A Conscious way to the ‘Subconscious’
Yesterday, I was flipping through the pages of a magazine and my gaze fell on a beautiful picture of an iceberg. The click was so fascinating, that I kept staring at it for a long time. As I was appreciating the beauty of this natural state of freshwater, everything I knew about icebergs started racing through my mind, as if the reel of knowledge was unwinding itself in my mind and making me aware of its shape, structure, characteristics, etc. I also remembered a very common expression in the English language, ‘tip of the iceberg’ generally used to exemplify a small part of a larger latent issue.
Slowly my thoughts started finding similarities between this natural beauty and the abstract concept of ‘the human mind’. Strange! Isn’t it? Let me explain! We are aware of the fact that only 10% of the icebergs are visible above the water level. The remaining 90% of it is hidden. The human mind is very similar to this; as only 10% of it is the conscious mind about which we are aware. Whereas, 90% of our mind constitutes the part about which we are unaware: the subconscious mind.
We cut our finger and the wound heals automatically. Are we consciously healing it? Nooo! right? Our heartbeats, the food we eat gets digested, we blink and breathe, and a lot of such processes happen inside our body and we don’t even notice. What do you think is controlling all that? A mystery spell? Well! I am not sure about any spell, but, the credit for all the aforementioned processes happening in our body goes to our own ‘subconscious’ mind.
Firing n Wiring
Yes, pal, it is important that we start acknowledging the power of our subconscious mind. Generally, when something comes naturally to us, we start taking it for granted. The same is the case with our subconscious. We never try to harness its true power. We don’t even try to understand how it works?
In 1949, Neuropsychologist Donald Hebb explained a very interesting phenomenon, “Neurons that fire together, wire together”. He described how pathways in the brain are formed and reinforced. Do you know? Our brain cells communicate with one another by synaptic transmission; one brain cell releases a chemical that the next brain cell absorbs forming neuronal wiring. When brain cells communicate frequently the connection between them strengthens and the messages that travel the same pathways begin to transfer faster and faster, and with enough repetition it becomes automatic. This indeed is the very concept behind how something gets absorbed into the subconscious mind from the conscious mind.
All the information that enters our brain gets stored in our subconscious which constitutes 90% of our mind. We are not even aware that we unknowingly accumulate loads of information. Our sense organs, our past experiences and our beliefs are the ones that stimulate our thoughts. Based on the thoughts our body reacts because the brain gives the signal to the cells, cells communicate with each other creating a circuit that gives signals to the body. In short, we can say that our thoughts define our actions. The more frequent the thoughts build up, the much faster the body reacts until and unless you make a conscious effort to stop it.
Nowadays, we are all comfortable with the QWERTY keypad on our mobile phones, but only I remember how hard it was for me to get adjusted to it. Once I got a knack for it then using it became extremely easy. How did this happen? You would say: Practice makes perfect. True! However, the basic science is that the neuronal wiring inside our brain is getting faster and stronger with every repetition.
Consciously Control the Subconscious
If you have ever played a video game, you would have noticed that it always takes time to get comfortable with the controls. However, as you slowly advance through the game, your fingers start moving over the controls automatically. Yeah! Now, you can relate!
It means that once the information seeps into the subconscious any task would feel like a piece of cake. Moreover, your subconscious can make you do wonders if you make a conscious effort towards it. Dr Joseph Murphy has beautifully scripted the ways to harness the power of our subconscious mind in his bestseller ‘The Power of your Subconscious Mind’.
Although the mechanics of our subconscious mind is very interesting to know, however, we must not overlook the fact that negative thoughts can ruin our actions in a similar fashion. You must have seen people who are sad, frustrated, agitated or irritated most of the time. They have created a circuitry of negative thoughts; the more frequent the negative thoughts travel their mind, the stronger these neural pathways become and it is more difficult to stop them. Such people are not even aware that they are frustrated because of their own thoughts. The moment they consciously decide to stop thinking about negative things, their life starts to improve – thanks to a new and positive neuronal wiring.
Nature has bestowed us with unbelievable powers which are hidden in that part of our mind about which we are unaware – our subconscious; however, the remote control to that power is available in our own conscious mind. Hence, it is of utmost importance to gain control and make judicious and healthy use of this remote control to establish conscious wiring of the subconscious, which will help us lead a better life.
May 3, 2021 @ 8:00 pm
Beautifully explained. Enjoyed reading it.👍
May 4, 2021 @ 7:34 pm
Thank you!
May 3, 2021 @ 8:52 pm
Nice information
May 4, 2021 @ 7:34 pm
Thank you!
May 4, 2021 @ 9:22 pm
Good work..Will try to think about it
May 4, 2021 @ 11:56 pm
Nice read. Got a combined flavor of biology and psychology!
May 5, 2021 @ 9:00 pm
Nice way is explained to control our thinking..Got a proper way to stay away from negative thoughts😊
May 5, 2021 @ 10:54 pm
Excellent matter! It’s an insight into working of human brains alongwith such simple and common examples that any person can easily corelate. I would like to read more of your work. Thank You for this amazing information.
May 6, 2021 @ 9:45 pm
Nice one
May 14, 2021 @ 5:36 pm
Consciously written to connect to subconscious
June 20, 2021 @ 2:24 pm
Easy to understand and well written.
Intricacy of the subject is difficult to explain.
Well done