Conscious and Subconscious
Your mind is made of two parts, the conscious and the subconscious. Your conscious mind is what you can see, hear, taste, smell and touch. It’s what you know you know. It makes up about 10% of your mind. Your subconscious represents the other 90%. It stores data and controls your vital organs. It remembers everything that has ever happened to you.
It’s like a computer. The adults in a child’s life are the programmers. Your parents, teachers and the other authority figures in your childhood programmed your subconscious and you are programming your children’s minds. That is something to consider the next time you interact with them.
Your subconscious mind learns at the rate of a young child. Think about how quickly a child learns compared to an adult. Within a few years a child learns a new language, culture, societal norms, how to use their body and how to interact with the people in their life to get what they want.
Your belief system about yourself and the world you live in is part of your conscious mind, but it is heavily influenced by your subconscious. You may make a conscious decision to change–give up a habit that is preventing your progress or develop a new one to improve yourself–but if this change goes against data stored in your subconscious, you will find your efforts are sabotaged. You sabotage yourself and wonder why.
How the two parts interact
Johnny is sitting in the first grade doing his best to focus on the lesson when his teacher becomes impatient and tells him he is hopelessly stupid. He lacks the sophistication to realize that his teacher is having a bad day and doesn’t really mean it. She is an authority figure and he remembers the many days he has struggled trying to understand his school lessons. Then he remembers when his friends made fun of him for being “slow”. Maybe he was scolded at home for being unresponsive.
He believes his teacher and decides that he is stupid. It begins with the thought, “I must be stupid.” Then he begins to feel stupid. Emotion is energy in motion and it controls his behavior. He accepts the label and starts to act stupid.
It becomes part of his belief system. Now he is looking for ways not to learn. Being stupid is the norm. It is what he is used to. He becomes comfortable with his low grades. This is who he is. He’s stupid. He can’t do anything smart. Now he is an adult and has the opportunity of an advancement at his job. Consciously, he really wants this and is bitterly disappointed in himself when he messes up and doesn’t get it.
This lifetime pattern can be traced to an initial sensitizing event, the first time he decided he was stupid. If he could go into his subconscious mind and reprogram that event, and any others like it, he could rewrite his life script. He could revisit that event as an adult and explain it to his child self. He could point out the accomplishments he has achieved in his life that disprove the label of “stupid.” He could give his mind a life-changing upgrade.H
How hypnosis helps
Hypnosis is an altered state of awareness. We move in and out of it frequently without realizing it. Have you ever arrived at work and suddenly realized you don’t remember the details of the journey? Maybe someone asks you about a building on Main Street and you don’t even remember driving on Main Street, even though it was part of your route. This is called highway hypnosis. Your subconscious mind took over the driving while your conscious mind was focused on something else. It would have become immediately present if needed, but the trip was routine and so it was assigned to your subconscious.
Have you ever become so focused on something–a book, movie, or conversation–that someone trying to get your attention had to call your name several times or even shake your shoulder to get your attention? This is another form of hypnosis. Daydreaming is another example.
Hypnosis allows you to connect with your subconscious. This is the part of your brain that remembers everything about you. It’s the 90% of your mind that learns so much faster than the conscious mind. Maybe you don’t remember any initial sensitizing events that programmed your mind, but your subconscious does.
All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. A hypnotist may guide you on the journey, but you take it. You cannot be hypnotized to do anything you wouldn’t do in an awakened state. Hypnosis can remove mental blocks that prevent you from reaching your goals. Athletes use hypnosis to improve their performance.
In Johnny’s case, hypnosis would allow him to rescue his child self from faulty programming. He would be able to identify when and how the incorrect data was entered and rewrite the program. He would then be able to change his self image from”stupid” to capable.
Next Tuesday, I will be interviewing Steve Ortgiesen with The Crossroads Centre for Hypnotherapy. He explains what he does as a hypnotherapist and how it can help people reach their goals. He talks about how parents can use this tool to learn to help them meet the demands of raising a child with special needs.