Taming the Subconscious

Article - by Hamid Soltani

 

Your true prosperity lies in the mastery of your subconscious mind

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 MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OUR CONSCIOUS OBJECTIVITY

 

Most of us innocently believe that we objectively and consciously control and make decisions about our daily life events. This general misconception is primarily because most people have no real understanding of how concepts get established and processed in their minds. Since we all like to be the master of our own destinies, it is somewhat convenient for us to assume that we are fully in charge of our lives. The truth is that very few people have any deep awareness of their true make-up, their sense of self, what drives them, where and how their beliefs come to be and how their subconscious” likes and dislikes” influence their perceptions, thoughts and actions both positively and negatively.

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What we need to realise is that when we confront a life event, our subconscious emotional reaction to the event automatically results in the release of its matching chemicals (e.g. sadness, anger, etc.) into every cell in our body. This activity takes place without our conscious involvement as if consciously we have no saying in that. Once we consciously become aware of the feeling in our body, it will be almost too late for us in such a situation to remain objective whilst the corresponding chemical emotions are directly influencing and biasing our perspectives.

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The person undergoing such experiences (most people and most of the time) will feel an unfolding force of emotional changes in his/ her entire being. One can almost instantly taste the emotion and feel the alterations in their energy field. Once these powerful chemicals are experienced in the body, the conscious mind will find it extremely difficult to reason objectively and to examine the unfolding life events from the position of greater and unbiased understanding. There is no way that the conscious mind can rationally disengage itself from “how it deeply feels” - which is the emotional substance presented by the subconscious (emotions at the cellular level in the body).

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SHORTFALLS OF LOGICALLY STRUCTURED THERAPIES

 

The problem begins when the conscious mind tries to look for answers within the context of its emotional biases. Wherever it looks for answers, it only sees the world from the emotionally painted views. In most cases, our claim for conscious derivations of meanings in a given situation is merely another way of legitimising and endorsing our earlier emotional conclusions and nothing else. We do it under the disguise that we are rationally engaged, thinking straight and being objective.

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This is why many practitioners with the best intentions, struggle to bring about desired changes in their patients/ clients when they resort to logical reasoning as their only means for healing the subconscious wounds. The application of cognitive therapies for an emotionally charged person is a wasteful pursuit. No matter how many times we try to help people through logical discussions, their emotionally influenced bodies would not have a bar of anything outside their emotional context, especially when they are already overpowered by such emotional chemicals.

HOW TO LOOK FOR SOLUTIONS

 

Therefore, in order to have a clear head for looking for the holistic truth in our encounters in life and derive a real solution that can enable, empower and prosper us individually and collectively, we must somehow prevent our high-intensity emotional feeling to be released within our mind in the first place.

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This suggests that to be truly liberated from the biases of the subconscious and live a free, conscious and happy life, we must heal our subconscious from its short-sightedness and its emotional chemical influences.  We must make it our business to turn those negative, unproductive beliefs about who we are and how we should live and act in this world into a wiser set of beliefs that are aligned with our state of happiness and well-being. We need to consciously bring about change to our current beliefs that are no longer serving us and create a holistic understanding of the bigger context, a healthy and balanced approach to life.  

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Through the processes of conscious self-healing intentions and actions, we begin to clean our minds from unnecessary disempowering beliefs and begin to embrace openness to life; our subconscious suddenly stops generating negative emotions because it does not derive at untrue/ manufactured conclusions. Subsequently, we will find ourselves more energised, in charge and happy.

However, it is important to note that the subconscious is always ready to exert itself as the ruler and change the progress of our liberation and for this, the journey of Conscious mind empowerment over the Subconscious should be an ongoing activity similar to the daily remembrance and meditation.​

CONSCIOUS LIVING TIPS

 

The following points can help the reader to develop ways of empowering his/ her conscious thoughts and maintaining control over their subconscious mind moods.

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Stay conscious most of the time – This means listening to the internal voice as if there is another person present in your head making conversations with you (your Subconscious). You will know if you are in your conscious zone when you are unbiased, liberal in attitude and curious for the sake of knowing the truth disregarding its consequences or applications. In this zone you can only experience Feelings of any kind as a “momentary phenomenon” and you are consciously willing to choose to let the feelings go in order to grasp real objectivity for your deeper perception.

 We all have the capability to fall in and out of conscious awareness. However, some of us through lack of understanding and exposure have little to no desire to experience this. Others with prior exposure and understanding frequently and at will choose to see the world from this position of clarity. 

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It is a sad fact that most of us are hardly conscious at all, even though we genuinely think we are. Of course, we all have consciousness, but it is usually an un-questioning and obeying servant to the Subconscious. Very seldom our conscious mind actually takes the initiative to stand up and declare its independence and exercise its kingly presence. Most of the time, whatever comes to the consciousness from the subconscious is treated as fact and in a robot fashion, the conscious immediately follow through to either justify its emotional conditioning or carry through what it has been instructed to do. For those who wish to experience their conscious awareness, they should try various popular techniques for quieting their minds such as meditation or self-hypnosis. 

