No one really knows for sure exactly how much of our mind is conscious and subconscious. It’s popular to say that it’s roughly 10% Conscious and the remaining 90% is Subconscious. It might be more like 5% and 95%. It’s even been said that only a fraction of 1% is dedicated to Conscious and the remainder is Subconscious.
What’s important to understand is simply that our Subconscious Mind is much more powerful than our Conscious Mind. It’s the Subconscious Mind that basically controls all of your habits and emotions that you would like to change through Hypnosis.
Before you can truly understand how to change the Subconscious Minds programming, it’s important to understand the functions of each part of your mind.
The Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is working right now as you are reading this. It is that part of you that is aware of what is going on right now. Choices and decisions are made by the conscious mind.
Functions of the Conscious Mind:
•
Short‐term Memory – This is the memory we refer to throughout the day as we function. Where did I put the car keys? Where am I going today? What did I eat today? What is that phone number?
•
Analyze information – It evaluates the information or situation that has our attention at the present moment.
•
Make Decisions and choices – Who should I call first? Should I buy this? What should I watch on TV? What should I wear?
•
Exercise Willpower – Today I will eat healthy. Just one more push up. I will resist smoking.
One thing to understand about willpower is that it is only there to get you through the short term. It is not the most effective way to change a long‐term, deeply rooted program. Because over time, your subconscious programming will generally over take any of your efforts supported only by mere will power. It’s simply not more powerful than the subconscious mind and that is why people tend to fail to keep those promises they make to themselves to change.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind, which accounts for AT LEAST 90% of our mind, can be compared to a computer in that it stores the data for all the experiences we have ever had. It is unlike the conscious in that it does not analyze or rationalize. You are communicating with the subconscious mind when you dream. Do you ever have dreams that don’t really make any logical sense?
Functions of the Subconscious Mind
•
Autonomic Nervous System: The ANS affects heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, perspiration, diameter of the pupils, urination, sexual arousal, and virtually every function of the body. Whereas most of its actions are involuntary, some, such as breathing, work in tandem with the conscious mind.
•
Servant: The subconscious mind will do whatever we ask it to do. There are no limits to what our subconscious mind will do for us—only the limits we place upon it (and ourselves) through the beliefs (programs) we have created during our lives. If we have a belief that it's not likely that we'll ever be rich, our subconscious will do everything in its power to see that our belief comes true for us. The subconscious mind does not discriminate when it comes to thoughts and feelings; it responds to fearful thoughts as well as loving thoughts.
•
Emotions: When you get triggered to feel anxiety or anger or fear, it is coming from your subconscious mind. When you love someone or feel sad and lonely or happy, this too is generated by your subconscious mind. Emotions are not rational and sometimes you can’t explain why you feel a certain way about something. While our emotions come from our subconscious mind, they do work in tandem with our conscious mind where our perceptions are formed. So, we do have control of our emotions because we have control over how we choose to think. How we choose to think however, is influenced by subconscious programming. So, we are using willpower when we choose to think differently. In order to change how we think permanently, we have to change our subconscious programming.
•
Habits/Programs: We get our programs and our habits through experience of daily life. Also through repetition. An example of a program is learning to drive. When you first learned to drive, you had to be extremely aware, utilizing your conscious mind. Now that you have driven probably 1000’s of times, it is ingrained in your subconscious mind and you don’t even think about it anymore. This frees up your conscious mind to think about other things while your subconscious mind performs the task of driving. Same thing with the habit of eating, drinking, or smoking. Whether the habits you have are negative or positive, they are strongly set in place and you will always continue to reinforce those habits, until you re‐program your subconscious mind to do something else.
•
Imagination/Creativity/Intuition: When you get an extraordinary thought, a new idea, a hunch about something. You are in touch with the creative part of your subconscious mind.
•
Long‐Term Memory: Another place where we are influenced unknowingly in our day to day life is through our long‐term memory. Our subconscious mind is a vast storage center of every experience you have ever had. It remembers everything you have ever thought, done, said, felt, experienced. There is simply no way to erase old memories. Many of our perceptions are influenced because of our long‐term memory. Your subconscious mind has a tendency to compare new information with the old information and this is another reason why it’s so hard for people to change, because it tends to like everything to stay the same. That is its way of protecting you, which is another part of its job.
