Have you noticed that the word subconscious has two meanings, or at least is used in two different ways?
Our relationship with consciousness is at the core, and we all know consciousness is the big enchilada. When you have the ability to be aware of something, or even just awake, then you can say you’re conscious. It’s especially good to hear a paramedic describe you in this way.
Subconscious
Right now, for example, I am aware I am typing on a computer. I have an idea of what I want to write about, and so I consciously start to click the keyboard. If, and when, I have a draft or outline to work from, which in this instance I don’t, I direct my thoughts toward the topic.
But, where do the words that will hopefully form a sensible message come from? That’s the subconscious mind. It stores our knowledge of languages, our ideas, beliefs, memories, as well as any feelings we’ve previously linked to experiences. For example, stroking your tabby cat while she sits on your lap feels calming. This is a stored association that is true for you. It would not, however, be calming for someone with severe animal allergies.
The subconscious mind is also where your involuntary reflex lives too. Imagine you’re driving to a medical appointment and your thoughts are thinking about the test scheduled for 1:p.m. You wonder if you’ll be back to work by 2:p.m or, instead be stuck waiting. Should you call the office and let them know there is a chance you will be late or even miss the team meeting?
You’re physically driving but completely lost in thought. Suddenly, you hear the whale of a siren from behind your car. Whoa! You snap to attention and quickly pull the car over and get the heck out of the way.
Conscious
Your subconscious and conscious mind always, without exception, work together. What changes are the levels of who’s in the lead, it’s a fluid relationship. In the car, for example, while you were busy thinking about your medical appointment your subconscious mind took over the steering wheel. Just enough to let your thoughts wonder around in your head. There’s no problem; the rules of the road are well embedded into your stored knowledge base since you’ve been driving for 30 years. That is until the siren sounded and it triggered your conscious mind to step up. Now, a full partnership is in place and you’re completely present. Your subconscious mind long ago stored an association between a siren sound and potential danger. Even if the danger is not centered on you, as thankfully you did not have the accident, you know something is up for someone nearby.
Back to my writing.
Yes, I am consciously here, focused, creating, drawing upon my subconscious storage bank. And, as I click away it’s my subconscious mind that knows which keys to hit and how I need to hold my fingers so I can physically type. There’s a lot of mechanics under the hood of being a person.
Above, we’re talking about the subconscious mind positively. We understand that it supports our inner relationship and our experiences to keep everything working. There’s nothing we need to do; we can count on our subconscious mind even if we are not aware of it.
Are you aware you just blinked or did it happen involuntarily without seeking your permission?
Feeling Subconscious
Okay, now let’s turn our attention to another way people use the word subconscious.
This next method is strongly hooked into our emotional state of being. Which, once again, comes from our subconscious mind.
You might hear someone (ok, me) say, “I feel subconscious about the way I walk.”
Wait, does that mean it is a feeling? Wouldn’t be more accurate to say self-conscious?
Either way, when subconscious is used in this manner it implies you feel negatively exposed. Stored beliefs are out of alignment and a negative block exists, one you want to avoid.
The biggest difference with using subconscious as a descriptor is, you are awareness of its negative influence on your life expression. Nine times out of ten you don’t know which particular thought got hooked up with a negative feeling or emotion. Some people believe if you trace back to its source, then maybe, you can crack the code. For example, perhaps when I was age 5 another child made fun of how I walked and that caused me to code a negative association. From then on, whenever I walked in front of someone I felt uncomfortable. I just made that up, it could be true, who knows.
At any rate, the point is, you would never equate “feeling subconscious” about anything with a positive emotion, like happiness or joy.
People feel anxious, worried, afraid, stressed, depressed and on and on, simply because they have mistakenly formed a (un)truth within their own mind. And, because it is wrapped tightly around an emotion it is not receptive to logic. Feelings are seldom logical and feeling subconscious sucks. Just think of someone you know who feels subconscious about how they look, and yet, you think they look awesome. You do not understand why they feel the way they do. It doesn’t make sense.
Mistaken Truths
Mistaken truths are all powerful and can impact your physical wellbeing too.
What’s known as panic or anxiety is a good example because it can cause physiological symptoms like, dizziness, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, sweating and more. This is the extreme but most anxious people wrestle with fear and what-if thinking.
Many times behaviours are learned through conditioning or modeling. Chances are if your mother feared snakes and spiders chances are you do too. Maybe you’re a worry wart, think back, was that a behaviour of your parent? If so, that tells you why you lean toward this behaviour too. It also tells you that you created this experience by your thinking and not the other way around.
The most important and transformative thing to realize here is that the subconscious mind is fine as is; it runs the behind the scenes. The minute you add the word feel in front of it, you are pulling it forward into the conscious territory, but doing so with a negative intent.
Eliminate Feeling Subconscious
There is no secret formula to change how you feel, it’s really simple. It starts by first seeing that it is your thinking, your thoughts, that actually formed your negative (un)truths. Telling yourself it is not true, or sprouting affirmations to replace thoughts will not make a significant change. That’s hard work with no guarantee, but once you can actually see your thoughts create your feelings a shift is possible.
