Priming Routine – Make 2021 Your Best Year
Priming Routine – Make 2021 Your Best Year
What do you think when you see the word fragment “SO_P”? Probably nothing.
What if you first consider the word “EAT”?
Now, when you look again at the word “SO_P,” you would probably complete it as “SOUP.”
This process is known as priming. We’re primed when exposure to a word, concept, or event causes us to summon related words and concepts. If you had seen the word “SHOWER” instead of “EAT” above, you probably would’ve completed the letters as “SOAP.” Such priming not only affects the way we think but also the way we act. Just as the mind is affected by hearing certain words and concepts, the body can be affected as well.
A great example of this can be found in a study in which participants primed with words associated with being elderly, such as “Florida” and “wrinkle,” responded by walking at a slower pace than usual.
In a 2008 study conducted by Yale psychologists named “Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth”, one researcher casually asked the participant to hold their coffee in the elevator on their way to the lab. The team member would then write down some information about the participant before asking for their coffee back. Each participant would hold the cup of coffee for somewhere between 10 and 25 seconds. For half the participants the coffee was hot, while the other half held cold cups of coffee. That’s the only difference between the two groups of participants. Here’s where it gets interesting.
In the lab, all the participants read the same brief description of a random individual and rated the individual’s personality using a questionnaire. Participants who’d held hot coffee rated the person as happier, better natured, and more generous and social. Participants who’d held the cold cup were more likely to say the person was unhappy, irritable, and selfish. Remember, there was absolutely no difference between the profiles that both groups read. But how they reacted to the descriptions was significantly different. The strangest part? They had no idea they’d been primed. Incredibly, the priming of actions and thoughts is completely unconscious; we do it without realizing it.
What priming therefore shows is that despite what many argue, we are not always in conscious control of our actions, judgments, and choices. We are instead being constantly primed by certain social and cultural conditions. For example, research done by Kathleen Vohs proves that the concept of money primes individualistic actions. People primed with the idea of money – for example, through being exposed to images of money – act more independently and are less willing to be involved with, depend on or accept demands from others. One implication of Vohs’s research is that living in a society filled with triggers that prime money could nudge our behavior away from altruism.
Priming, just like other societal elements, can influence an individual’s thoughts and therefore choices, judgment, and behavior – and these reflect back into the culture and heavily affect the kind of society we all live in.
We are not as capable of free-thinking as we believe ourselves to be…
Priming effects are considered outside of our control. Because they arise in our “System 1” – the automatic, intuitive part of the brain – we have no conscious access to them, so people often wrongly attribute the real underlying reasons for their behavior.
In fact, people can be completely unaware that their behavior has been changed or managed in any way. We tend to believe that we are rational and that everything we do in our daily lives is governed by our conscious choices.
As social psychologists Chris Loersch and Keith Payne explain:
“People ordinarily feel that their judgments, behaviors, and motives are freely chosen, reflecting personal concerns and preferences. […] Thus priming effects … emerge under conditions that allow people to misattribute the primed information to their own thought, feelings, or impulses.”
So it can be very bewildering for some – especially those of us who pride ourselves on our ability not to follow the herd or to act only after thoughtful deliberation of the pros and cons – to discover that we are not as free-willed as we thought and are just as susceptible to priming at a subconscious level as the next person. Interestingly, priming effects can take time to wear off.
Studies have found the effects of priming can last for anything from 15-20 minutes to a week, with a constant impact.
(Read more about the impact of the brain system on driving the way we think in the NYT Bestseller book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman)
This Simple Morning Ritual Primes Your Brain for Success | Nurture Your Intuition
Since we are prone and susceptible to be primed, choose what to expose to our subconscious mind wisely. We can achieve bigger goals if we get your subconscious mind on board. That advice comes from May McCarthy, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and author of The Path to Wealth. “Treat your morning meeting with your inner self seriously,” McCarthy advises.
Begin by choosing a space that’s free of distractions. Make sure you have the materials you’ll need: an uplifting book that describes others’ successes in achieving their goals, and a pen and notebook. Below is the priming morning routine that many highly successful people are practicing.
