The BioVibrational Model of Belief Change

“If you know better, you do better” as the saying goes, but is that completely true? Is simply having insight and new thoughts enough to motivate behavioral change? For somethings like recycling, sure, but when it comes to big things like low self-worth, inner criticism, racism, self-sabotage, and a host of other ‘maladaptations’ of the psyche, the axiom falls short.

That’s because there is stored energy in your body, attached to the beliefs that power those maladaptive behaviors. These energies-in-motion, or emotions can be experienced as a negative sensation in our bodies, such as fear or guilt, and motivate us away from making the optimal supportive choices for ourselves. Also, that energy, when only subconsciously experienced, doesn’t necessarily create the sensation of an emotion, and thus operates in the dark without our awareness. But when this energy is brought to the surface of consciousness, this allows the emotion to manifest and the energy to release. This release is vital to freeing up associated beliefs so that they are no longer anchored in their old pattern. This gives our conscious mind  purchase on changing that old belief out with a new one.

Science has been done to demonstrate—people believe things and make choices more from an emotional state than a strictly rational one. No matter what all the clamor about neuroplasticity being the most important aspect of how to create lasting change, which is partly true, we can’t ignore that behaviors are just beliefs in action and beliefs are fundamentally part conceptual and part emotional. And that means that belief change isn’t just about new thinking or realizing things, it's about reckoning with emotional realities as well. If we want radical inner change and don’t have emotional coherence that’s in congruence with a new belief or agreement we are trying to make with ourselves or others, we are doomed to keep battling with ourselves.

So that phrase I used at the top of this writing would better read: “If you know better, and feel better, you do better.” This fact is often left out of the coaching/client dynamic and thus agreed upon adjustments to client behavior often go un actualized and disappointment ensues. We can also find this dynamic if we attend a vivacious live group coaching event, where our emotions are in a temporary heightened state and thus insights and change seems easy. But when we get back home and back into our ‘normal’ emotional and neurological environments we struggle to bring what we learned into permanence. Though we may have experienced different and more heightened emotions than usual during such a zealous event, we haven’t actually changed our fundamental subconscious/body energies. When we re-emerge back into our actual lives, those subconscious realities start playing themselves out once again, trying to get us to behave as we always have.

Words and thoughts are inadequate tools for penetrating the unconscious energies that are the source of our fears, guilt, shame, and our general sense of anxiety and inadequacy. If our inner critic could be convinced through thoughts and words to change their incessant negativity, we would all have an easy path to better self-esteem, but the truth is that the negativity of the inner critic is driven to act the way it does not by the conscious mind but by subconscious emotional programming that’s been created over a lifetime.

Mainstream cognitive behavioral science often approaches inner change using an outside-in methodology. Replace old thoughts with new ones and create new habits and then inner change will come with time (a lot of time). Then we as practitioners of this method create a dichotomous relationship with the “thing I should do” and the “actual internal reality of my truth” which often leads to more rebellion and self-sabotaging. We often don’t like to be told what to do; we like to make choices freely and the intrinsic energy of choosing something for ourselves is self-growth reinforcing. Where ‘being told what to do’ creates a negative relationship with the self that disrupts self-compassion and acceptance. 

Thought change and conceptual habit goals are like pulling weeds out of fertile ground. Pulling them will bring temporary change and things will look beautiful for a while, but because the ground itself hasn’t changed, it’s only a matter of time before new weeds sprout again.

There’s another way.

Using an inside-out method, we can change the energy that underlies the beliefs and thoughts, making thought change processes (noticing and replacing) more easy, effective, and freeing. It would be like changing the nature of the soil so that only plants that you want to grow there, do. We can remove the weeds and with new soil, they won’t grow back, and now there is open space to freely choose what we will grow. This is the BioVibrational Model.

We can look at thoughts and beliefs as material in nature (thoughts are things) and the underlying energy reinforcing thoughts and behaviors as energetic or vibrational. We have to operate at both levels to create radical, effective inner change.

A perfect example of this was experienced by a client of mine recently. She has a strong shadow-self made of disowned anger, sadness, disappointment and low self-worth. As long as this shadow remains unintegrated, it will always have power over her to sabotage her desired growth. She has been listening to the message of her inner critic, voiced by her shadow, who wants to get her into full catastrophic thinking—worry, fear, terror and she uses the known methods of dealing with this situation at the thought level. She speaks to this part of herself compassionately: “I hear you trying to protect me, thank you, but I’m good and going to find a more positive motivation to care,” yet she can’t integrate this shadow to resolve it and thus is always embattled with it. When she describes this trapped little girl who represents her shadow-self, she is angry with her. Angry because she is viewed as an adversary that tries to sabotage her feeling good about life and her ability to be present.

No amount of self-compassion, thought, or habit-based work will resolve this negative angry emotional entanglement with her shadow, but changing the emotional energy by dissolving what’s behind anger (using EFT) will bring the compassionate, accepting, loving relationship with her shadow that she requires to make lasting change, create new thoughts/behaviors and achieve full integration. 

Change the inner energy first—the soil—and thought/behavior change comes more naturally.

The body is where the energy is stored and is the crucible where these forces are fundamentally reconciled. Hidden energetic realities must be experienced directly through feeling them in the body and in the present moment by accepting them as they are and illuminating them—which is to say adding ‘light’ to them through the energy of love (listening, acceptance, compassion, feeling). You have to feel to heal, and feeling along with EFT tapping completes the circuit of trapped energy that’s been ruining your happiness.

This is what creates a true characterological shift.

Without the negative energetic beliefs, suddenly you just start relating to yourself and others in a completely different way, without having to consciously will yourself to do so. It’s quite amazing and freeing.

Examples of contrasting views on how to handle something such as being more grateful:

Outside in - “ I know I should have a gratitude practice so, even though I don’t feel grateful inside, I am going to will myself into thinking about what I am grateful for and maybe I will feel grateful because of it.”

Inside-out - “My internal emotional/felt state of being feels grateful in this moment, and this compels me to desire expanding this sense and connect it with people and situations in my life. A gratitude practice is intuitively the way to create the form that matches my internal sense/feeling. I’m going to choose that.”

Once the new positive belief environment (properly balanced soil) has been established, planting new beliefs using the Healing InSight Method is very effective in creating radical change in a very short period of time. The Healing InSight Method utilizes contemporary neuroscience of bi-lateral brain stimulation that’s demonstrated to be effective at getting deeply-held unconscious beliefs to change, and combines it with powerful affirmation work energy psychology.

BioVibrational EFT Work = Remove weeds (challenge maladaptive beliefs) → Recondition the soil (move negative energy out, bring positive, loving energy in) →

+Healing InSight Method = Plant new plants, freely chosen (new self-supportive affirmations)

Want to become the radical change you wish to see in yourself and in the world? Book a free exploration call with me.