S Is For Subconscious

S is for Subconscious

Early in this alphabetic progression, we encountered the conscious mind (C Is For Conscious). Let's review a little.

Thought is the language of the conscious mind. It is the conscious mind that knows that it knows. It acts upon what it “knows”. Thus, the conscious mind governs intentionality; it controls our voluntary thoughts, actions, and processes. Unfortunately, the conscious mind can juggle only 7 or so bits of information at one time and deals only with the “now”. It neither remembers the past nor looks to the future.

If you have ever had a person's name on the tip of your tongue but were unable to remember it or if you have ever suffered from “information overload”, you have experienced the limitations of the conscious mind.

Like the subway runs under the sidewalks and roadways of a city, so the subconscious runs under the conscious mind.

But to get a better understanding of the relationship between the conscious and the subconscious mind, envision a very small town with one street and seven building sites. Underneath this tiny town is a labyrinthine maze of passageways and stops along the way that stretches as far as the (mind's)eye can see in every direction. The town is the conscious mind, which makes up only 10% of our mind. The maze is the subconscious which makes up the other 90%.

The “sites” in the maze of your subconscious may well include a large “city dump”, but it also includes a museum in which all the treasures of your past reside, a hospital (it is your subconcious that keeps your heart beating and your lungs breathing), and an airport from which you can take off for all sorts of dreams and futures.

As large and complex as it is, the subconscious mind also has its limitations. For instance, the subconscious mind lacks awareness. It knows, but very often it doesn't know that it knows. Furthermore, while the subconscious juggles the past and dreams the future, it doesn't always do well with the now.

For instance, the subconscious may “know” that when you were a young child, you had problems with toilet training that drove your parents wild. When you had an accident, your parents, in their frustration, may have said you were a bad boy or girl. Your subconscious will remember that, but forget that “now” you are a lot older and you haven't had that kind of an accident in a long, long time. It (You) still thinks of you(rself) as a bad boy or girl.

You see, while “thought” is the language of the conscious mind, “emotion” is the language of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind lacks awareness of current reality. It merely 'reacts' to emotions that may well be (and often are) outdated, like the emotion of shame over those accidents.

The ever-practical conscious mind, once it becomes aware of these subconscious emotions, has the ability to recognize what is really going on at the subconscious level. It can discover why certain stimuli cause us to act or think or react in certain ways in the here and now.

This is important. Remember, the subconscious doesn't deal well with the here and now. Because of this “blindspot” -- current reality – your subconscious mind can receive thoughts from your conscious mind and take the orders you give it based upon what your conscious mind believes and accepts as true.

This means that you can take the negative scripts and self-limiting beliefs that have been stored in your subconscious (where memory resides) and expose them to the cold, hard, now-centered analysis of the conscious mind, and expunge them because they are no longer true (if they ever were) and your conscious mind does not believe them.

In fact, you can “trick” your mind into believing what you want it to believe. Say you tell your conscious mind that you don't want that chocolate cake that is sitting in front of you oozing calories. Your conscious mind doesn't remember that you crave chocolate like your lungs crave air. It says to (your)self, “Oh, okay, you don't want the cake.” Meanwhile, your subconscious remembers all too well that you love chocolate and it's jumping up and down and yelling “Gimme! Gimme!”

Your conscious mind is solemnly shaking its head and saying, “Uh-huh, you don't want cake. You don't even like chocolate,” and your subconscious mind is saying, “Yes, I do! I do! Or – I did. You mean I don't now? Okay, if you say so. My, that celery looks good!”

This is a comic scenario, but the point is that emotions (the language of the subconscious) are triggered by your thoughts, which are the language of the conscious mind. If you control your thoughts, you can control your emotional response to them.

The synergy of the conscious/subconscious mind is that if you ramp up your positive emotions and play down your negative emotions, you can also control your thoughts, which help you control your emotions, which help you control your thoughts, which – help you create the kind of life you want to live!