The practice of meditation can bring remarkable clarity. Over time, practitioners often become more aware of their thoughts, emotions, and repetitive patterns. But awareness alone does not always lead to change. Many meditators can clearly recognize habits of mind such as anxiety, self-criticism, or people-pleasing, while repeating the same patterns.
Maybe it’s the same relationship dynamic that keeps coming back. Or that same inner voice of doubt that comes up again and again during practice.
What happens when pattern recognition still doesn’t shift it?
So what happens when pattern recognition still doesn’t shift it?
Juliana Sloanemeditation teacher and hypnotherapist, works with practitioners who explore how the deeper, subconscious layers of the mind and nervous system shape our behavior. In this conversation with Mindful, she discusses why understanding our patterns doesn’t always lead to transformation, how imagination and altered states can open up new avenues for change, and how mindfulness practitioners can recognize when something emerging in practice calls for deeper attention.
Angela Stubbs: Originally, the topic of this conversation was “when understanding is not enough”. Many people can recognize their own patterns or understand why certain behaviors repeat themselves in their lives. But understanding alone does not always lead to real change. From your point of view, why is this?
Most people who come to work with me are already well aware of themselves. But despite this awareness, they still feel stuck. They can’t stop the anxiety. They can’t stop holding themselves to impossible standards. They keep coming in relationship that does not suit them.
Juliana Sloan: Of course, there are situations where understanding alone may be enough. Someone has an “aha” moment, something inside shifts and the pattern loosens. But to be honest, that’s a pretty small percentage of the cases I see, especially when it comes to deep-rooted patterns and habits.
Most people who come to work with me are already well aware of themselves. They are often meditation practicesthey’ve been in therapy and they’re interested in personal growth. They can clearly articulate what their patterns are.
But despite this awareness, they still feel stuck. They can not stop restlessness. They can’t stop holding themselves to impossible standards. They keep getting into relationships that aren’t right for them.
Such patterns are not only intellectual. These are deeply ingrained habits of the mind and nervous system. People often repeat them for years, sometimes for a lifetime. Over time, these repetitions form very strong neural pathways that return someone to the same familiar pattern.
Understanding the pattern can be helpful, but we also need ways to work with the deeper conditioning that keeps repeating it.
Very often I hear: “I’ve worked hard on this problem. I understand it intellectually. But still something is stuck.”
Angela Stubbs: How do people begin to recognize when something requires further study rather than continued observation or reflection?
Juliana Sloane: Usually by the time someone comes to me, they already feel something deeper going on. Very often I hear: “I’ve worked hard on this problem. I understand it intellectually. But still something is stuck.”
The sense that there is “something deeper” to explore is often a good sign that one might benefit from working with these layers of knowledge and experience that lie further below the surface.
The greatest time anyone can no being prepared is when they hope for a quick solution that does not require their active involvement. We don’t wave a magic wand, we actively engage with the mind, body and nervous system to create the necessary changes.
The work I do is about helping people develop tools to navigate their own inner world and access their own resources, understanding and wisdom. Ultimately, the goal is for people to feel more confident in their own process and realize that many of the answers they seek are already within them.
Angela Stubbs: If many of these patterns live outside of consciousness, what happens below the level of the thinking mind?
We tend to think that if we understand something intellectually, we should be able to change it. But most of our behavior and emotional responses are shaped by processes that occur outside of conscious thought.
Juliana Sloan: Many of the patterns that people struggle with operate outside of consciousness. We tend to think that if we understand something intellectually, we should be able to change it. But most of our behavior and emotional responses are shaped by processes that occur outside of conscious thought.
Over time, repeated experiences form strong patterns in the mind and nervous system. These patterns can become automatic, even to the point that they start to just feel like part of who we are. Even if someone understands the scheme, they can still find themselves drawn into it again and again.
Awareness can help us recognize what is going on, but the deeper conditioning that drives these patterns may still be at work underneath.
In many ways, consciousness is only a small part of what shapes our experience. If we work only at this level, we leave much of the mind untouched.
Angela Stubbs: You use the word often trans in your work. For readers who may not be familiar with this idea, what do you mean trans?
Juliana Sloan: When people hear the word trance, they often imagine something unusual or mysterious. And it certainly may seem magical, but that doesn’t mean it’s not available. Trance is actually a very natural state of consciousness that people go in and out of all the time.
