You are aware that the human mind is divided into two parts – conscious mind and subconscious mind. Conscious Mind thinks over immediately what comes before it. Subconscious mind is the storage room of everything that is currently not in our conscious mind; it stores all our previous life experiences, our belief system, our memories, skills, all situations we have been through, and all images ever seen.
We can understand the working of the subconscious mind through the example of someone who has just started to learn how to drive. At the beginning, he wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with anyone while driving as he would be focusing on the different moves involved; that's because he's still using his conscious mind to drive.
A few weeks later, the driving process comes to him automatically, without having to do any thinking; he'd even start using his cell phone or talk to his friends as he drives. This on account of the fact that the driving information or process has been transferred to his subconscious mind and so the conscious mind is free to function on something else, like talking or using his cell phone. Thus, the subconscious mind is our Autopilot!
The subconscious mind is responsible for the automatically triggered feelings and emotions that we suddenly experience upon facing a new situation. Let's consider the example of you giving a presentation, all fear and anxiety feelings are then launched and controlled by the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is, on the other hand, responsible for logic, thought and calculations (all actions that are performed under your complete control); the subconscious mind also controls other functions in your body like breathing and heart beats.
Another good example that can help you better understand the subconscious mind is the process of breathing. Before you started reading the previous line, your breathing was controlled by your subconscious. I want you now to try and control your breathing for one minute. You will, of course, be able to do so. This time, it was the conscious mind controlling your breathing, but when you let go of your focus, you are said to be handing the task over to your subconscious mind.
How Can You Control Your Subconscious Mind ?
When the information about driving is stored into your subconscious, it's stored as a program. Think of your mind as a computer and the driving information as software that can be run automatically whenever needed. The same goes for lots of other activities and emotions. Think of the case of someone shouting at you, the installed program of anger is launched and the result is a behavior you may end up regretting later. Through programming the subconscious mind with new programs, you can fix many problems in your personality. Just make sure that your autopilot is capable of running your system without ruining your life or causing you any problems.
Programming your subconscious can be done through hypnosis. The subconscious mind learns by repetition and not by logic, that is why you can convince someone to believe in something by repeating your argument again and again rather than using logic.
Working of The Subconscious Mind.
In order to best use the power of your subconscious mind, you must first know how the subconscious mind works. The subconscious mind is governed by many rules; learning about those rules will allow you to make the best use out of your subconscious mind with the least effort.
Ego Defense Mechanisms.
Just like your body has got its defenses against physical wounds and injuries, your subconscious mind has got its defenses against emotional shocks and wounds. These are called ego defense mechanisms or unconscious defense mechanisms. The ego defense mechanisms' main function is to protect your well-being and to help you overcome emotional shocks.
The Subconscious Mind and Forgetting About Someone.
The main reason people stay broken after breakups is that they have false ideas stored in their subconscious minds about relationships. As soon as someone gets rid of these beliefs he starts to realize that he can one day find another person who replaces the one who left him, and so recovery happens.
Using Your Conscious and Subconscious Mind Together.
As you can see, the conscious and the subconscious parts of the mind form a team. The first handles some tasks then assigns them to the second, the second after that sends feedback and messages about the task done in the form of emotions to the first.
Emotions are no more than messages sent by your subconscious mind in order to alert you of something. By learning how to make the best use of the cooperation between your conscious and subconscious mind, your life skills will improve and you will have much more control over your emotions.
We take for granted that we have the free will to make conscious decisions to choose between different possible course of action. However, it is not so as recently conducted experiments in the Max Planck Institute in Germany on the functioning of the human brain, have put that presumption into doubt. The researchers have concluded that free will could, in fact, be “little more than an illusion”.
The experiments indicated that our subconscious mind decides on and dictates our actions, long before our conscious mind actually realises it. If human beings are not able to act independently, then that makes them, in the words of one of the researchers, “…little more than automatons, mere machines, pieces of biological clock-work that have no more free will than a Swiss watch”.
Do the experiments suggest that and unseen power thinks for us, decides and tells us how we must act? Are our actions in our control? Perhaps not. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, “The Supreme dwells in the heart of all beings revolving them all by His mysterious power, Maya.” The Supreme, however, does not control living entities as a puppeteer controls puppets. The control is through a subtle mechanism that works under material nature. The Gita says “Everywhere, in all the material universes, the dispositions of nature – perform all works. But deluded by egoism, man thinks, ‘I am the doer’.”
Hindu mythology says that human being is born with tendencies, and acquires commensurate with theactivities in previous lives. These activities are made up of the three characteristics: truth, control and greed. The proportion of each characteristic in an individual is what makes his character. All his thoughts and actions are then dictated by his tendencies because nature compels him to act according to his character. The Gita says, “Not even for a moment can man remain without performing any action. Everyone is forced to act according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature or characteristics.”
The Padma Purana says that the fate of five things in one’s life is already decided at the time of one’s conception in the womb – the aggregate wealth one will acquire, one’s occupation, education, lifespan, and when, where and how one will die. Happenings associated with these five are preordained and will come to pass, no matter what, and can be termed one’s destiny. One’s character, moulded by one’s tendencies, will then make one act in such a manner that events play out as destined.
Are we mere cogs on a machine operated by the Supreme, or do we have free will at all to act independently? Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Thus I have imparted to you wisdom that is more secret (profound) than all that is secret. Reflecting over the whole teaching, do as you think fit.” Here He clearly states that man does have free will to think and act independently. Moreover, the Law of Karma, which is based on the concept of cause and effect makes us the architects of our own destiny. To be able to shape our own destiny, freedom will become a prerequisite. Without free will, you will not be able to perform anything truthfully.
We could use the limited free will that we have, to pursue purely material pleasures that might degrade our future working, or we could perform noble deeds which would generate true activities and help us evolve spiritually and ultimately take us to the goal of human life, that is, liberation of our souls.
Be Happy – Free Yourself By Controlling Your subconscious mind.
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