Scottie sweetness

Our little Scottie girl, Piper, is sweetness on four feet. Not all Scotties are anywhere near as sweet as her. She loves all people and kids and lets them know that she loves them. She lovingly greets everyone. The people she loves the most hear a little squeaky extra greeting and sometimes she’ll run around expressing her joy.

Where does all that bubbling love come from? The first part of the answer really is that she was born with love in her heart like all living things. This love comes from the spirit energy that gives us life, for God, or Spirit, is love first. The second part of the answer is that her early home was happy and joyful, which built a subconscious pattern of love for people into her brain.

Children, dogs, horses, and all other living creatures are born with the Spirit’s love in their hearts. The living conditions into which they are born quickly begin to build patterns into their brain’s subconscious, which either reinforces loving messages or builds defensive habits in strife-filled environments.

As we study the subconscious mind, science is seeing a powerful engine in our brains running the majority of our lives without our conscious thought. Some of this system comes with birth, such as pumping our blood, making us breathe, and many other bodily functions. The rest of the subconscious begins building right after birth.

This subconscious reservoir of habits reflects our reaction to and understanding of our world. Patterns of thought lay down in the pathways of our brain, which cause automatic responses to the thousands of situations we meet daily. This medium records these patterns without judgment, which is why children brought up in a home filled with turmoil and strife build strong defensive habits, even aggressive habits, that often lead to problems when entering school or work.

In the same fashion, a home filled with loving support generally builds a child filled with confidence, respect for others, and a kind heart.

The subconscious is like a mirror reflecting the images of one’s life mechanically.

The subconscious “mind” is not really the person, it is the automatic, untrained, neutral response to life around the person. You could think of it as a garden, the good and bad seeds of life’s experiences are scattered there, but a gardener, the conscious mind of a person, can weed out what isn’t good if they so desire.

Think of it another way: The subconscious mind operates like a law of mind. It takes images of the conscious mind and lays them down into the brain’s database, quickly forming automatic habits and behaviors.

If that was the entire story, there would be no hope for those who grew up in turmoil. Fortunately, the medium that records the images, being neutral and without judgment, can record new images if the environment changes or the person at a conscious, intelligent level chooses to make changes to their life.

The branch of psychology studying much of the subconscious mind is called psychosomatics. It studies the relationship between the body and the mind. It is here that science sees more and more of a connection between the subconscious “programing” of a person’s life and their body’s health. It’s simple, our life’s perspective influences our health. I’ve heard people say that when they watch a new pharmaceutical drug commercial on television, they often feel many of the symptoms mentioned during the commercial. This is the psychosomatic relationship at work.

When we choose to improve our lives, another law of mind can enter our life. Illumination, spiritual awareness, or God, operating from a higher spiritual plane or mental level, enters us, giving us greater assistance to the weeding out of old, negative, or destructive habits and introducing new, loving, and constructive behaviors. These new habits and behaviors change into new reflections in the mirror of our brain. They are filled with love, peace, health, and faith. Prayer is the vehicle for these changes.

Pneumatology, the science of spirit, studies the spirit-mind relationship. For millenni, modern, medieval, and ancient philosophers in many cultures have studied faith in a higher energy, often seen as a unifying energy in the universe. This is the kingdom of heaven referenced by Jesus. When you become aware of the deepest teachings of Jesus, you see that he focused on learning to control our thinking. This is the real meaning of righteousness, thinking positively and lovingly and acting positively, filled with kindness and forgiveness. (Kind behavior without kind thoughts is not righteousness according to Jesus). If you think negatively, or are filled with fear, you build negative habits, and those habits cause poor health or illness and bring difficulties into your life.

The important thing to remember is that the subconscious is programmable or reprogrammable. Prayer changes things. Regular prayer builds new pathways in the subconscious, which improve our body and our relationships in the outer world. We can radiate love and kindness, bringing love and kindness into our lives.

Little Piper, my Scottie, weathered more than a year of neglect and abuse after her happy home fell apart due to the death of her two owners. It was the deep positive habits formed early in her life that helped her go through that difficult time, remaining good-natured and loving, allowing her to bloom under our care.

Love is the answer to difficulty. Fill your heart and your life with love. Do everything in love. Proverbs 17:17