Excerpted from "Self-hypnosis step by step" by the genius Victoria Gallagher
What’s important to understand is simply that our Subconscious Mind is much more powerful than our Conscious Mind. It’s the Subconscious Mind that basically controls all of your habits and emotions that you would like to change through Hypnosis.
Before you can truly understand how to change the Subconscious Minds programming, it’s important to understand the functions of each part of your mind.
The Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is working right now as you are reading this. It is that part of you that is aware of what is going on right now. Choices and decisions are made by the conscious mind.
Functions of the Conscious Mind:
•
Short‐term Memory – This is the memory we refer to throughout the day as we function. Where did I put the car keys? Where am I going today? What did I eat today? What is that phone number?
•
Analyze information – It evaluates the information or situation that has our attention at the present moment.
•
Make Decisions and choices – Who should I call first? Should I buy this? What should I watch on TV? What should I wear?
•
Exercise Willpower – Today I will eat healthy. Just one more push up. I will resist smoking.
One thing to understand about willpower is that it is only there to get you through the short term. It is not the most effective way to change a long‐term, deeply rooted program. Because over time, your subconscious programming will generally over take any of your efforts supported only by mere will power. It’s simply not more powerful than the subconscious mind and that is why people tend to fail to keep those promises they make to themselves to change.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind, which accounts for AT LEAST 90% of our mind, can be compared to a computer in that it stores the data for all the experiences we have ever had. It is unlike the conscious in that it does not analyze or rationalize. You are communicating with the subconscious mind when you dream. Do you ever have dreams that don’t really make any logical sense?
Functions of the Subconscious Mind
•
Autonomic Nervous System: The ANS affects heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, perspiration, diameter of the pupils, urination, sexual arousal, and virtually every function of the body. Whereas most of its actions are involuntary, some, such as breathing, work in tandem with the conscious mind.
•
Servant: The subconscious mind will do whatever we ask it to do. There are no limits to what our subconscious mind will do for us—only the limits we place upon it (and ourselves) through the beliefs (programs) we have created during our lives. If we have a belief that it's not likely that we'll ever be rich, our subconscious will do everything in its power to see that our belief comes true for us. The subconscious mind does not discriminate when it comes to thoughts and feelings; it responds to fearful thoughts as well as loving thoughts.
•
Emotions: When you get triggered to feel anxiety or anger or fear, it is coming from your subconscious mind. When you love someone or feel sad and lonely or happy, this too is generated by your subconscious mind. Emotions are not rational and sometimes you can’t explain why you feel a certain way about something. While our emotions come from our subconscious mind, they do work in tandem with our conscious mind where our perceptions are formed. So, we do have control of our emotions because we have control over how we choose to think. How we choose to think however, is influenced by subconscious programming. So, we are using willpower when we choose to think differently. In order to change how we think permanently, we have to change our subconscious programming.
•
Habits/Programs: We get our programs and our habits through experience of daily life. Also through repetition. An example of a program is learning to drive. When you first learned to drive, you had to be extremely aware, utilizing your conscious mind. Now that you have driven probably 1000’s of times, it is ingrained in your subconscious mind and you don’t even think about it anymore. This frees up your conscious mind to think about other things while your subconscious mind performs the task of driving. Same thing with the habit of eating, drinking, or smoking. Whether the habits you have are negative or positive, they are strongly set in place and you will always continue to reinforce those habits, until you re‐program your subconscious mind to do something else.
•
Imagination/Creativity/Intuition: When you get an extraordinary thought, a new idea, a hunch about something. You are in touch with the creative part of your subconscious mind.
•
Long‐Term Memory: Another place where we are influenced unknowingly in our day to day life is through our long‐term memory. Our subconscious mind is a vast storage center of every experience you have ever had. It remembers everything you have ever thought, done, said, felt, experienced. There is simply no way to erase old memories. Many of our perceptions are influenced because of our long‐term memory. Your subconscious mind has a tendency to compare new information with the old information and this is another reason why it’s so hard for people to change, because it tends to like everything to stay the same. That is its way of protecting you, which is another part of its job.
Excerpted from "Self-hypnosis step by step" by the genius Victoria Gallagher
