the power of our mind

Most of us know that only a fraction of our brain is attributed to our conscious mind. Indeed, experts tell us that the conscious mind makes up only 5% of our brain which leaves the remaining whopping 95% of the brain being attributed to the subconscious mind.

Weighing in at a massive 95%, you'd be right to think that the subconscious mind must be kind of important and, most likely, has quite some influence over our lives. And, yet, that's the part of the mind that we tend to, well, just let be, that we tend to let do it's own thing. Is that wise? Does that make sense?

I guess to even begin to fully comprehend the importance of the subconscious, that 95% of our our mind, we should start by understanding some of what the subconscious does, to see if we can, indeed, have any control or influence over it, as well as understanding other traits related to the subconscious.

Here're just a few interesting facts about the subconscious:

It controls your life

Not only does the subconscious mind make up 95% of your mind, it controls 95% of your life. It controls every single physical movement, be it external or internal, be it voluntary or involuntary.

For example, it keeps our heart beating. We don't tend to be consciously aware that our heart is beating all day every day. And that's because keeping it working is run by the subconscious mind. It controls your legs when you go for a walk. Think about it... how far and how fast do you think you'd go if you had to consciously work out how to put one foot in front of the other? You'd probably spend most of you time face flat on the ground because you weren't able to properly co-ordinate your feet and you kept tripping over them.

Additionally, as the subconscious mind is in control of 95% of our life, most decisions, actions, thoughts, emotions, behaviours we have or do are a product of the subconscious mind. For example, what can you remember about cleaning your teeth this morning? Can you remember every step you took in minute detail? Or did you just do it without 'thinking'?

It never sleeps

Which I think you'll agree is a good thing now you know that it's thanks to your subconscious mind that your heart continues to beat, that your body continues to breathe, the your body temperature stays stable, that your digestive system continues to work.. need I go on?

And whilst your conscious mind turns off at night while you sleep, your subconscious mind keeps chugging away, never taking a break. Not only that, science has shown that we still hear and process everything while we sleep.

It is habitual in nature

You know how most week days you wake up, go about your morning routine of cleaning your teeth, showering, having a coffe etc and then go about the rest of your day in (usually) a routine fashion - you go to work, you come home, you eat and drink, and you sleep... it all becomes second nature? That's because your subconscious is very habit-driven and habit-based.

If your actions are very much driven by your subconscious mind, your thoughts, beliefs, behaviours, habits, patterns will be the same. And that's pretty powerful considering most of our beliefs, patterns, and habits were created and established when we were young children, soaking up everything we saw, heard, and learned around us.

It is like a 3-year old child

Like a 3-year old child, the subconscious doesn't have the ability to 'read between the lines' or pick up on subtle 'hints' about things. It takes everything literally. And that means it cannot decipher between what is positive and what is negative, it cannot think or reason independently. As Henry Ford neatly summed up, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right". So keep on telling yourself you'll never be rich or you'll never succeed and watch as your subconscious mind proves you right.

It lives in the present moment

The subconscious mind only recognises one tense: the present. It's the conscious mind that has the added past and future tenses. So, when we dream about the future or we reminisce about the past, we're doing so consciously. Indeed, the conscious mind struggles to think in the present. Think about it, how difficult is it for you to be really consciously aware of the present moment? In other words, be mindful? Being mindful is something we have to work at and, even then, our conscious mind struggles not to drift.

Where the conscious mind is predominantly occupied with the past and future, the subconscious mind is only occupied with the present. That's why, when you look to re-programme your subconscious mind to better match your current life (rather than your life as a young child) you work with present-based phrases such as "I am amazing" rather than "I will be amazing".

 

I think, just after only a few facts about the subconscious mind, we can conclude that it's pretty powerful and perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to it if, that is, we want to live a fulfilled and abundant life.

The reason for diving into the subconscious today is because I experienced it's power in full glory recently.

My husband and I were heading out on one of our many adventures and explorations of the country we currently call home. He was driving and I was in the passenger seat. As we traveled down a road close to home, I spotted a man standing. Beside him was a (I'm presuming 'his') black dog.

Not an unusual or unexpected scene. However, what caught my attention, what was unusual was that the black dog was standing upright on its hind legs.

I think you'll agree, someone standing at the side of the road with their black dog standing besied them on their hind legs is quite an unusual and unexpected sight. Where I live, and I'm guessing in most of the world, dogs tend to spend most of their time standing with all four feet on the ground.

Because this was such an unusual thing to catch my eye, as we drove by I turned to get a proper look.

And do you know what I saw?

It wasn't a black dog standing on its hind legs, it was a child dressed in a black raincoat.

I know... right? How on earth did I see a black dog standing on its hind legs instead of a child dressed in a black raincoat?

I was flummoxed.

So, as my eyes and brain understood the reality of the scene, I quickly asked myself "why did I see a black dog?" And do you know what answer I got?

Wait for it...

The answer I received was, "children don't wear black, they were bright colours".

According to my programming it was less unusual to see a black dog standing on its hind legs than it was to see a child dressed in black.

Think about that for a moment. Let's just get this into perspective before you think I'm some kind of raving lunatic. All of what I saw, all of what I thought and asked. All of that happened as my husband was driving along the road and I spotted a man standing beside 'something'. In other words, all of this unfolded within seconds.

However, those short seconds gave me so much insight into the power of the subconscious. And I hope you'll gain the same insight through me sharing this with you.

My programming for years and decades has been that children wear bright colours, not black. So, when a child appeared in my line of sight dressed in a black raincoat, in a split second my subconscious showed me a black dog standing on hind legs because, according to my subconscious and all my programming dating back years and decades, it more ludicrous to see a child dressed in a black raincoat than it is to see a black dog standing on its hind legs.

Now, I don't know about you but that kind of blew my mind. The subconscious is so incredibly powerful that it'll create something false because your current reality doesn't match up with what it believes to be true.

In this example my subconscious mind's programming was that children wear bright colours. That's pretty harmless programming. It just meant my mind played a trick on me.

However, what happens when your subconscious programming believes "you have to work really hard to be successful" or "you'll never have money, you come from a poor family" or "you don't deserve to have an easy life" or "you can't have it all, you've got to choose - money or happiness" or "that disease runs in your family" or "you're not loveable"...?