Subliminals -- subliminal suggestions given in such a way that they bypass your conscious awareness and go straight to your subconscious, inner mind -- are some of the most powerful tools that you can use to change your attitudes and your behavior. That's why they're increasingly used in personal development to help people to achieve much more success and happiness as quickly, easily and effectively as possible.

They're simply a set of suggestions, also known as affirmations, played through stereo headphones but masked by other sounds so you can't consciously hear the words. This lets them speak directly to your subconscious, inner mind – the part that actually controls the things that you believe and do.

Worded correctly, subliminal suggestions can help you to improve your skills and talents, raise the levels of your confidence and self-esteem, become healthier, happier and more successful, and develop character traits you'd love to have (and even have much more charisma, too!).

Because subliminal suggestions are so powerful, though, badly-worded ones can do more harm than good.

I ought to say at this point that I make and sell subliminals. I started out by using other people's, and because I already had a background in personal development I knew enough to be concerned about the quality, and in some cases even safety, of what was being offered.

I firmly believe that subliminal technology is the fastest, easiest and most effective way of changing how you think and feel, and therefore what you can achieve and do, to get the things you really want from life... but only if the subliminals you use are suited to your needs.

To make sure you know what you to look out for (and what you should avoid), you might find this checklist useful:-

1. Always visit the product's website. If you can't see a complete list of all the subliminal suggestions on each track (BEFORE you pay for anything), don't buy. Samples of the kind of affirmations used are not enough – you need to know every word that's going to be directed to your inner mind.

These techniques are so powerful that an experimental use of them in advertising (which was very quickly made illegal) saw a 300% increase in the sales of popcorn that they were promoting... in two hours!

That's why it's so important that you know exactly what information's being fed to your subconscious mind, and that it's only going to change your attitudes and your behavior in ways you choose;

2. Make sure all of the subliminals are worded positively.

Your subconscious doesn't understand ideas like “not” and “never”, so saying things like, “You will not do...”, “You do not like...”, etc. will simply have the opposite effect.

“You will stop eating junk food”, for example, will produce a mental picture of you eating, not stopping eating, junk food. In this case, an example of a good subliminal suggestion would be, “You eat only foods that give you better health and more vitality”;

3. Make sure all the subliminal suggestions say something relevant to what you want to use them for.

Suggestions that “You are a child of the Universe” might sound good, but they won't necessarily help you to control your weight or take more exercise.

However, if you're looking for a subliminal track that will increase your self-esteem, and you feel that seeing yourself as a child of the Universe will do that for you, that's great.

Just make sure all the affirmations tell you something that you want to hear, and offer you a belief you want to have. If not, don't buy;

4. Make sure the affirmations are addressed to “you”. Some affirmations start with “I”, such as “I will get up an hour earlier every morning”.

Subliminals are said to you by someone else. Your mind knows that. If someone tells you, “I will get up an hour earlier every morning”, they're telling you that THEY will get up early, not that YOU will... and you won't; and

5. Make sure that the subliminals are masked by nature sounds, not music.

You should find each track so relaxing and enjoyable that you want to listen to it regularly, and there aren't too many pieces of music, even ones you really like, that can stand that amount of repetition very long.

Nature sounds like rain, streams, ocean surf and waterfalls are much easier to take for granted playing soothingly and softly in the background. If they don't impose themselves on your attention you'll be much more likely to play them as often as you want or need to – even overnight.

As long as you take these simple precautions, you should find subliminal suggestions the easiest and most effective and enjoyable form of personal development that you could wish for.

Aislinn O'Connor
http://www.access-your-peak-performance-zone.com