Know Your Mind

Your mind is made up of your conscious and subconscious. Each has an important part to play and, by knowing how to use each part to your advantage, you can change your life for the better. Some people get confused between the brain itself and the mind. Does the mind reside inside the brain? If you look at a diagram of the brain, you will notice several parts labelled, such as the hypothalamus and the prefrontal lobe, for instance. You may also notice that there are no labels for the conscious or subconscious mind. This is because, although certain parts of the brain fire up when people perform various tasks, or when they are dreaming, scientists still don’t know which part of the brain the mind fits into and even if the mind resides inside the brain at all! What we do know, is that there are two distinct parts that are responsible for different functions.

Parts of the Mind

Conscious mind

The conscious mind is the logical mind. It is the part we use for tasks that require intense concentration such as calculating complex mathematical equations or learning a language. It is also important for our survival; If we are in danger we use our conscious mind to help us get out of a dangerous situation – we need to be alert.

It is this part of the mind that people tend to think about most when it comes to improving one’s life. If you want to go further in life, you may enroll on a training course and spend hours learning new skills that will help you to achieve your goals. To a certain extent this is true, but did you know that your conscious mind can also stop you from achieving your goals?

Sometimes, we have inbuilt beliefs that can limit our progress. I will discuss this when I talk about the subconscious mind as those beliefs are stored there. We need to remove these limiting beliefs if we want to progress in life. One way we can do this is to use affirmations, which I will also discuss separately. Unfortunately the conscious mind can stop affirmations from working and this can seriously hold you back.

The Subconscious mind

There is so much I can say about this part of the mind that I could write a book about it!  This part of the mind is the part that is hidden. You use it when you dream and when you let your imagination roam free. It likes to work in symbols and so this is why you often need a dream dictionary to make sense of your dreams.

The subconscious is like a huge filing cabinet. Everything that has happened to you is stored there, even if you can’t remember it. Your conscious mind can only store a limited amount of information so, once it is forgotten, it gets passed to the subconscious. This part of the mind is so powerful that it can pick up on things that your conscious mind may have missed. If you have ever watched Criminal Minds or Derren Brown, you will be aware of a recall technique that taps into the power of the subconscious mind to help you recall useful information. The FBI has used this technique to help witnesses recall more than they thought they could remember. The trick is to close your eyes and think back to the time of the crime. You will then need to think about everything you saw, heard, felt and so on, so that it is a full sensory experience. Subjects have been able to recall signs on walls and other information they hadn’t noticed consciously.

I love the subconscious mind as, used properly, it can help you change your life. Unfortunately, if you’re not aware of the power it has, your subconscious can also cause problems.

If you have had negative childhood experiences, or you’ve stored beliefs that aren’t serving you any more, such as ‘you’ll never amount to anything’ then you will subconsciously be letting these beliefs ruin your life.

If you think this could be happening to you take a look at some of our other posts about limiting beliefs or click HERE to book a hypnotherapy or coaching session to help you remove those blocks that are holding you back.