People’s ideas about hypnosis usually come from stage shows or old models where someone seems to “take control” of another person’s mind. But modern hypnotherapy work doesn’t work like that. Hypnosis is much more collaborative and empowering than people often think. A person entering a trance remains aware and involved in the process at all times.
For example, if you are completely absorbed in a movie or book and lose track of time, this is a kind of trance state. Your attention becomes focused, and the usual analytical thinking of the mind quiets down.
At such times, the mind becomes more open to images, emotions, intuition, and deeper layers of experience. In trance-based practices, we intentionally work with a state of focused awareness so that people can explore the deeper layers of their own inner experience.
Angela Stubbs: There are many misconceptions about hypnosis. What do people often misunderstand about it?
Juliana Sloane: People’s ideas about hypnosis usually come from stage shows or old models where someone seems to “take control” of another person’s mind.
But modern hypnotherapy work doesn’t work like that. Hypnosis is much more collaborative and empowering than people often think. A person entering a trance remains aware and involved in the process at all times.
What happens is that the analytical mind starts to relax a bit. We begin to get out of our own way, which allows the deeper layers of the mind and our own consciousness to become more accessible.
Rather than controlling someone, the practitioner helps to create the conditions in which the person can explore their inner experience in a different way and become an active agent of change in their subconscious.
In many modern contexts, we think of imagination as something childish or frivolous. But imagination is actually one of the most powerful ways the mind communicates.
Angela Stubbs: You talk about the role of imagination in this work. This can be surprising for people who tend to think of imagination as something unreal.
Juliana Sloan: In many modern contexts, we think of imagination as something childish or frivolous. But imagination is actually one of the most powerful ways the mind communicates.
During a focused meditative or hypnotic process, things like images, metaphors, and archetypes are often imbued with meaning. These are not just run-of-the-mill “our imaginations,” rather they are symbols encoded by our beliefs, experiences, worldviews, memories, and more. In our daily lives, we often gloss over the power it has. When people enter a hypnotic or trance-like state, these latent metaphors, somatic experiences and images naturally arise for us to actively work with.
Instead of dismissing these experiences as “just imagination,” we can begin to see them as powerful tools. Sometimes these experiences point us to deeper emotional patterns and allow us to more fully process and integrate our experiences. Sometimes they allow us to experience what it’s like to overcome obstacles or respond differently to things that previously caused anxiety, self-doubt, or fear. For example, professional athletes do this all the time when they are mentally rehearsing to break a record or perform at their best. Yours the brain it doesn’t really make that much of a difference whether you’re shooting the basket or planning to shoot the basket – it takes that information and works with it. So when you work with a hypnotherapist, you use these tools to help your mind, body and nervous system explore and integrate new possibilities and ways of being.
Angela Stubbs: How do you see this work relating to the practice of mindfulness?
Juliana Sloan: I don’t see this work as a substitute for mindfulness practice. In fact, I think mindfulness creates the foundation for this to be possible in the first place.
Meditation helps people develop awareness of their thoughts, embodied experiences, emotions and patterns. This awareness is incredibly valuable because you can’t work with something if you don’t notice it.
It often happens that when people develop a meditation practice, they begin to clearly notice patterns in their thinking, reactions, and approach to the world. They find that they can clearly observe these patterns, but it doesn’t necessarily change things in their daily lives.
Practices that engage the deeper layers of the mind can allow people to explore in a different way what might be underneath these patterns. Rather than replacing mindfulness, such work can deepen the process from which mindfulness begins.
Practices that engage the deeper layers of the mind can allow people to explore in a different way what might be underneath these patterns. Rather than replacing mindfulness, such work can deepen the process from which mindfulness begins.
Angela Stubbs: Are there indications that something emerging in practice might warrant deeper investigation?
Juliana Sloan: This often happens when a pattern—such as anxiety, self-criticism, or recurring problems with work, relationships, or life—continues to manifest itself over and over again, even when someone is well aware of it.
A person can recognize a pattern during meditation or therapy. They understand where it’s coming from and can see it happening in real time. But despite this awareness, it keeps happening.
Sometimes this can be a signal that a pattern is taking root in deeper layers of the mind or nervous system.
These moments can be an invitation to explore the pattern in a different way and to approach it with curiosity rather than trying to force it to change through understanding alone.
Editor’s note:
In an upcoming article for Mindful, Juliana Sloan explores how meditation and hypnosis practices can support people with chronic illness, including how these approaches can help people deal differently with the pain, fatigue, and emotional challenges associated with long-term illness. Follow our home page.
