The power of your subconscious mind

How does the conscious mind differ from the subconscious mind?

Information from the outside world enters through your senses and is instantly processed by the conscious and subconscious minds to help you negotiate your way in the world. Your core beliefs about life, developed through childhood experiences, will determine how you react to the stimuli from the world.

You are consciously aware of some of your core beliefs through thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations. But you are not aware of the deeper beliefs, held in the subconscious, which are actually the most influential. For example, have you ever reacted instantaneously to a situation in a manner that you knew was unproductive, yet you found it hard to control that response? This is a perfect example of the power of the subconscious to influence our behaviour.

The image below shows the difference between the conscious and subconscious mind. The conscious mind controls 10% of your behaviour, but the subconscious mind controls 90%.

If the subconscious mind is holding on to limiting beliefs and a negative self-concept, then this is the dominant influence over your thoughts and behaviours.

Now you understand why changes need to be made at the subconscious level: so that the larger, most influential part of your mind is positive, optimistic and engaged in productive outcomes.

How can you tell whether your subconscious mind has stored positive or negative beliefs? Listen to your mental chatter. This mental chatter is known as the Inner Voice. You know the voice; the running commentary that incessantly chats away in our mind. What this Inner Voice says to us, whether we are aware of it or not, shapes our self-concept, how we perceive and respond to the world, our thoughts, our emotions, how we relate to others, our achievements (or lack thereof) and every major or minor decision we make. Listen to this Inner Voice for a day and you will notice the beliefs the subconscious holds about you and life.

Is your Inner Voice predominantly optimistic and encouraging or pessimistic and critical? The source of all our self-sabotaging behaviour, our fears and our lack of confidence is an Inner Voice that is blatantly or subtly critical. This aspect of our Inner Voice is known as the Inner Critic.

Where did the content of our Inner Critic come from?

This critical voice, which is a reflection of your subconscious programming, was formed by your childhood environment and experiences. Before the age of 7 your subconscious mind was like a sponge, absorbing and downloading all the sensory data from your world.

The problem here is that under the age of 7 we are emotionally immature and our understanding of the world and peoples’ behaviour is undeveloped. What we interpret as ‘bad’ or threatening when we are 7, may not have been. Our paradigms about people and the world, however misinterpreted or misconstrued, is locked into place in our young mind and this is how beliefs and opinions are formed. Even at 50 years of age, we can be running our lives based on the program our 6 yr old self decided about the world, based on what we saw, felt, heard, smelt and tasted.

If we locked in limiting thoughts, then our adult lives remain limited by this childish thinking.

Isn’t that Inner Critic telling us the truth?

The internal, negative voice has been talking at us for so many years, that some people are unaware of its existence or consider it an intrinsic part of themselves and accept its suggestions as a legitimate source of advice. This is fine when our Inner Voice is encouraging (“I can do this”), but what about when the voice is saying “I’m never going to get it, so why bother trying?” or even harsher, debilitating criticism. Becoming aware of your Inner Critic allows you to choose whether to heed its outdated advice or choose another, more empowering option.

“The first step toward change is awareness” – Nathaniel Branden.

Now that I’m aware of the Inner Critic, why is it so hard to change its negativity?

Once we become aware of the Inner Critic and its negative influence, why is it so difficult to change it? Because we are trying to make changes on a conscious level of thinking. We are using our determination and will power to effect change. But this conscious resolve is only accessing the tip of your mental and emotional iceberg. Beneath these conscious thoughts is a huge filing system of patterns and beliefs and emotional responses held in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind runs 90% of your day and drives your habits, beliefs, behaviours, desires, fears, and creates your mental or emotional obstacles. When you ease off on the conscious vigilance and return to ‘automatic pilot’ (eg during a tired or emotional moment), your subconscious thoughts will override your will power. That’s why an exercise or diet or meditation regime followed diligently for a month can fall to the wayside when we lose our watchful diligence; the subconscious takes back control and you return to following its original programming.

Around the age of 8 your subconscious mind locked in all of its downloads as facts and it is not partial to changing easily. Unless you are vigilantly cognizant of your behaviours and thoughts throughout your day, you are a slave to your subconscious beliefs. This is why it is so beneficial to ‘clean up’ any negativity stored in the subconscious.

Why does my subconscious mind treat me like this?

Unbelievable as it may seem, your subconscious mind really is on your side; it wants you to enjoy life. It holds on to limiting beliefs because it thinks this is the best information to maintain physiological homeostasis. All it cares about is your survival and it does not realise that its cruel comments are unproductive. These beliefs were locked into place when your understanding of what is/isn’t a threat to your survival was undeveloped.

How can an event early in life have SO much impact?

Childhood is a time of downloading information to help us create strategies to survive life.

When a negative emotion is attached to an event, then the subconscious will associate all future relatable events with this original reaction. By associating them together, the subconscious believes it is helping you with shortened response times to ensure your safety in the future. It is making all future decisions based on past events, preventing emotional freedom, growth and maturity.

As an example, let’s pretend another child won’t share their toy with you and you feel sad and rejected. Follow this with a parent who ignores you whilst making dinner and you feel invisible and rejected. Follow this with being picked last for an exercise in class and you feel humiliated and rejected. Rejection is an uncomfortable feeling that affects us physically (nervous system) and emotionally. For our ancestors, rejection may have led to abandonment by our tribe and this isolation could result in death. This seems overly dramatic now, but our subconscious is an ancient part of our mind, which has one directive – keep us safe and alive. It knows stress and rejection are not conducive to longevity and will steer you away from any future situation that triggers this response. This is how your subconscious mind can limit you. As we mature we know that rejection is part of life and it does not mean we are a failure or we will die. But if your subconscious is making choices from childhood beliefs, then even as an adult you will avoid situations where you may be rejected.

This example is for rejection only. Your subconscious is holding on to any dominant emotion that was witnessed or felt by you in childhood. By recording and remembering any emotional pain you felt, it works to help you avoid pain in the future. Your subconscious only wants to protect you. Unfortunately its vigilance in looking out for painful situations results in a view of the world that is skewed towards fear and negativity.

What can I do to change this negative thinking and the patterns locked in place?

The great news is there are ways to change the subconscious programs beyond the age of 7.

Reprogramming of the subconscious requires techniques that allow access to the subconscious mind, such as Neuro Linguistic Programming, Hypnotherapy and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). These methods allow for quick and effective change to our thinking and habits.
Frequent repetition of positive statements about yourself and your abilities. These must be done whilst in a calm, Alpha mental state and include the emotion that is associated with the revised state of being. Eg you can’t just state “I’m healthy” 50 times a day and expect change. Our subconscious mind stores life events through emotion and images, not words; that’s why just saying an affirmation will not change the subconscious. You need to fully immerse your mind in the desired experience – use all your senses in the visualisation and only conclude your mental role-playing once you truly believe your desire is a reality. Repeat this exercise frequently.