1. Read something that inspires you.
Fill your mind with amazing stories of the art of the possible. Some stories, for example: – At age 70, Jack LaLanne, a physical phenomenon, swam for a mile, while shackled and handcuffed, against strong winds and currents, towing 70 rowboats, one with several guests in it. – Wim “The Iceman” Hoff climbed Everest and Kilimanjaro in only shorts and shoes and holds 20 Guinness World Records for withstanding extreme temperatures.
2. Perform a breathing exercise.
This Daily Habit Will Prime Your Brain To Be Its Best | Tony Robbins’ Priming Exercise
Tony Robbins created his own version of an ancient yoga technique called Kapalabhati Pranayama breathing. In Robbins’ version, begin by sitting straight with your eyes closed. Inhale deeply through your nostrils while simultaneously lifting your arms in a shoulder press motion, and then exhale forcefully through your nostrils while bringing your arms back to your body, palms up. Perform the breaths in quick succession.
The yoga site Yoga Outlet says that Kapalabhati Pranayama breathing should be controlled through constrictions of the abdomen. The site recommends learning beginner-level yogic breathing techniques first and warns that pregnant women or people with breathing problems should avoid the more advanced technique. In Robbins’ version, he does three sets of 30 with brief breaks in between. This can further be broken down into three sets of 10 repeated three times. When starting to learn the exercise, you can begin with three sets of 10 and work your way up. The exercise should leave you feeling energized.
3. Prime your mind with great books.
“Leaders are readers”. Books are a powerful way to fill your mind with possibilities, as well as to turn insights into actions, and how to turn dreams into strategies and realities.
4. Write a gratitude letter.
Spend the next 10 minutes writing a gratitude letter.
“Be grateful for the good things already in your life, as well as the things you hope to have soon,”
McCarthy says.
“Psychologists agree that gratitude and happiness help you be more focused and able to solve problems.”
To get your subconscious mind on board, she says,
“Express gratitude for what you have and also what you want as though you have already received it.”
Giving thanks for what you don’t yet have creates cognitive dissonance. Your subconscious mind will seek to resolve that dissonance by looking for ways to make your goal come true, thus making your statement a reality.
5. Read your gratitude letter out loud.
This may seem awkward and embarrassing, even if you’re by yourself, but give it a try anyway.
“Studies have shown that when we read something out loud, we anchor it into our subconscious, which will help us to notice more possibilities to make our statements true,”
McCarthy says.
5. Visualize reaching your goals.
Spend up to five minutes with your eyes closed imagining your goals achieved. What will that look like and feel like? Who will be there with you?
“Olympic athletes use this technique as part of their training,”
McCarthy says.
“They see themselves making the shot, winning the competition, celebrating with teammates and family. If you want to win and achieve your goals, see yourself doing so first.”
6. Now, listen to your subconscious mind.
Finishing the above five steps should take between 20 and 25 minutes. Once you’ve done them, go ahead and start your day, McCarthy says.
“Your subconscious mind will begin to do its job.”
Often, that job will take the form of intuitions and hunches that you can’t necessarily explain. Be on the lookout for those intuitions, and for unexpected leads and opportunities, McCarthy advises. That might mean calling someone whose name comes to mind out of the blue, or following a spontaneous urge to go somewhere that wasn’t in your plans. Once, she says, she followed a gut instinct and drove 15 minutes out of her way. She wound up running into a potential customer, an encounter that later resulted in a contract worth more than $400,000.
“Some of these might not seem to make sense,” she says. “But as Steve Jobs said, “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
7. Hydration Drinking enough water is essential for your ability to focus and think clearly.
Furthermore, water transports essential vitamins and minerals throughout the body, which is crucial for energy production. All in all, drinking enough water is critical for high performance. If you don’t drink enough water, you might experience fatigue and brain fog — which reduces your ability to focus and think clearly. That’s why, right after waking, drink a few glasses of water and continue to drink enough water during the rest of your day.
