Unconscious Mind: Friend or Foe?

Do you remember how hard it was to drive the very first time you got into the driver's seat? Then, years later, you don't even think about driving. Think of the expression "it's like riding a bicycle." Even if you haven't ridden a bicycle in years, you still know how to do it. Imagine how much harder life would be if you had to consciously remember how to do everything from throwing a baseball to even walking!

All those things you learn so well but don't forget live in your unconscious mind (see my previous post on the basics of the conscious and unconscious mind). How do these things get into your unconscious mind? Well, basically conscious repetition and practice. After seeing something enough times, your unconscious basically says: "OK, I got it... I can take it from here!" And your unconscious doesn't only pick up physical duties, but mental ones as well. While part of driving is about how to move your hands and feet and when, another part that your unconscious helps you with is mental tasks such as remembering how far you like to stay behind another vehicle and what certain signs mean to you.

Knowing all that, you could say that your unconscious mind is your best friend! But beware: your best friend has a shadow side! Useful, happy things like sports, driving, and sudoku puzzles are not the only things people tend to practice over and over again. Maybe when you are a little kid, someone you trust calls you useless. You think about it and since you're sure this person knows more than you do, you start to think of yourself as useless. Day after day, you think "I'm useless..." and day after day, your unconscious is listening. Eventually, you grow a little wiser and you eventually decide that you are useful for something after all. You start trying to take better care of yourself but something seems to be holding you back. You say to yourself "I'm useful!" Well, your unconscious mind takes note - Useful:1, useless:4,579. The unconscious mind can't tell the difference between what the conscious mind thinks is good or bad, but it can keep track of how often throughout your life you have thought something and how thoroughly you believed that thought.

This unconscious help applies to physical addictions as well. For a smoker, not only does the body physically want cigarettes, the unconscious mind has been programmed that the thing to do when stress is detected is to pick up that cigarette. Same goes for food addictions: if your grandmother made you chocolate chip cookies every time you were sad, your unconscious might help you develop a sugar craving whenever you feel bad.

So what's the significance of all this? For one, it means that it's wise to be conscious of what you say, think, and do. But there's no reason to panic: it will probably take time for your unconscious mind to help you pay attention to your thoughts. There are also several practices out there that can help you change your unconscious mental patterns without just repeatedly thinking something over and over again (and that works best when you really believe what you're thinking). Once again, I'll cover those another time!

Are you aware of the ways that your unconscious mind is "sabotaging" your life?

Mind Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net