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When you access the subconscious mind you tap into a power which can significantly enhance your capabilities and awareness. However many people are unaware that the subconscious mind exists or how it functions. Below you will learn what the subconscious mind is how it differs from the conscious mind. You will also the rules that govern the operation the subconscious mind and why these are very important for gaining control over your life.

What is the Subconscious Mind?

What is the Subconscious Mind: the store
By: dierk schaefer
What is the Subconscious Mind: the storehouse

The subconscious mind is the storehouse of all those things which do not take place in the conscious mind. It includes your experiences and memories, the skills and habits that you have formed and your beliefs and emotions. Your subconscious mind also takes care of important tasks performed by your body such as breathing and circulation.

An analogy that many people find useful when thinking about the subconscious mind is to think of a computer program. When you enter a certain input into the computer the program will run and you will get an outcome. This is also true of the subconscious mind. If for example you are giving a speech then a program will run in your mind. This program includes the emotion of fear because a past experience that you encountered which has linked this with speaking in public. This may not be a helpful emotion which is why we seek to gain control over the programs that run in our subconscious mind.

Breathing and the Subconscious Mind

One of the easiest ways to think about the difference between the subconscious and the conscious mind is breathing. At certain times we become aware of our breathing and attempt to consciously control it. Perhaps we want to hold our breath under water or we are attempting to calm ourselves with breathing exercises. However even if we are not consciously aware of controlling our breath we still manage to breath quite comfortably all the same.

The subconscious part of our brain controls the function of breathing virtually all of the time. Imagine if we had to consciously constantly concentrate on our own breathing in order breath. It would be almost impossible to manage all of the other tasks that we need to do through out the day. There are countless processes that the subconscious mind takes care of for us throughout the day so that we can consciously concentrate on specific tasks.

Understanding how the subconscious mind operates

how the subconscious mind operates
By: digitalbob8What is the Subconscious Mind: ego protection patterns limit your potential

In order to gain some degree of control over your subconscious mind you first need to understand how it operates. One of the most important aspects of the subconscious mind is that it will always attempt to do what it thinks it needs to protect you. This means both protecting you from physical danger but also emotional danger as well. Above we saw how many people have a fear based program which runs in their subconscious brain when they have to give a speech in public. Often people will have had an experience when they were younger when they had to give a speech. They may have felt embarrassed or uncomfortable or perhaps they were even teased. As a result the subconscious mind now seeks to protect them from some emotional distress whenever the chance to give a speech arises. The subconscious mind will tell you that giving a speech is a bad idea and to be avoided. While it is seeking to protect you it may also be limiting your potential. These kinds of ego protection patterns can be formed in many areas of our lives including our relationships or how we value certain things such as money.

Increasing your awareness with the subconscious mind

The subconscious mind is also often aware of things that the conscious mind is not. In the book the “Gift of Fear” by psychoanalyst Gavin De Becker, he describes how a victim of crime was aware subconsciously that something was wrong but chose to ignore it because the conscious mind said that responding would not be socially responsible. When we talk about instinct or the internal warning system what we are really referring to is our subconscious. If we can become more attuned to our subconscious we can develop a much more attuned to our surroundings.