Over the course of the next few weeks, we will explore Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, under a modern Benshen-esque lens. Though one might believe that wealth only equals money, “rich” expands beyond that; it means being able to create prosperity in your life, which can take shape in many different forms. Money is just one medium. Prosperity goes so far beyond financial gains and Hill, with his 13 Principles of Success and teachings on the Laws of the Universe, pioneered a unique roadmap to excellence and how to unlock prosperity—one that focuses on how to program our mental faculties rather than lean on external circumstances.

LAW THREE: AUTOSUGGESTION
THE SECRET OF MENTAL POWER

We are the master of our own earthly destiny because we have the power to influence our own subconscious mind.

Once we've declared our desires and committed to a practice of infusing them with absolute faith that they'll materialize, it's time to direct the focus on our mental landscape: the flora and fauna of thoughts we let grow freely. Left untouched, the vines of the subconscious mind often reach toward our fears and doubts, which can sometimes make it feel impossible to create a positive change in our lives. It's important to remember that that doesn't mean there's something “wrong” with us—it just means the programs running our mind, much like a computer, need software updates. If we look at it all through a lens of curiosity, we have a beautiful opportunity to observe—objectively—our recurring thoughts and decide which ones we want to participate in. Remember, every thought we think, we can then choose to give energy or not; what we give energy to, we breathe life into. Hill instructs to implement the power of autosuggestion, also known as self-suggestion, to metaphorically pull out those weeds of doubt and shame by planting new seeds of creativity, joy, empowerment, and self-reverence instead.

This requires thoughtful planning, deciding which thoughts and narratives you want to participate in and committing to repeating them daily. “Auto-suggestion is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or, by neglect, permits thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of the mind,” Hill writes. It applies to all suggestions and stimuli that mold the subconscious mind, through the five senses. Meaning, the world we create through what we listen to, watch, read, who we surround ourselves with... essentially all the things that make up our external environment permeate their way to our subconscious mind. As Dr. Joe Dispenza, author of Benshen Course's September Book Club, Becoming Supernatural says: “Remind yourself every single day of who you want to be and you will cause your brain to fire in new sequences, in new patterns, in new combinations. And whenever you make your brain work differently, you are changing your mind.”

The piece to pay attention to in autosuggestion is “auto”—we get the opportunity to repeat these new stories and patterns on a consistent basis until they become automatic, our default mode. The stories we live out now were once learned and became habits; now it's time to create new ones. It's a practice of writing a new narrative (literally), memorizing it and reading it aloud daily (after meditating is best, first thing in the morning when the mind is fresh) to create a new imprint. And even when/if resistance inevitably creeps up or when life happens (and life always happens), we can find solace in our formulas for success: embodying our vision, staying in our own lane, hyping ourselves up, envisioning what day “100” of living out our dreams feels like...you know the drill.

Think of this as a life-changing and perfectly acceptable “trick” to play on our subconscious mind, allowing ourselves to daydream about our future, using the fuel of our imagination to push past all “reason” and transmute our desires into reality. In other words, through repetition we strengthen our powers of concentration on what it is we want and our “reasonable” mind will fall short to our sixth sense, where our intuition will flash innovative ways to lead us where we want to go. But we've got to really sell it, meaning we've got to create an advertising campaign for our future that is so juicy that our subconscious mind can't wait to bring it to life.“Plain, unemotional words do not influence the subconscious mind. You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious mind with thoughts, or spoken words which have been well emotionalized with belief,” Hill writes.

In this newsletter, we'll explore how to stimulate your subconscious mind, influence your thoughts, and use your five senses to feed your inner world wisely.

“If you follow the instructions outlined, your skepticism will soon be replaced by belief,
and this in turn, will soon become crystallized into absolute faith.”
- Napoleon Hill

THREE STEPS TO TRAIN YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND:
as taught by Napoleon Hill

Using your month's Vision as a tool (or if you need inspiration to get started, we love this powerful exercise The Six Steps to Spin Dreams into Gold), use the power of autosuggestion to retrain the brain and play desires on repeat. Reading them both morning and night, when the mind is most suggestable, shines a light on our Visions and coaxes out our desired future to unfold.

