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How the Mind works – Subconscious and Conscious Minds

Everyone has heard of their “subconscious” but very few of us truly understand what it is or what its role is in our lives.  



Our subconscious mind accounts for around 95% of your mind, whereas your conscious mind is around 5%. (There is some debate on this but it is generally accepted as being between 95-99% subconscious).

What happens in your conscious mind?
The “Thinking” part – 
It’s logical
It’s rational
It’s analytical
It is the same age as you are

This is the sensible bit of your mind.  It knows what you WANT to think, how you WANT to behave, where you WANT to go and what you WANT to do (or stop doing).

Then there’s your subconscious mind.  The feelings and emotions part.
It is literal
It believes whatever you tell it – even if it makes no sense
It thinks in images
It doesn’t register negatives
It is the storehouse of every single thing that you have ever seen, heard, experienced, learned and done, since pre-birth.
It knows all about you but ONLY you.  Thoughts you have about others it believes are about you.
It is age six.  Always. (We’ll come back to this)

The absolute job of the subconscious mind is to learn EVERYTHING you need to learn in order to become a functioning human.  Everything.  From how to put your socks on to how to hold a fork.  From to how to speak to children to how to behave in a particular situation.  Think of it as being like a hard-drive; everything is stored as a ‘programme’ which is ‘downloaded’ every time you need to do anything.  

Imagine something highly repetitive, like putting your socks on.  This has been learned by repetition and so your subconscious mind automatically takes over and those parts of your body needed to do it so you can think of something else.  Imagine what it would be like if every time you did any task you had to consciously think about how to do it.  Much like if you try to write with the opposite hand or drive on the opposite side of the road when abroad.  You can do it, but it takes a lot of energy, is exhausting and you wouldn’t get much done in a day!

Now when this autopilot is applied to putting on socks, driving a car, making a cup of tea…great.  But this also applies to patterns of behaviour, thoughts and beliefs.  Which is fabulous if they are beneficial.  Not so great if they are life limiting or harmful.  Remember the subconscious does not recognise negatives, and it believes anything you tell it…and it believes everything you think about other people is about yourself.

Over time, a personal Blueprint is formed.  This is a set of beliefs that you live by which has been created by the subconscious mind based on everything it has experienced over the course of your lifetime. Beliefs do not carry values of good or bad, right or wrong, or even true and false.  They are beliefs and simply Are. Beliefs begin as thoughts and if you think the same thought persistently, over time it becomes so strong that you believe it.  It becomes a belief you hold.  No belief is true – it is just a persistent thought – and yet we live our lives according to them. Again, positive life-affirming beliefs are fantastic – but beliefs you hold about yourself that are self-limiting or present themselves as obstacles in your life can be destructive.

And then between the two lies The Critical Factor!

We’ve all got memories of nightclubs and the bouncers on the door – this is the best analogy for your Critical Factor. Imagine heading out to a nightclub but not being aware of the ‘no trainers’ rule.  You may be the best negotiator, try blackmail, smile, throw every reason as to why this is unfair, you may plead that you are literally just going to dance and it’s pretty much dark anyway and he could just pretend not to have noticed…and you could stand there reasoning ALL night  – but we’ve all met bouncers.  If it says no trainers – you’re not getting in. 

So, this is what happens with your Critical Factor.  You may try out a statement on a conscious level – for example, “I did well today”.  That statement comes up against the Critical Factor who scrutinises it against the list of beliefs in your Blueprint, just as a bouncer scrutinises your shoes against the admission rules.  If there is a belief in your subconscious that contradicts the statement, it will not let it in.  So your conscious mind knows what you WANT to think, how you WANT to feel…but it ends up thinking and feeling the complete opposite because 95% of you – your subconscious – believes something else and it will not stand a chance of getting in. Yet.
   
This is where Hypnosis comes in.  In order to access the subconscious, we need to bypass the Critical Factor and get into the subconscious mind to do some work with limiting or challenging beliefs which have become obstacles to your life.  Once we can access the subconscious mind we can release, change, move, understand, or negotiate with beliefs to do whatever needs to be done to enable you to live the life you wish to live as the person you wish to be.  

So to return to the nightclub and the bouncer.  If I return the next weekend with some friends who know the bouncer they can  distracts him with filling him in with some news and gossip. I can slip past – in my trainers – without him noticing.  That’s what hypnosis does – it distracts the critical factor gaining access to the subconscious mind.