Meditations for Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
Joe Dispenza
37 min
8 Key Points
4.5 RateWhat's inside?
Explore transformative techniques to break free from old habits and create a new, empowered self through the power of meditation.
You'll learn
1. How to stop negative thinking2. Make your brain work for your happiness3. The magic of meditation4. Winning against life's hurdles5. The science of changing yourself6. Manifesting your dreams.Key points
01Why You Keep Repeating Your Past
We all have those mornings where we wake up with the best of intentions, eager to start a fresh day, only to find ourselves slipping right back into the exact same routines we promised we would abandon. You might wake up, check your smartphone for messages, scroll through the news, feel a familiar spike of anxiety or frustration, drink your coffee out of the exact same mug, and drive to work following the exact same route. Before you have even reached your workplace, your brain and body have already run through a highly predictable, deeply ingrained sequence of events. While this might just seem like a mundane daily routine, there is a profound biological process occurring beneath the surface. You are not just living a routine; you are actively conditioning your brain and body to live in the past. To truly understand how to break the habit of being yourself, we first have to look at the fascinating neuroscience behind how habits are formed. In the brain, there is a fundamental principle known as Hebb’s Law, which simply states that neurons that fire together, wire together. Every time you have a thought, perform an action, or feel an emotion, specific neurological pathways in your brain are activated. When you repeat these same thoughts, actions, and emotions day in and day out, these neural pathways become thicker, faster, and more hardwired. Your brain is essentially a highly efficient machine that wants to automate as much of your life as possible to save energy. Over time, these constantly fired pathways become your default state of being. Your brain becomes a literal record of your past experiences. If you do not consciously choose to acquire new knowledge, have new experiences, and cultivate new thoughts, you are simply relying on the neurological circuitry of your past to dictate your future. But the process does not stop in the brain; it cascades down into your body through a powerful chemical feedback loop. Every single thought you have produces a corresponding chemical reaction. When you think happy, joyful, or expansive thoughts, your brain releases neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which travel through your bloodstream and make your body feel good. Conversely, when you think stressful, angry, or fearful thoughts, your brain releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, making your body feel tense and anxious. Over time, as you repeatedly think the same thoughts and feel the same feelings, a powerful loop is established. Your thoughts create your feelings, and then your feelings begin to drive your thoughts. You think about a painful memory, which makes you feel sad, and because you feel sad, you begin to generate even more sad thoughts. Eventually, your body becomes so accustomed to this specific chemical cocktail that it actually becomes addicted to it. This chemical addiction is the primary reason why change is so incredibly difficult. When you finally decide to change your life—perhaps by choosing to be more positive, to stop complaining, or to start a new healthy project—you are essentially cutting off the body’s supply of its favorite familiar chemicals. Even if those chemicals are related to negative emotions like suffering, guilt, or anger, your body craves them simply because they are familiar. The moment you try to step out of your routine and think a new thought, your body notices the sudden drop in its usual chemical supply. It immediately sends urgent signals back up to the brain, essentially saying, "Wait a minute, we usually feel miserable at this time of day! Why are you trying to feel joyful? This is unfamiliar and therefore dangerous!" Your brain then starts feeding you discouraging thoughts to get you back into your familiar emotional baseline. You might suddenly hear a voice in your head saying, "This is too hard. You can start tomorrow. You are never going to change anyway." This is not a sign of moral failure or a lack of willpower; it is simply your body throwing a chemical temper tantrum. Your body has literally become your mind. It is running the show, dragging you back to the familiar past because it interprets the unknown future as a threat. Unless you can break this powerful loop of thinking and feeling, you will continue to recreate the exact same reality day after day. You must learn how to think greater than how you feel. You must be willing to endure the physical discomfort of chemical withdrawal in order to forge new neural pathways. By understanding this biological mechanism, you can stop judging yourself for your past failures and start utilizing the incredible power of neuroplasticity to literally rewire your brain for a new destiny.
