Breaking the habit of being yourself

by Joe Dispenza

Publisher: Hay House, Inc Published: 2012 Category: Psychology & Self-Help

Imagine waking up each day and falling into the same thought patterns, emotional responses, and behaviors that have defined your entire life. You react to your spouse the same way, feel anxiety in familiar situations, and perpetually recreate the same experiences. This cycle isn't just habit—it's biology. Your body has literally become addicted to being you, and breaking free requires understanding the profound connection between quantum physics, neuroscience, and personal transformation.

At the intersection of cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom lies a revolutionary approach to changing who you are at the most fundamental level. Drawing on research in neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics, this work presents a compelling argument: you are not hardwired to be a certain way forever. The personality you think of as "you"—that collection of thoughts, feelings, and habits—is simply a state of being that your body has memorized. And what has been learned can be unlearned.

The journey begins with understanding how thoughts become matter. Every time you think a thought, your brain produces corresponding chemicals that signal your body to feel a certain way. When you react to that feeling with more thoughts that produce the same chemicals, you enter a feedback loop. Your thoughts trigger feelings, and your feelings trigger thoughts, creating what becomes your state of being. Repeat this process long enough, and your body becomes conditioned to this cycle, quite literally becoming addicted to the emotions of your past.

This conditioning runs deep. By the time most people reach their mid-thirties, their identity has become a memorized set of automatic behaviors, emotional reactions, unconscious habits, and beliefs that function like a computer program. Approximately ninety-five percent of who we are by that age operates from the subconscious mind—meaning we've become an automatic, habitual version of ourselves, living in a past we're constantly recreating.

Breaking this cycle requires more than positive thinking or surface-level change. It demands a fundamental rewiring of the brain and reconditioning of the body. Through detailed explanations of neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections—readers discover how meditation and mental rehearsal can actually change brain structure. By repeatedly focusing on new thoughts and feelings, you can prune away old neural networks and build new ones, essentially evolving your brain beyond its current limitations.

The work also explores the quantum field of infinite possibilities. Once you disconnect from your current self and all the predictable emotions associated with your personal history, you enter a state of pure potentiality. In this state, no longer defined by the past, you can begin to create a new future. This isn't metaphysical speculation but rather an application of quantum principles to personal transformation.

Practical instruction guides readers through a step-by-step process combining knowledge with application. Understanding the science provides the "what" and "why," while meditation techniques offer the "how." These aren't traditional meditations but rather mental rehearsals where you repeatedly envision and emotionally embrace a new version of yourself until your brain and body no longer distinguish between actual experience and mentally rehearsed experience.

The implications extend far beyond personal happiness. When you change your energy—the thoughts you think and the feelings you experience—you change your life. You begin to observe your automatic thoughts without responding to them emotionally. You catch yourself before falling into familiar patterns. You become conscious of who you've been so you can deliberately create who you want to be.

This approach challenges the conventional belief that our genes determine our destiny. Emerging research in epigenetics reveals that genes don't create disease—environment creates disease, and your perception of your environment can alter genetic expression. By changing your thoughts and feelings, you literally signal new genes in new ways, transcending genetic limitations and inherited emotional patterns.

The ultimate message offers profound hope: you are not doomed to repeat the past. With understanding, intention, and practice, transformation at the deepest biological level becomes possible.