THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
In the previous posts in our series “It’s all in your mind”, we talked about how we take in reality, how we filter reality, how we make it our own creation while all along believing that the reality is outside of us. We brushed on the deep filters that work outside of our consciousness, looked at beliefs. Before we continue our exploration, we need to talk about the UNCONSCIOUS MIND.
The English language is very poor to describe the intangible mental processes that go on inside each of us. What we call ‘the mind’ has in fact a multitude of different facets. We use a noun i.e. by definition something static, something that has a fixed existence, to qualify something that is in a perpetual movement, so we lose a whole dimension of the essence of ‘the mind’. By the way, in NLP, we call this a ‘nominalisation’. What is it? It is a linguistic sleight of hand so to speak, whereby a flowing, changing process (i.e. a verb) is frozen and solidified by transforming it into a noun. The verb relates an on-going process, the corresponding noun designates a very specific moment in that process. For example, the noun ‘communication’ is a nominalisation of the verb ‘to communicate’.
Why is it important to recognize? Because of the impact this has on how we handle change. An on-going process is changing by nature, things don’t stay the same, whereas a noun has a fixity that determines the concept it represents in a way that makes it much more challenging to change; ‘this is how it is’ type of thing. A noun becomes an identity whereas a verb represent an action that is changing by definition. To a great extend we ‘language’ our reality into existence, i.e. we create our reality through our language. There is much more to say on this unconscious process, more on that in a later post on language.
Let’s go back to our mind. I don’t speak Eskimo, but I have been told that in Eskimo languages, there are about 20 different words for what we call ‘snow’. In Sanskrit, the language of meditators, there are several different words for the mind, each describing different aspects of our mental frameworks. There is the aspect of the mind that merely perceives (I see), the aspect that makes sense of what we perceive (I see a dog), there is also a dimension of our mind that enables us to have awareness of ourself, the ability to say “I” (have you ever wondered how you know you are you?) and so on.
Despite the intrinsic poverty of the English language (and as far as I know, many other western languages) to explain the mind, we can use adjectives to differentiate between two minds: the conscious mind, and well… the unconscious mind (sounds logical doesn’t it?) By the way, I prefer to talk about the UNconscious mind rather than the SUBconscious mind, (although for me they refer to the same underlying reality) because ‘sub’ means below, and I do not really think it is fair to think of one part of us as ‘below’ the other, especially when there is a slightly derogatory feel to anything ‘below’, i.e. if it is below, it is dark and not completely clean. Feel free to disagree with me, again it is a matter of language.
What do those designations refer to? Well, a simple way to think of it is as follows:
The conscious mind is that part of you that you are aware of (your conscious thoughts, the internal self talk, your rational decisions etc…), and the unconscious mind… that part of you that you are NOT aware of right now (and that’s a huge part!) So for example, as you read those words, you are breathing (please tell me you are breathing :-)) but before I mentioned it, you were probably not aware of it. The breathing was probably just happening in the background without you having to think about inhaling, then exhaling. In fact, even more subtle, as you read those words, your blood is flowing in your body through your veins and arteries. Do you have to think about it for this to happen? Well, we can all be grateful that in fact, we don’t! It is happening ‘all by itself’. Most of us don’t even have conscious control over how our heart beats, or our blood flows, we can’t decide to stop it. The unconscious mind is in charge.
Why is it important? Because the unconscious mind handles several critical jobs that we have more or less control over and without which we could not function. This has implications in healing, but also anytime we want to change something, habits, behaviours, likes and dislikes, perspectives etc…
Job #1: It runs and preserves the body. As we saw in the paragraphs above, the most basic physiological processes in our bodies happen “all by themselves”. This is why we say that the unconscious mind runs the body. It also preserves your body in that, like a skilled conductor, it keeps things in balance most of the time. When given the right information, the unconscious mind will know exactly what to do to re-establish balance when it is lost. This is why people lose weight with hypnosis for example (because in hypnosis, we talk to the unconscious mind directly). In fact, it would be fair to consider your body an extension of your unconscious mind.
Personal Practice
By definition, we are not aware of anything unconscious. There is a line separating the two minds that our awareness cannot cross. However, in my experience, the line is more of a band that has the capacity to expand with our awareness. Try this very simple exercise (you could practice this regularly, say 10-15mn everyday if you wanted to).
Sit in a comfortable position with your back upright (i.e. don’t slouch into a chair), or you could also lie down on the floor or a mat (be aware that you may fall asleep). Close you eyes (well… read this first!) Start by scanning your body from the top of the head down, and when you meet an area of discomfort or tension, just stop there and observe. A natural tendency is to try to solve the problem, use volition to unlock the knot, or release the tension. Don’t. Take the time to become acquainted with the tension first. In all likelihood, there are probably several layers underneath. Just focus your attention on that specific point, keep breathing and observe. The tension may go and it may not, it’s OK. Or it may go and you discover another more subtle layer, it’s OK as well. As you do, you will become aware of more minute and subtle movements inside your body. And with regular practice, you will gain insights into your own internal world.