve your aims. Every bit of help, of encouragement, of support, that you give to this other self will add to the magnificence and splendor of your destiny.

On the other hand, all negative, vicious thoughts; all selfishness, greed and envy; all doubts and fears; all the discouraging, destructive thoughts you entertain, will impair and weaken your assistant in exact proportion to their intensity and persistency. In fact, it rests with you whether your assistant shall be your greatest help, a heavenly friend and servant, or your greatest hindrance, your worst enemy.

It doesn’t matter what we call them (the subconscious and conscious self, or the subjective and objective mind), we are all conscious that these are two forces constantly at work in us. One commands and the other obeys. We know that one of these, the subjective mind, does not originate its acts, but gets its instructions from the objective mind, which contains the will power.

Experience shows us that the subjective or subconscious mind, which I have called our “personal assistant,” is a servant which obeys our will, carries out our wishes, and registers in the brain a faithful record of not only our every thought, word and act, but of everything we see, and everything we hear others say.

Our subconscious mind is the record storehouse of all that has ever happened to us. Every thought, every experience, whatever passes before the eye, or that we see or hear or feel, is registered accurately in our brain by our subconscious mind.

Now, if this other self, the personal assistant, the subconscious mind, or whatever we choose to call it, has such enormous power, why can it not be trained to work for us when we are asleep, as well as when we are awake? Have you ever thought of the possibilities for spiritual and mental development during sleep? Has it ever occurred to you that while the processes of repair and growth are proceeding normally in the body, the mind also may be expanding, the soul as well as the body may be growing?

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