Step 1: Go into some quiet spot (preferably in bed at morning and/or night) where you will not be disturbed or interrupted, close your eyes and repeat aloud, so you may hear your own words as your own voice is the most powerful to your own mind:

The written statement of your Vision
The time frame for its actualization
A description of what you intend to give in return for your Vision coming to life. For example, if your Vision is to make XX amount of dollars per year, what you intend to give in return is the following services or skill set you offer. If your Vision is to manifest a partner, what you intend to share in return is all the amazing qualities you love about yourself and are ready to share with another. If your Vision is to launch a new business, what you intend to give is the services or offerings and how you plan to make them happy / why they will be helpful to others.
As you carry out these instructions, see yourself already living the Vision.

Step 2: Repeat this program night and morning until you can see (in your imagination) the Vision come to life.

Step 3: Place a written copy of your statement where you can see it night and morning, and read it just before retiring, and upon arising until it has been memorized.

*Image: Thought-forms, Annie Besant, 1901*

As the saying goes, “where attention goes, energy flows.” How can we imprint something beyond the self-doubt and insecurities, and subtly shift the gaze instead in a direction that feels expansive and open? How exactly can we make life feel a little more magical? By feeding something else to the mind instead of its own negativity. Whenever we're feeling especially insecure or uninspired about something—be it money, love, or impatience/uncertainty about the future—that's when we open up our vault of tools that will help us shift our mood and write a different story.

At night, our mind moves from analytical beta to alpha, theta, and delta brain waves, where our “subconscious window” opens. Dr. Joe Dispenza suggests that you can spend your sleeping hours creating a series of “late-night commercials” with your desired messaging. One way to feed your mind and make a “mind movie” and transform your waking hours is through SOUND.

Sound and vibration are the fastest and most powerful tools we have to change our thoughts, mostly because our thoughts are vibrations too. We can use things like affirmations - spoken word is sound + vibration - in the moments we are conquering a fear or doubt, eventually, when repeated enough, become an auto-suggested thought when challenging moments arise. For example, let's say you're applying to a job and really want the role. After you've had the first interview, all these thoughts creep in: the self-doubt, the fear, the anxiety, the long-list of why you're not capable. Instead of following the Negative Mind's attempt to protect us from getting hurt, instead, we can use affirmations to help keep us steady, graceful, and in our power. What's for me will never pass me by is a great affirmation to use, over and over; so in the instance above, rather than going down the rabbit hole of negative, the mind auto-suggests this affirmation as it has been memorized by us, which allows us to replace the fear with something more empowering. It's ALWAYS the Universe's intention to lead us towards something better.

Music, mantra, and sound currents are another set of those transformative tools that can shift energy almost instantaneously. Think about it; music is sound waves, different notes put together to create a melody. Even more amazing is when these different sounds are put together in different ways, they can make us feel something and take us beyond the present. Notice how a song can make you feel—whether it's a sultry song by Puma Blue, a sensual and fiery track from Rosalía, or something to ignite power like Kendrick Lamar, music is a tool to alchemize our mood. Whenever you're feeling a certain way and want to get out of it, create an AUTO-SUGGESTION PLAYLIST of your favorite songs that shift your energy and mood swiftly and powerfully. Another way to use music and sound is through mantra: man meaning mind, tra meaning wave. Mantra is a mind wave—it creates a certain projection of the mind using positively-coded frequencies. An easy way to use mantra is to play it while we sleep; the volume can be very low as long as it's playing. Sleeping with a mantra on allows us to reprogram our subconscious WHILE we're in the land of the subconscious. A few of our favorites include:

Chattra Chakkra Varti: to remove fears

Eka Mai: to remind you of your power + build inner power / the Divine Feminine

Ant Na Siftee: to remove obstacles with the force of a lightning bolt

Mul Mantra: when something isn't moving / changing, to change from fate to destiny

Bahota Karam: mantra for prosperity and positivity

*Pick one of these mantras, play it on loop at night for 40 days and see what unfolds…all can be found on our PLAYLIST for BENSHEN.CO

SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB GEM:

“The only way we can change our lives is to change our energy — to change the electromagnetic field we are constantly broadcasting. In other words, to change our state of being, we have to change how we think and how we feel.”
- Dr. Joe Dispenza, Becoming Supernatural

AUTOSUGGESTION : A NEW KIND OF INFLUENCER

SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE : BECOMING IRREPLACABLE

FAITH: THE ELIXIR OF LIFE