More and more people are becoming aware that they have two distinct minds–the conscious and the subconscious. We are generally more aware of the conscious mind, because we spend most of our waking hours there, while we spend our sleeping hours in the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is like the tip of the iceberg that you see above the water, while the subconscious is below the surface.
We think, reason, decide, compute, and reason with our conscious mind. That would make it seem indispensable and far superior to whatever the subconscious mind does. And until recently, the vast powers of the subconscious mind remained fairly untapped. As science continues to explore its depths, we continue to learn more about its capacity as the quiet dynamo behind the conscious mind.
Imagine that the subconscious mind as the puppeteer pulling the strings of the conscious mind. It’s like an enormous warehouse storing all the experiences, impressions, ideas, lessons, and beliefs you’ve ever had. It’s like your computer’s hard drive, that is, if you save your data! And back it up. So when the conscious mind needs to make a decision, for example, it pulls up data from its storehouse or hard drive to help make an informed choice. Now all this is pretty much done unconsciously.
That’s where you can start to harness the power of your subconscious mind. By using it consciously and deliberately, to guide and influence you to make the best choices. And you do that by communicating with it. You ask it questions, offer up problems for it to solve, set up goals for it to achieve–so it can get to work to mine its reservoir to create answers, solutions, and actions. When you have a specific outcome you want to achieve–such as finding the ideal home for your family, or overcoming a health challenge–what you need to do is to tell your subconscious mind exactly what you want in full detail.
Then, leave the how to your subconscious. For not only is it a storehouse of all your life experience, it is also connected to an unlimited, infinite source through its connection to the universal mind, just as your computer is connected to millions of computers through the Internet. Initially, you program your subconscious mind through the conscious mind much as we put data on our hard drive. We read books, take courses, experience certain events–and all this gets recorded onto our subconscious mind. However, and this is a big however, a lot of things get programmed into the subconscious accidentally. For example, experiences we didn’t plan on, and thoughts we didn’t choose to entertain, and beliefs we formed based on misperceptions.
So if you are not getting the kinds of results you want in your life, it’s often in the faulty programming of your subconscious mind. The good news is that since you programmed it, whether accidentally or on purpose, you can re-program it at any time, so you can get the results you want. Although scientists have not come up with a way to simply “delete” unwanted thoughts as easily as you can delete files from your computer, you can override unwanted programming with more desired thoughts, ideas, and beliefs.
How you do that is by putting your undivided attention on what you want to accomplish. Think about your goals, visualize your goals, imagine them already achieved. When you hear any background noise in your mind with the old programming, let your new thoughts get louder and louder, until the negative messages get quieter and quieter. Adopt the attitude that you will not fail, that you will succeed, that there is no other option. And if temporary setbacks crop up, keep moving forward to your goals. Setbacks are just the result of your residual old thoughts. As they get quieter and the supportive thoughts get stronger, you will start to see concrete evidence in your results. When you harness the power of your subconscious mind, you are using your mind’s capabilities wisely and powerfully.
This article was written by David B. Bohl - Husband, Father, Friend, Lifestyle Coach, Author, Entrepreneur, and creator of Slow Down FAST.
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Ultimately, success should be measured by the degree to which we are able to discover and become the “true self.” This process of self-discovery and aligning our knowledge with our actions may come as a result of winning the battle of “mind vs. brain.”
Interestingly, this idea of mind over matter is nothing new: Rene Descartes, who famously said, “I think therefore I am,” changed the course of philosophy and science with his ideas of “dualism” more than 600 years ago…
“The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.” ~ Rene Descartes
Great post…
Correction on my previous comment: Descartes actually shared his thoughts on dualism approximately 400 years ago — not 600. On the same subject, I highly recommend his “Meditations on First Philosophy” for those of you who are interested in more of his thoughts on “mind vs. brain.”
Cheers…
If most people would learn to tap into their subconscious mind, they could achieve great things with proper use. It’s sad that so many people go through life with negative use of the subconscious mind through negative autosuggestion.
Hi
I like the way you have captured and presented this topic.
We so much need to reprogramme our unbenificial ways of thinking and turnaround our negative beliefs. For so long we have continously fed ourselves concepts that just don’t serve us and to turn them around requires contsant work. Like you say, the constant focus on the positive.
And affirmations help too. We talk alot about these on our website and have developed a (free) application for using them. (sorry for the advert, but it’s just so useful and beneficial for all)
I think it is also important to really get into the FEELING of where you want to be in life. Emotions such as joy and excitement and freedom etc.
Thanks for a good topic.
Cheers
Juliet
Wow! Very nice article and one of my favorite topics.
The subconscious mind is also known as the emotional mind. Therefore, one of the more important “tools” in the toolbox for subconscious programming is to add ‘emotion’ to your thoughts.
Do you want to super charge your subconscious mind for accelerated results?
Then add feeling, passion, excitement, wonder and joy to all of your thoughts. This will add the jet fuel needed to reinforce yourself as a deliberate creator.
“We are what we think; as we desire so do we become! By our thoughts, desires, and habits, we either ascend to the full divine dignity of our nature, or we descend to suffer and learn.”- J. Todd Ferrier
Hi David,
The power of our subconscious mind is tremendously powerful. If we can tap into it and use it to our advantage, the benefit we can get from it would be magnificent.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
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Great… At night it great to make a list of all the things you are grateful for before you go to sleep. This way when you lay down you are focused on positivity. Changing your mindset is necessary to achieve a positive attitude and unleash the true power of our subconscious mind.
David, great post. You’re right, when we focus our attention on our goals and don’t allow ourselves to become distracted they we can achieve our dreams. Thanks for sharing this post with us.
[…] harnessing the power of your subconscious mind Good points about how to “program” your subconscious mind to get what you want […]
Wow!
Another article brimming with positivity and practical advice and stimulating ideas. What a contrast to the work environment I am about to enter this morning.
I believe we can become more conscious of our subconscious mind during meditation but am rather uninitiated about a lot of the details. How about “meditation and the subconsious mind” an article heading on this blog from one of you guys who knows a lot about this topic?
Don’t blame it on the supposedly miswired unconscious too soon! Preoccupation and selective attention may simply block incoming information to reaching the central processor. Simply sensing what we sense and knowing what we know can ‘rewire’ us. Positive feedback will follow when we know what we sense, and others agree with that.
[…] Harnessing the Power of Your Subconscious Mind […]
Nice article. It’s a challenge wiring the mind to positivity. It can definitely be done. When I meditate I notice I feel calmer and more positive. With meditation is a battle of emptying negative feelings and images.