First, let’s recognize the fact that if we genuinely want to be successful, whether in relationships, or business, or any aspect of our lives, a pre-requisite for us is we take control over our minds. Well, you could argue that maybe you can just rely on getting lucky, but how many of us want to toss our future in that direction? Hopefully, not many. I suggest it’s not a great or healthy path, and one with little if any level of security.
So, in understanding how critical the mind is for our future, we start with the premise that we must know how it works, and the basics of how our brain is structured. Most of us think only of the mind as our conscious mind: all of those thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. It is the thoughts we have through which we process and behave in some kind of rational response. But our minds are so much more. Many people look at it as a SNOWMAN: the top (which is the smallest) is the conscious, the second level which is substantial in size is the subconscious, and then the third level which is typically drawn with no boundary, is your superconscious.
The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. This is our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. It allows us to make quick decisions without a lot of deep thought based on our immediate reactions. This also includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved quickly and brought into awareness.
- The subconscious mind is what I like to refer to as our “content vault.” Virtually every experience we have in life is stored in our subconscious, but not just from the perspective of a fact being only a fact. In many instances, we have also stored an interpretation of the event along with the truth as well as emotional responses, the definitions having a most significant impact on our lives until, perhaps, we uncover the meaning we have given it and determine that it does not serve us. These meanings can directly from our personalities, learn our interactions with other people, stop us from pursuing individual careers, create personality issues such as being shy, etc. They are powerful beyond measure, and most of them are things we just don’t know we don’t know. This part of our mind also never sleeps at night; it is the reason why we can give our brain a problem at night and wake up in the morning with a solution. Notwithstanding our lack of direct knowledge of what is stored in there, this part of the mind significantly affects our everyday behavior.
- The superconscious mind is recognized as the aspect of consciousness that is infinite or limitless. It encompasses a level of awareness beyond what we can see and feel, tapping into what goes beyond and is endless. Depending on influences in your life, you could potentially call this God. This allows us to reach something beyond what we perceive as a reality beyond the confines of our physical world.
So, what truly has the most significant impact on our decisions and actions? It’s the subconscious as it genuinely has incredible storage capacity and starts filling up at about the age of three. Although our conscious can give an immediate response of Yes or No, our contemplation of any meaningful answer will be highly influenced by our “storage vault,” i.e., our subconscious. The need to understand all of this is imperative if we have any expectation of creating incredible results in our life, living the life that we have only dreamt of. Why? Because of the limiting beliefs stored in our subconscious based on our early experiences in life indeed can stifle our potential. We limit our viewpoints not just on our abilities but regarding all of our relationships, as well as our responses to emotions, including the most limiting of all…fear.
Discovery of early childhood influences is just one of the many steps to take to release the limitations we have “self-inflicted,” many of which we don’t know we don’t know. Time to get started? No better than today. And make this endeavor one that never ends, as we should always be increasing our awareness on how to take back control of our mind. It has unprecedented capability, but only if we properly tap into it!