Simplified, your mind is comprised of your conscious mind and subconscious mind. The conscious mind controls about 10-12% of your functions, while your subconscious mind operates at about 88-90% of your functions. Your conscious mind is the part of your mind that is responsible for logic and reasoning. Suppose you are asked, “What time is it?” It is your conscious mind that is going to be used to actually look at a clock or your watch to determine the time.
Your conscious mind controls all of your actions that you intentionally do while being conscious. For example, when you decide to do any voluntary action like talking to someone or giving someone a high five, it is done by your conscious mind.
In other words, whenever you are aware of the thing you’re doing (talking to someone, giving a high-five), you can be confident that you are most likely doing it using your conscious mind. Another way to consider is if you are outside and it is hot, and you are thirsty and decide to go inside and get a drink of water, the actual process of going to get a drink of water will be done by your conscious mind because you were 100% conscious (aware of) while doing it.
Your conscious mind is also known as the gatekeeper for your mind. If someone tried to tell you something, something that didn’t align or agree with your belief system, then your conscious mind will attempt to filter that belief and reject it if it doesn’t agree.
For example, if you were called names as a child growing up (fatso, stupid, dummy, ugly), these labels would be stored in your subconscious mind. Then years later, you became what people described as “slim”, “smart, “attractive”. You would most likely have challenges or difficulty having someone giving you such positive compliments because what you would be hearing (You look amazing. Wow, you are so smart and attractive!) would not align or agree with your belief system (what you have been told and recorded growing up).
Conversely, your subconscious mind is the part of your mind (88-90%) responsible for all of your involuntary actions. For example, you do not “think” about controlling your heartbeat, your breathing rate, or your blood pressure; these, and millions of other things, are controlled by your subconscious mind. Those processes are happening unconsciously, or on auto-pilot, per se’.
Your subconscious mind also houses and controls your emotions. For example, have you ever felt anxious, afraid, or sad, even though you (consciously) didn’t want to feel that way? That is, you attempted to think and control your emotions, but continued to be in that emotional state of mind. Your subconscious mind is also where your beliefs and memories are stored. Interestingly, that is why simply posting and repeating affirmations very often never improve your beliefs. Affirmations are done on a conscious level and are more so temporary reminders, and are always filtered out by the subconscious mind because they usually don’t match your belief system.
The right way to change a belief that is not benefiting you (also known as a limiting belief) is to convince the conscious mind logically to accept it so that it can pass to the subconscious mind and reside there. Think of the subconscious mind as the storage room of everything that is currently not in your conscious mind.
The subconscious mind stores all of your previous life experiences, your beliefs, your memories, your skills, every situation that you have been through, and all images you’ve ever seen, every sound you’ve ever heard. Your subconscious mind, in essence,is like a video / audio recorder, recording everything you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. Everything is stored away in your subconscious mind, and even though you may not always or easily be able to access something that happened in the past, you can be assured it’s stored somewhere in your subconscious mind.
Consider this: Have you ever stored a file, anything, on your computer or Mac? You gave the file (whatever you were saving) a name and saved it to some place. Later, you attempted to recall that file, but could not locate it. You were more than sure you stored it and saved it by the name “Johnnies Birthday”, and you searched over and over and over, but could not find it. You try every version of the file name “Johnnies Birthday” that seemed possible and then cross reference files with the word “Birthday”—yet, nothing. Then, as you are just about to have a total melt-down, but are interrupted by the amazing memories of Johnnies birthday party, you then recall that you would have saved the file around the 4th of July, Johnnies birthday. As soon as you order the files by date, to your total disgust, you see a file named “Honnies Virthday” and realize why you couldn’t find the file—because you saved the file with misspelled words and didn’t have the right information to locate the file. Albeit, the file was on the hard drive the whole time; you just were unable to recall enough of the information to locate the file.
In a very similar way, memories are recorded and stored just the way they are experienced; however, if you are unable to consciously recall important pieces of that particular event (who, what, where, when, sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, etc…), it becomes very difficult to locate and recall the experience—despite that experience being recorded and stored in your memory. Conversely, when you are having trouble recalling an experience stored in your memory, the more things you can recall about the event, the easier it becomes to “revivify” and retrieve the experience from your memory. For example, someone asks you if you remember the guy at the party… …and you initially don’t know what the person is talking about and ask, “what guy and what party?” The person gives more information: “That party for my uncle, remember when he turned the big 6-0?” But you are still having difficulty recalling that experience with the guy at the party. The person then excitedly says: “Sure you remember, they were serving that great guacamole… they were playing that one song you really love by Billy WetNoodle… …and that guy I’m talking about ended up passing out and falling into the guacamole bowl!” —and before the person could even finish the sentence, each part of what the person said began to put another piece of the puzzle together of the party, and then just that fast you were (in your mind) right back at the party singing your favorite song by Billy WetNoodle and remembering the guy who fell into the guacamole bowl…
So, how did you go from not being able to recall the guy or the party, to being able to recall the guy, the party, and singing your favorite song by Billy WetNoodle, etc…? In essence, each piece began to restore or “revivify” that experience, and while much of what the person said was initially hazy and you couldn’t remember “the guy”, everything came back vividly once your favorite song by Billy WetNoodle was mentioned because emotions have a much deeper connection to stored experiences. In other words, you might not be able to recall the name of the guy at all, but you can very often remember how you felt that night, how angry you were or how happy you were on the roller coaster, or when your favorite song came on, etc… and then the experience comes to life and is recalled from the memory. The more pieces of the puzzle that can be provided, especially in terms of visual, sound, taste, touch, smell, etc… the easier it is to locate and recall the experience that was stored in your subconscious mind.
