How does your mind work? What are its different aspects? How do they work together to create your reality?
Having answers to these questions about your mind can help you be healthier, happier, and more confident.
Did you know that you are unaware of 90-95% of what goes on in your mind? You live and exist primarily in your conscious mind, which is the part of your mind of which you ARE aware. It gives the orders, like the captain of a ship. It is also that part of you that you tend to identify with as being “me”.
Your conscious mind communicates to your inner self and the outer world through speech, pictures, writing, physical movement, and thought. But, did you know that it is only about 5-10% of your brain activity? I bet it seems much larger than that, doesn’t it?
An estimated 50-60% of your brain capacity is what is called subconscious or preconscious. Your subconscious mind is in charge of your recent memories, and is in continuous contact with the resources of your unconscious mind.
Your unconscious mind is the remaining 30-40% of your brain capacity. All memories and past experiences, including repressed trauma, and those simply consciously forgotten or no longer important to you, are stored in the unconscious. Your beliefs, habits, and behaviors are formed from those memories and experiences.
Your unconscious and conscious mind are in constant communication with each other via your subconscious. Your unconscious mind provides you with meaning in all of your experiences in the world as they are filtered through your beliefs and habits. You perceive your unconscious mind through your feelings, emotions, imagination, sensations, and your dreams.
To Summarize:
A ship’s captain may give the orders, but it is the crew that actually carries them out. They do their best based on previous experience and training. Your subconscious and deeper unconscious minds are YOUR crew. They are what is actually driving and running YOU. You follow?
5-10% of brain capacity = conscious mind – speech, pictures, writing, physical movement, thought. Your “captain”.
50-60% of brain capacity = subconscious a.k.a. preconscious – information stored for quick recall; recent memories, information currently in use – phone numbers, names; recurring thoughts, behavior patterns, habits, feelings. Your “crew”.
30-40% of brain capacity = unconscious mind; long term storage of memories and habits, patterns, etc. Your “crew”.
The information stored in your unconscious and subconscious is essentially the equivalent of programming in your computer. They receive input from the world around you and your conscious mind, run that input through their programming, and create responses based upon the programming. The programming began long, long ago….. and can be updated – though not necessarily easily.
Their “goal” is to keep you safe and ensure your survival based upon all of the input you receive. They are assessing the level of threat to your survival and creating needed responses and changes accordingly. If “it worked in the past”, i.e., you survived, their logic says “it” will get you through similar situations again using the same means.
However, Their Priority IS Survival, Not Quality of Life.
Their primary function is a very primitive instinct built within you, with no regard to how misguided, or painful, or unhelpful the outcome is to you in the world. Thriving, and enjoying a quality life are something that develops with training and experience, i.e. additional programming. We will get to that in a future post.
Remember that stress results when there is a perceived threat to your survival. The resulting stress response in your body favors functions needed short term to survive at the expense of those associated with long term thriving. This creates dis-ease, premature aging, and a host of problems when it becomes chronic, i.e. your “norm”.
Your survival depends upon direction, coordination, and regulation of many bodily functions by your non-conscious mind. In other words, the crew of your ship is constantly reading various gages, and making adjustments as needed to keep your ship working. This includes such things as your heart beat, respiration, digestive functions, hormone production, blood sugar regulation, elimination, blinking your eyes, swallowing, immune system functions, temperature regulation, sleep/wake cycle regulation, etc.
Your ship can continue to sail, whether in rough seas, or simply a course you neither love nor enjoy. Light winds and calm waters wear on it less…..
Sailing a course for which it is not designed may damage it.
If you are not the right captain with the skills, knowledge and talent for the course you are following, you may also be giving the crew orders that are detrimental to your ship, too. They may have trouble following your orders if they weren’t adequately trained, talented, prepared.
Different ships have different purposes….. Using the right boat for the right application is only part of the challenge. You are YOU-niquely qualified to operate a certain boat on a certain course and straying from that too far can create dis-ease, stress, and other problems. For what are you designed?
And, if you are attempting to use the ship for something other than its designed/intended Purpose, aren’t you also in trouble potentially?
Much of this is actually difficult to empirically prove, and has been debated and contested over the years, but has become a largely accepted model that serves many very well.
You are the captain of your ship.
Is your ship designed to do what you are directing it to do? Are you sailing it according to its innate Purpose? Or, are you pushing its limits?
Or, perhaps it is sailing at less than its full potential….. Or, maybe it hasn’t left the dock yet…..? What’s it costing you wasting its potential?
Are you “qualified” to direct your ship in the way you are sailing? Is your course aligned with your gifts, traits, talents, and experience? Is your mission aligned with the design of your ship?
All of this relates to what is YOU-nique to you. How you have been you-niquely designed, and what you are potentially able change or influence to change your reality. It is about being respons-ABLE, not about blaming yourself. As a human you are subject to the human condition.
I leave you with those thoughts for now. We will explore the implications of all of this in relation to your ability to change your journey in future posts.
Here’s to Smooth Sailing!
How does YOUR mind work? What is going on beneath the surface in you?
Feel free to comment below.
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