What is Pattern Interruption and How it Apply it to your Subconscious

Pattern interruption involves breaking an individual’s habitual thought or behavioral pattern so as to shake it up.

An existing pattern of behavior sometimes can be solidly conditioned in someone’s system, for example from your childhood by observing your parents behavior and simply coping it. This can create surprising resistance and interference to the change process.

Instead of tackling this resistance head on, you can use a pattern interrupt to “swipe the legs” of the resistance.

Here’s a simple way to understand a pattern interrupt.

You’re driving to work in the morning. If you’re like me, you always take the same route from home to your office. We’re like monkeys: totally conditioned to repeat tasks in the same way, every time.

The cool thing about this is how economical it is. You don’t really have to think. You put yourself on auto-pilot which allows your unconscious mind takes care of everything for you.

So you’re cruising along on the way, singing along to the radio and tapping along to the beat…

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

Right in front of you, a giant tree collapses onto the road, completely obstructing your path. You feel yourself slamming on the brakes and the car comes to a screeching halt as the tires try to grasp to the road.

And for a few minutes, you have absolutely no clue as to what happened or what you’re doing.

Now, your unconscious doesn’t know how to respond. It’s awaiting instructions either from your conscious mind or from someone who’s conscious.

Pattern interrupts are really useful in that they shake up a person’s typical thoughts and actions.  Opening them up to the possibility for something new to take place.

Doing this is an important part of the change process. Obviously, it’s much easier to influence and redirect an unstable pattern than a rigid one.

Watch video below and see in action how pattern interruption can be applied.

Pattern Interruption can Change your Unconscious’s Programming

If you want to quit smoking. The pattern interruption to use is to simply change the hand you hold your cigarette in. This causes redirection in the behavioral processing.

As pattern is interrupted completely, you are left without a next step in the thought process or behavior. That naturally opens up to whatever next step is offered to them by the situation.

In other words, the person whose pattern is interrupted becomes influenceable.

It’s at the time of the pattern interrupt that you can insert changes into the unconscious’s programming.

When the unconscious is saying to you “OK, what do you want me to do now?

As a result, there’s space for you to insert new instructions. Thus, creating a new habit or behavoral pattern.

Nicky and Dave