Another way to demonstrate an understanding of the subconscious mind is through an example of when you first started to learn how to drive a car. Do you even remember? Pause for a moment and simply think back to when you first learned ow to drive a car. If you recall, in the beginning, if you were like most teens who were driving for the first time; the radio was off, and you were not able to hold a conversation with anyone. If you are honest with yourself, and like the rest of us, you were focusing on all of the different things you had to do (look in the rearview mirror, look at side mirrors, use a turn signal, check speed, keep eyes on the road, watch other cars, check rearview mirror, and more.) Indeed, you were focusing on and using your conscious mind to drive.
Similarly, if you were like the rest of us, only a few short weeks later, the radio was on, you were talking to your friend and laughing as your drove to different places. You were not even concerned about or focusing on all of the things you had to do (look in the rearview mirror, look at side mirrors, use a turn signal, check speed, keep eyes on the road, watch other cars, check the rearview mirror, and more).
Why the change? What happened? Well, after a few weeks of driving, you created a pattern, a habit that began to happen automatically without needing to think about it (unconsciously). Yes, you still checked mirrors, checked the speed, used your turn signals, etc… now, however, it wasn’t being done consciously. You were able to drive without actually having to think (consciously) about all of the things you had to do because the once-conscious driving pattern and behaviors were now moved and stored in your subconscious mind, the place that stores all of the things you do without even being aware you are doing them (breathing, blinking, heart beating, etc…) You were now driving on autopilot, driving without having to think about what you were doing, and so the conscious mind became free to listen to the radio or talk to your friend, etc…
The subconscious mind is also responsible for the automatically triggered feelings and emotions that you suddenly experience upon experiencing a situation. For example, if you were about to give a presentation, in a microsecond, your mind would access your memory (subconscious mind) and ask: Have I seen this, heard this, tasted this, smelled this before? Is this experience familiar? If your mind determined a similar experienced had been stored, your mind would instantaneously pull the memory and roll the tape (play the memory). If you previously had a great or positive experience speaking in front of people, your mind would retrieve that past positive experience and your body would most likely begin to manifest just how you felt back then, with a smile or feeling confident, etc… On the contrary, if you previously had a bad or negative experience speaking in front of people, your mind would retrieve that past negative experience and your body would most likely begin to manifest just how you felt back then, heart racing, fast breathing, sweaty palms, dry throat, and maybe that “butterfly” uneasy feeling in your stomach, etc… Feelings and emotions you might experience are launched and controlled by the previous experiences (memories) stored in your subconscious mind.
How Can You Program Your Subconscious Mind?
When the information about driving is stored in your subconscious mind, it’s stored as a program. For example, think of your mind as a computer and the driving information as the software that can be run automatically whenever needed.
Similarly, this is the same for much of your other activities and emotions. If you feel disrespected, attacked, offended, or hurt by another person, in a microsecond, your mind would access your memory (subconscious mind) and ask: Have I seen this, heard this, tasted this, smelled this before? Is this experience familiar? If your mind determined a similar experienced had been stored, your mind would instantaneously pull the memory and roll the tape (play the memory) of a time you felt disrespected, attacked, offended, or hurt by another person and you would now be responding now, just as you did back then via a fight, flight, or freeze response.
However, if you do not like the way you responded back then or the way you are responding now, programming the subconscious mind with new programs will resolve the internal issues that visibly manifest in your personality. Programming your subconscious mind, as you may know by now, can be done through hypnosis. The subconscious mind learns by repetition and not by logic. Interestingly, this is why you can convince someone to believe in something by repeating your argument again and again rather than using logic, and this is also why you have heard or may have even said, “Sam lies so much he believes his own lies.” Well, the truth is, there is science behind what is said about people believing their own lies.
The great news for you is once you allow someone who specializes in the mind (The Mind Doctor®) to examine your subconscious mind, he will be able to identify the issues, modify or delete the issues (releasing the pain of the past), and then reprogram your mind so you can begin to function how you were originally designed for optimal functioning and relationships!
Your Mind is your most powerful tool you have and EVERYTHING starts in your Mind™ Allow me to change your Mind™.
