The subconscious mind. We have often heard about the huge role it plays in our life; how important it is in controlling our actions.
This leads us to the question – what is the subconscious mind? And, how to tap into its power? Is training the subconscious mind possible?
Read on to learn more about the subconscious mind and ways to program it to believe in something and get what you want.
What is the subconscious mind?
Our mind is divided into two distinct but connected parts – the conscious mind and subconscious mind.
While the conscious mind controls the critical thought function of the brain, the subconscious mind is the secondary system or the powerful underlying layer of the mind that plays a part in every one of our actions.
The subconscious mind plays multiple roles to connect the dots and make things work smoothly. As the situation demands, it assumes the role of a memory bank, a guidance system, and a processor of information received by the brain.
Where is the subconscious mind located?
In psychoanalytic theory, the location of the subconscious mind is attributed to the limbic system of the brain. This is the part of the brain related to memories, emotion, instinct, and attention among others.
In common parlance, the location of the subconscious mind is said to be at the back of the mind. Not much is known about it, though psychoanalysts like Sigmund Freud have tried to understand its functioning and importance in the overall scheme of things.
How does the subconscious mind work?
In psychoanalysis, the subconscious mind is believed to do the work of assimilating bits and pieces of information reaching the brain, processing them, and passing on relevant information to the conscious mind.
Communication between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind can happen only through emotionally- charged thoughts. This works for positive and negative emotions. In fact, negative emotions have a stronger impact than positive ones.
The subconscious mind is often compared to a wild monkey, running rampage throughout waking hours without getting tired.
Conscious vs subconscious mind
The conscious mind, as the name suggests, is the source or storage area of all emotions, thoughts, memories, wishes, and such like that are present in our awareness. This part of the mind is associated with rational and logical thinking.
On the other hand, the subconscious mind is the storehouse of emotions, thoughts, memories, and urges that lie outside our awareness. The bulk of the content in the subconscious mind is believed to be painful and unpleasant like fear, anxiety, and conflict. These are things we would like to forget but remain in the ‘back of our minds’.
Our desires, wishes, and aspirations are evolved in the conscious mind, while the subconscious mind works in a pre-programmed way on receiving a stimulus. When your conscious mind is not functioning, the subconscious mind takes over your behavior.
The conscious mind is fickle whereas the subconscious mind is stubborn. The conscious mind travels back and forth amongst the past, present, and the future, while the subconscious mind is forever stuck in the present.
How to reprogram your mind?
Our mind is often compared to a runaway train, unable to control its speed or direction. Unfortunately, we cannot let it continue in this fashion for long as it leads to chaos, fatigue, anxiety, anger, and a sense of helplessness.
The first step in taking control of your mind is by tapping into the power of the subconscious mind. Since emotions play a key role in its functioning, eliminating negative emotions, especially negative self-talk, is found to be helpful.
You can use these subconscious mind exercises to train your mind to get what you want from it.
1. Allow yourself an opportunity to succeed:
Give yourself permission to be happy and an opportunity to follow your dreams. If your subconscious mind looks upon success with guilt, try to change that by repeating positive affirmations.
2. Give it a try:
Believing in success is essential but it comes only after you permit yourself a shot at it. Only when you are willing to explore the possibilities, you have a chance to succeed.
3. Don’t allow others to hold you back:
People around you, in their efforts to be helpful, often warn you of the dangers ahead in your path to realizing your dreams. You should not allow them to deter you from your efforts, as these negative outlooks are projections of their situations, having nothing to do with yours.
4. Immerse yourself in a positive environment:
Maintaining a positive frame of mind with positive affirmations, motivational messages, and inspirational quotes can do wonders. A sense of hope can give a big boost to your effort to manifest your dreams.
5. Think of success in the present tense:
Though your effort is to manifest your dream soon, you need to think of success as already realized to make it happen. This means, in your thoughts, affirmations, visualization, and other manifestation exercises, you should refer to the success in the present tense and not in the future tense.
6. Identify and remove your limiting beliefs:
One of the biggest hurdles you will face in your path to success is limiting beliefs. When they are contradictory to your aspirations, it would be hard to reach your goal. Find a way to recognize them and work to eliminate them. Persistence and patience always pay.
7. Start a gratitude journal:
Being thankful for all the blessings in your life can put you in a positive space. This is found to help reduce negative emotions like anxiety, doubt, and dissatisfaction about your present.
8. Do not hesitate to ask for what you want:
This is part of self-belief. If you do not believe in your success, you will entertain doubts and misgivings about it. This may even prevent you from asking for what you want. Believe in yourself and confidently proceed towards your goal.
To learn more, see our article on how to reprogram your subconscious mind while sleeping.
Final thoughts
Your mind holds the key to success and living the life you desire. By mastering the mind programming techniques, you can take charge of your mind to achieve the goal you have set for yourself. With subconscious programming, you can rewire the mind to expect and seek action to bring about happiness, success, contentment, completeness, and healing in your life.
Read more about “Subconscious Mind” in our full article here – Talking to Your Subconscious Mind Before Bed