UNFOLDING THE HUMAN MIND
CONSCIOUS, SUB-CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MIND.
According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, “Mind is characterized by triad of thinking, feeling, and choosing. When you think, you will feel, and when you think and feel, you will choose. These three aspects always work together.”
Mind creates the energy through thinking, feeling and choosing and then the brain reacts accordingly. This is the way through which brain works. Whatever perspective you feel in a given situation, you’re brain will respond accordingly. According to studies, a human mind is fully developed by the age of 25 years; out of which most of the programming is done by our parents as we have had spent most of our lives (out of 25 years), with our parents. Whatever we are today, is the programming that our parents gave us, which obviously cannot be the right programming as they are humans too and their programming was done by their parents, and so on. For example, At the age of 10, someone bullies you at school, and you tell your parents about it. Let’s say, your parents tell you, if you ignore the person, they will eventually stop bullying you. You did as your parents said. And eventually they stopped. Now years later, say after 20 years, some other person starts bullying you at your work place, at this stage your programmed mind will tell you to ignore the person and they will stop. Now this is your programmed mind, taking decisions for you. At this stage you can reprogram it, as you want. Therefore, whoever we are today, our behaviour, our situations, our actions is because of our mind that was programmed upto 25 years. Incase, you do not like your space or the situation you are in, just channel your mind in the right way. Hence, you can choose to re-program your mind, anytime. Re- programming will give you several other perspectives in the same situation and hence you will make better decisions in life, that will eventually make your life better and less complicated.
Now, let us understand the three Levels of Mind: CONSCIOUS, SUB-CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MIND.
CONSCIOUS MIND
We use our five senses to operate the conscious mind. Conscious Mind is the aware mind. It performs the voluntary actions. Awareness of this present moment, the place where your are sitting or standing or lying down; awareness of holding a mobile or laptop, opting to read this article at the moment maybe while eating or drinking or maybe nothing, is conscious mind. Awareness of this particular moment is conscious mind. Conscious mind is the intellectual mind, its main function is logical thinking; which can be of the present moment or of the past. Our ability to think(of anything) is the conscious mind, whereas our ability to act in a given situation is the sub-conscious mind.
SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND
According to Freud, “The sub-conscious is like a mental waiting room, in which thoughts remain until they ‘succeed in attracting the eye of the conscious’ (Freud, 1924, p. 306).”
Our ability to act on the basis of the data that is already stored in our mind, is Subconscious Mind. It basically controls our physical functions (actions and reactions).It performs the involuntary actions. As it functions with the stored data of our mind; it performs its functions without using the conscious mind(logical mind). For example, we breathe without applying logic to it. It is a powerful force that works on emotions rather than logic; it makes us thirsty, hungry, horny, etc; to fulfill our desires. The sub-conscious mind resides right behind conscious mind, therefore, it may not be active all the time but is easily accessible; for example, you may not be thinking about what’s your name, but as soon as someone asks you, What’s your name? Your sub-conscious mind access to the data stored and you answer right away. According to studies, our subconscious mind is developed by the age of 7 years and holds a 95% share of the entire mind. Therefore, whatever is stored in our minds till the age of 7 years goes along till our death, unless our subconscious is reprogrammed.
UNCONSCIOUS MIND
According to Freud (1915), “the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see.”
Unconscious Mind is not easily accessible to the conscious mind, mainly because it holds the memories, emotions and experiences that are painful, shameful or unpleasant to accept consciously. These feelings and memories are stored in our unconscious mind. The repressed feelings, stored in the unconscious mind are disturbing and threatening to concede. According to Freud, “some events and desires were often too frightening or painful for his patients to acknowledge, and believed such information was locked away in the unconscious mind.”
According to cognitive neuroscientists, we are conscious of only about 5 percent of our cognitive activity, so most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behavior depends on the 95 percent of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness.
The logic applied by our mind, during decision making, is mostly based on the past experiences; for example, Phobia. Phobia’s are developed due to traumatizing experiences. Therefore, unconscious mind influences are decisions.
Unconscious Mind is a non neuroanatomical structure, and cannot be measured by science. It is an automatic process that occurs beyond the range of conscious mind and hence influence our behaviour. It can be triggered at any given moment, without even noticing. Hence, Freud acknowledged the conscious mind as threatening, because you never know when is it affecting your life and till what extent. For example, you caught the love of your life, cheating on you. Now you may have ended your relationship with that person, but the traumatizing experience that was stored in your unconscious will keep coming up in your future relationship.
Governing your unconscious mind is a valuable concept to live a peaceful life. In the absence of which, you might be living your life, in grief and outrage, without even noticing.
Do you wish to make your life peaceful and uncomplicated?
Firstly, face your unconscious mind. Stop avoiding it. There are ways to see what’s in there — Breathing Techniques(Pranayama), Meditation, Mantra Reciting, Yoga, Spending time with yourself, are a few and the most effective techniques to start with.
Secondly, try to change the patterns that are not healthy for your mind. Some of the most effective and easy ways to deal with your sub-conscious mind are — exercise, keeping yourself clean and hygienic, healthy food habits, spending time with nature, listening to positive affirmations/mantras.
Lastly, to manage you conscious mind, just be aware and present in the moment. Try not wondering with your thoughts and embracing the present.
