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As we know that more than 90 % of our life is controlled by our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is a neutral mind, it doesn’t understand what is good for us and what is not. It is our conscious mind, which knows all this. So it becomes vital to know the power of our conscious mind as it acts as a tool to reprogram our subconscious mind. It helps us to change or replace our various limiting or false beliefs with growth-oriented beliefs for several aspects of life like personal, social, financial, professional, etc.
The below excerpt on the conscious mind is from ‘The Biology of Belief’ by Bruce Lipton.
The evolution of higher mammals, including chimps, cetaceans, and humans, brought forth a new level of awareness called “self-consciousness,” or, simply, the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is our “autopilot”; the conscious mind is our manual control.
Processing Capacity
For example, if a ball comes near your eye, the slower conscious mind may not have time to be aware of the threatening projectile. Yet the subconscious mind, which processes some 20,000,000 environmental stimuli per second v. 40 environmental stimuli interpreted by the conscious mind in the same second, will cause the eye to blink. (Norretranders 1998). The subconscious mind, one of the most powerful information processors known, specifically observes both the surrounding world and the body’s internal awareness, reads the environmental cues, and immediately engages in previously acquired (learned) behaviors—all without the help, supervision, or even awareness of the conscious mind.
Visualizing the information-processing powers of the conscious and subconscious minds. Consider that the image of Machu Picchu above is comprised of 20,000,000 pixel dots, each representing a BIT of information received by the nervous system in one second. How much of that information enters the conscious mind?
In the lower picture, the dot represents the total amount of information that is processed by the conscious mind. (Actually, the dot is 10X more than enters consciousness, I had to enlarge it because it was barely visible.) In contrast, the powerful subconscious mind processes all the remaining incoming information (the black area) in the same second.
Two Mind – Dynamic Duo
The two minds make a dynamic duo. Operating together, the conscious mind can use its resources to focus on some specific point, such as the party you are going to on Friday night. Simultaneously, your subconscious mind can be safely pushing the lawn mower around and successfully not cutting off your foot or running over the cat—even though you are not consciously paying attention to mowing the lawn.
The two minds also cooperate in acquiring very complex behaviors that can subsequently be unconsciously managed. Remember the first day you excitedly sat in the driver’s seat of a car, preparing to learn how to drive? The number of things that had to be dealt with by the conscious mind was staggering. While keeping your eyes on the road, you had to also watch the rear and side-view mirrors; pay attention to the speedometer and other gauges; use two feet for the three pedals of a standard shift vehicle; and try to be calm, cool, and collected as you drove past observing peers. It took what seemed to be a long time before all these behaviors were “programmed” into your mind.
Today, you get in the car, turn the ignition on, and consciously review your shopping list as the subconscious mind dutifully engages all the complex skills you need to successfully navigate through the city—without even once having to think about the mechanics of driving.
I know I am not the only one out there who has experienced this. You are driving and having a delightful discussion with the passenger sitting next to you. In fact, your consciousness gets so caught up in the conversation, that somewhere down the road it dawns on you that you haven’t even paid attention to your driving for five minutes. After a momentary start, you realize that you are still on your side of the road and steadily moving along with the flow of traffic. If you weren’t consciously driving the car during that time, then who was? The subconscious mind! And how well did it do? Although you didn’t observe its behavior, the subconscious mind apparently performed just as well as it was taught during your driver’s education experience.
Conscious Mind Step In
In addition to facilitating subconscious habitual programs, the conscious mind also has the power to be spontaneously creative in its responses to environmental stimuli. In its self-reflective capacity, the conscious mind can observe behaviors as they’re being carried out. As a pre-programmed behavior is unfolding, the observing conscious mind can step in, stop the behavior, and create a new response. Thus the conscious mind offers us free will, meaning we are not just victims of our programming. We can change our pre-programmed behavior using our conscious mind. Subconscious programming takes over the moment your conscious mind is not paying attention.
Who is Running the Show?
The conscious mind can also think forward and backward in time, while the subconscious mind is always operating in the present moment. When the conscious is busy daydreaming, creating future plans, or reviewing past life experiences, the subconscious is always on duty, efficiently managing the behaviors required at the moment, without the need of conscious supervision.
The two minds are truly a phenomenal mechanism, but here is how it can go awry. The conscious mind is the “self,” the voice of our own thoughts. It can have great visions and plans for a future filled with love, health, happiness, and prosperity. While we focus our consciousness on happy thoughts, who is running the show? The subconscious. How is the subconscious going to manage our affairs? Precisely the way it was programmed.
The subconscious mind’s behaviors when we are not paying attention may not be of our own creation because most of our fundamental behaviors were downloaded without question from observing other people. Because subconscious-generated behaviors are not generally observed by the conscious mind, many people are stunned to hear that they are “just like their mom or their dad,” the people who programmed their subconscious minds.
Way Ahead
The learned behaviors and beliefs acquired from other people, such as parents, peers, and teachers, may not support the goals of our conscious mind. The biggest hindrances to realizing the successes of which we dream are the limitations programmed into the subconscious. These limitations not only influence our behavior but can also play a major role in determining our physiology and health.
This duality of mind can offer a wonderful advantage for our lives. Consider it this way: what if we had conscious parents and teachers who served as wonderful life models, always engaging in humane and win-win relations with everyone in the community? If our subconscious mind were programmed with such healthy behaviors, we could be totally successful in our lives without ever being conscious!
“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”- Mahatma Gandhi
