There is growing evidence that subliminal self-help messages can have a powerful impact on our lives by changing how we think about ourselves and interact with others, as well as how we understand and experience the world.

An article in Psychology Today reports that our unconscious is a lot smarter than we think. “That’s why, if we approach it right, subliminal messages work,” claims Joel Weinberger, Ph.D. “When the data is analyzed, the subliminal message has an effect almost as strong as a year’s worth of school instruction has on reading.”

A subliminal message is any message perceived below the threshold of conscious recognition. In a study conducted at the Yale School of Public Health in 2015, researchers exposed a group of older adults to a series of positive subliminal messages. The striking result was that the participants decreased their negative perceptions of aging and exhibited higher levels of physical functioning.

Via a study at the University of Kent, subliminal cues have also been found to give high-performance athletes an extra edge.

Until a 2007 study at the University College of London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), skeptical scientists doubted the impact of subliminal self-help because they couldn’t observe the effects of the phenomenon on the human brain. In the 2007 study, there is solid evidence that we are also conscious of what we are not attending to, which means that messages we are not even aware of do affect us. It also means that the potential exists to rewire our brains with subliminal messages.

Richardt Ulrich, a Naples-based acupuncturist with hypnosis experience, is the creator of the free ReWired app, which helps users relax, meditate, quit smoking, increase self-esteem and improve athletic performance, as well as other benefits. Available for download at the Apple App Store, any personalized message or a mantra in any language can be recorded by the user and played on a loop in the background while listening to favorite music, podcast or workout mix. For more information or to order, visit ReWiredApp.com.