02The Quantum Field Responds to Your Feelings
Once we understand the biological loop of thoughts and feelings, we naturally have to ask a bigger question: how do these internal biological changes actually affect the external circumstances of our lives? To answer this, we need to step away from the traditional, classical models of physics that most of us learned in school and embrace the mind-bending reality of the quantum universe. For centuries, the Newtonian model of physics taught us that the universe is made of solid matter, operating like a giant, predictable machine. In this strictly material view, reality is fixed, and we are just small, insignificant physical bodies trying to force changes in our environment through physical effort. However, quantum physics has completely revolutionized this perspective by proving that reality is far more fluid, interconnected, and responsive to our internal states than we ever dared to believe. When scientists look at the fundamental building blocks of our reality—the atoms that make up your body, your chair, and the device you are reading this on—they find something astonishing. An atom is not a solid piece of matter. In fact, an atom is approximately 99.99999 percent empty space. But this space is not truly empty; it is a vibrating field of immense energy and infinite possibilities. At the subatomic level, particles like electrons do not exist in fixed, physical locations until they are observed. Instead, they exist as waves of probability within an invisible, interconnected field of energy known as the quantum field. It is the act of observation, the presence of consciousness, that collapses these invisible waves of probability into a specific physical particle. This phenomenon, known as the observer effect, suggests that our consciousness is intimately entangled with the fabric of reality itself. The quantum field is an invisible web of energy that holds all possible realities simultaneously. There is a reality where you are healthy, a reality where you are wealthy, a reality where you are deeply fulfilled, and a reality where you are suffering. All of these possibilities exist right now as electromagnetic potentials in the quantum field. The way we communicate with this field and draw a specific reality into our lives is not through words, but through our electromagnetic signature. According to this model, our thoughts are the electrical charge we send out into the field, and our feelings are the magnetic charge we draw back to ourselves. Together, how you think and how you feel broadcast a very specific electromagnetic signature that influences every single atom in your environment. This is where so many people struggle when trying to change their lives. They might spend hours visualizing a new, abundant life, thinking positive thoughts about wealth or health. They are sending out the correct electrical signal. However, if they are simultaneously feeling desperate, unworthy, or frustrated because that wealth or health hasn't arrived yet, they are broadcasting a negative magnetic signal. The quantum field does not respond simply to what we want; it responds to who we are being. It responds to our state of being. If your thoughts say, "I am wealthy," but your body feels the anxiety of being in debt, the universe responds to the stronger magnetic pull of your feelings. You will simply continue to attract circumstances that match your feeling of lack. To truly harness the power of the quantum field, you must align your thoughts and your feelings. You must learn how to feel the emotion of the future reality you want to create before that reality has actually manifested in your physical environment. This requires a profound shift in how we experience time and emotion. Most of us are conditioned to wait for the external environment to change in order to feel a certain way. We wait for the promotion to feel successful, or we wait for the relationship to feel loved. This is a Newtonian way of living—waiting for matter to change matter. The quantum approach requires you to reverse this process. You must generate the feeling of success, love, or gratitude internally, relying solely on your own mind and heart, independent of your external circumstances. When you can combine a clear intention the electrical thought of your new future with an elevated emotion the magnetic feeling of gratitude, joy, or empowerment, you broadcast a powerful new electromagnetic signature. You are literally changing your energy, and when you change your energy, you change your life. Consider the profound implications of gratitude. In our normal experience, we only feel gratitude after we have received something good. Therefore, when you feel deep, genuine gratitude in the present moment, your body biologically believes that the future event you desire has already happened. You are signaling your genes and the quantum field that your new reality is already here. By mastering this combination of clear thought and elevated emotion, you stop being a victim of your past and become the conscious creator of your quantum future.
03Crossing the Treacherous River of Change
04Unlocking the Power of Deep Brainwaves
05Pruning Your Old Toxic Neural Connections
06Planting Potent Seeds for a New Reality
07Conclusion
About Joe Dispenza
Joe Dispenza is a renowned author, speaker, and educator, focusing on neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics. He is known for his research in neuroplasticity and for teaching people to rewire their brains and recondition their bodies to make lasting changes.
