Contents
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind operates below conscious awareness, in the ‘background’ if you like. It influences your thoughts, actions and feelings as well as habits and behaviors. Your subconscious mind absorbs all of your experiences. Your memories, perceptions, inspirations, beliefs and emotions come from here. The subconscious is very powerful, because while it absorbs everything you experience it then influences you automatically. Any positive and negative or neutral experiences you have in life effect the subconscious. Repeated ideas, habits and thoughts are strengthened through repetition.
How Your Subconscious Perpetuates Your Problems
Therefore, the subconscious mind can make you feel very unhappy and restricted in life if it is full of negative memories and feelings. The subconscious part of your mind is constantly absorbing new information; therefore, actively and deliberately influencing this part of your mind can overcome and change habits, fears phobias and negative emotions.
Sometimes people refer to the unconscious mind but they mean the subconscious. Think about tying your shoelaces or driving a car. A lot of things we do run in the background without needing constant conscious attention and being fully focused on those activities. This is the subconscious part of your mind working for you and making things easier.
How to Deliberately Influence Your Subconscious Mind
Think of all the changes you could potentially make to those automatic reactions. If you have always had social anxiety for example, all of those experiences where you were perhaps forced to be in uncomfortable situations they all add up in the subconscious to reinforce your dislike or fear of social situations. The subconscious part of your mind reinforces fear by bringing anxiety back every time. It always remembers to bring the feelings of fear and anxiety doesn’t it?
Imagine if you worked hard at steadily desensitizing yourself from your social anxiety. Imagine working on giving your subconscious mind positive memories and feelings about social interaction. Gradually your reactions would be affected by this new, updated information. The automatic response of anxiety might become just a slight discomfort and gradually a neutral feeling.
The Subconscious and Hypnosis
When using hypnosis it is always done with the intention of influencing and affecting the subconscious mind. Of course the conscious mind also hears some or all of what is said but we always hope the subconscious has absorbed some of the helpful suggestions. This is why sometimes it take a little while to get a result, especially if the problem or habit or reaction is deeply ingrained in the subconscious mind. In this circumstance a lot of repetition would be necessary to get a good result.
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