How To Harness The Power Of The Subconscious Mind And Speak Spanish With Ease
- Jul 26, 2023
- 4 min read
Written by: Nadine Panta Flexhaug, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It’s finally here. The moment you’ve been waiting for. It’s your time to speak. You’ve used the apps, you’ve listened to the videos and maybe even some podcasts but you’re well aware that nothing compares to live, unpredictable conversations with real people.
How do you know this? Because you’ve experienced it before! You’ve attempted to communicate with Spanish speakers before but despite knowing a few dozen words, (or maybe even hundreds!) you were speechless. Not one word came to mind when you needed it when it actually mattered. I know this has happened to you because it happened to me too.
Learning a language is so much more than just learning new words for the same things. Whether it’s public speaking, live interviews, conversations in a new language, etc., It all happens in the same way. The survival mode is activated in the brain. This happens when the subconscious mind detects a potential life-threatening situation and shifts automatically into survival mode, in order to protect itself – fight, flight or freeze. If you don’t try to flee the situation in some way, chances are you freeze. All the vocabulary you learned, everything you studied, it’s like it’s been erased in the blink of an eye… except that it returns immediately after the situation is over! As adults, we have a lot of limiting beliefs stored in our subconscious minds which tend to be brought to the surface when learning a new language because we get into vulnerable, uncomfortable situations. As you’re forced out of your comfort zone (because you need to use it to learn it!), the alarms go off to try and protect you from feelings of embarrassment and incompetence. A large part of overcoming this is just good ole’ practice. Like most things, the more you do it, the easier it gets.
The more you speak Spanish, the easier it is to speak Spanish(not to say there won’t be some bumps along the way). The challenge is overcoming those initial red flags that try to hold you back and cause you to self-sabotage or never even get started. I struggled with this on several occasions throughout my journey to Spanish fluency. But through this process, I learned how to manage those self-sabotaging thoughts that would try to creep in and it works just the same for any other situation in your life that involves verbal communication & speaking. While it may seem ironic, it comes down to trusting your subconscious mind. When you doubt yourself and your God-given ability to learn languages (something all humans are born with, given a healthy enough environment), you’re not able to tap into your all-knowing subconscious. The subconscious is always listening and it internalizes everything happening around you, 24/7. If you can remember this, you’re more likely to give yourself permission to let go and allow it to guide you. The disclaimer is quite obvious, you must be consistently putting in the work – showing up and exposing yourself to the language, for this to happen. We need comprehensible input before we can produce any sort of output (but it’s not as much as you may think!). Here’s what I mean, Let’s say your new gardener is coming over to do some work in your yard and he doesn’t speak any English. You’re the only one home and you’re thinking about what you will say and how to say it. You may use a translator to look up the words you don’t know. You may even practice what you want to say before he shows up. This is all great. But when the gardener shows up, let. It. All. Go. What?
Yes. You heard that right.
I know it sounds counterintuitive but while prepping your brain for the Spanish conversation to come can help organize your thoughts and increase confidence, if when the conversation begins, you try to say everything exactly as you had rehearsed, you’ll begin to fumble for words and forget. The pressure is on and you can no longer focus on what you want to say, consumed by the intention of perfection. The solution is very simple but it’s not easy. It takes practice and consistency. Patience. Awareness. You must be present in the moment, with your only focus being effective (not perfect) communication of your message. So before you step into an important conversation of any sort, take a couple of deep breaths and give yourself permission to let go of all the preparation you’ve done and just be present. Trust in yourself and your subconscious mind (which can either be your best friend or your worst enemy). Depending on how you train it. Show it how to support you by developing that trust. Feed it the Spanish words it needs ahead of time and then trust in your brilliant subconscious mind(to which no artificial computer can ever compare)to feed you the information you need, as you go. Breathe and be present. Get out of your head!
And practice, practice, practice. Know that you don’t have to go about it alone. Old habits die hard. But they do die.
It may not be an easy process but with the right support, consistency, and repetition, success is inevitable. Let’s connect! My team of native speakers and I invite you to join our complimentary Facebook community to access live classes & trainings every week, tips & strategies for learning to think in Spanish and so much more.
Nadine Panta Flexhaug, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Nadine Panta Flexhaug is a bilingual Spanish coach who specializes in helping people learn to think in Spanish so they can converse in Spanish with ease. After learning early on that traditional teaching methods are not designed for conversational Spanish or real life "street" talk, she spent years experimenting and investigating alternative learning methods. When she came across Neurolanguage coaching® and began to understand how the adult brain is designed to learn languages, it all began to make sense. She has since created her 12 week coaching bootcamp program and works with a team of native speakers to help people unleash their natural language abilities by training their brains to think in Spanish.