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Resist completing the picture of what you are Feeling - You can objectively watch the subconscious emotions rising within you and if you wish, you can also consciously refuse to embrace them as they could have side effects and blind your objectivity. You should seek to know the absolute truth and search for it with everything you have got. Do not try to justify and prove what appears as the “gut feelings” or any other feelings produced in your head.  It is often hard to distinguish between the emotions produced by the subconscious with its corresponding biases and other mysterious divine sources of truth (intuition). For this reason, looking at everything objectively as imposters and disguisers is often hard to unveil. 

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For example, you have just met your new boss and he begins to explain his expectations of you in this new role. Without knowing why, you may immediately feel a sense of insecurity/ fear rising within you. Even though the presented directives, at least on the surface, may be reasonable and are within the domain of your capability. Based on your subconscious presented fears, you may exaggerate and complete the picture in your head as hard challenges and ones that could stretch you beyond your comfort zones. If you could isolate the initial fears and look at what you have been asked to perform in an emotionless and objective way, you may complete this picture very differently with a sense of ease and self-empowerment.

 

The issue for negative emotions rising from the subconscious could be because your new boss’s expression or tone of voice may have been referenced against your subconscious view of your father that you could never please and were constantly scared of. Your new boss may have no real correlations to your dad, but you feel a sense of fear in his presence. This example highlights how much misunderstanding and confusion can spring up in what we perceive as reality and what the actual reality is in the domain of our minds (conscious & subconscious). Such commonly occurring human misunderstanding decreases our overall coherence, can increase our daily stress levels, takes away our real objectivity for intelligent decision making and weakens the effectiveness of our actions.   

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​​Move forward by not thinking (unless you really have to) – This statement often appears as an unintelligent remark; however, by close examination, you will understand how powerful this message actually is. What is suggested here is that you can discipline yourself to think at will and only allow the pending thinking to progress “if and only if” you have already established the desired outcome from your thinking process and you have reasonable confidence that you can get to a helpful answer. If with the best of intentions, you fail to get to the final answers, your pursuit is not wasted and can form a solid platform for your subsequent explorations. 

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Before you commence with your topic of thinking, ask yourself, “If I am going to spend “X” amount of time thinking about “Y”, am I going to have something of value at the end of my thinking process that can help me to achieve “Z” in my life? If the answer is NO, immediately stop your thinking process. Ensure that you do not waste your precious time and energy only revivifying the unimportant/head-produced dramas on a continuous basis that you consciously know do not serve you and only encourage negative feelings and bitterness within you. If you think about the actual amount of time we really need for our conscious thinking activities, you may be surprised to learn how little time we actually require in a given day to think. Unless your job necessitates you to think, please stop thinking and when you are meant to think, ensure you get something decent and productive out of it. In other words - why waste so much time and energy for getting nowhere or at worst, end up with less value than what you have started with (having additional negativities and stresses)? 

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For example - If I am thinking about what I should have for dinner, even though it is a simple thought, it is a good thought, and I should allow it to progress as it would eventually end up with a clear final decision on what to eat tonight. On the other hand, if my mind is gravitating towards a concept of bitterness about someone who may have upset me in some form or shape, this type of thinking may not produce any real resolution for me, even if I spend hours repeating in my head and saying things like “why did she say that and why did I do that”. As soon as such thoughts begin to manifest, I should quickly and consciously stop them by saying to the inner voice “are you going to give me anything of substance when I finish with you?” and if the answer is “NO”, then I must drop such thoughts immediately as they do not pay off, even though my grieved subconscious mind is dying for me to go back and forth regurgitating the negativity for hours to no avail.  ALWAYS look for solutions than waste your energy crying over the spilt milk. 

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Develop higher dimensions for searching, thinking and acting - Your general interest in knowing and questioning the big picture of life and the universe will undoubtedly open opportunities for you to examine your life within a wider context that can subsequently reduce the chance of dramatization and projection of your subjective experiences into your awareness. Similar to a storm in a teacup. 

Try to appreciate the sense of oneness/ coherence in all things and value the contribution of all life constituents. This can open up a new dimension of wisdom within you and influence your daily perception of events and your corresponding behaviours. 

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The more holistically you look at life and understand it, the less you worry or become trapped in your silos of thinking. In wide and varied ways learn about all aspects of life, investigate different philosophies and question everything and everything from your childhood adoptions of various rules and beliefs all the way to your recent indoctrinations of any negative or rigid behaviours. Realise all pains and sorrows begin in your mind and they manifest into your body (impact on the state of health and beauty) and all other external bodies and objects in order to form and materialise your subjective reality. 

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The obvious example of this could be witnessed in the state of mental perspectives, behaviours and actions of a wide range of people in society. At one end of the spectrum, you could imagine people who have no interest in the big pictures of life (silo-focused) and constantly are engaged and preoccupied with the day-to-day dramas of life with lots of issues and worries about what confronts them. They may see their issues from a limited subjective perspective, feel highly stressed for the inability to change things for the better and mostly feel unfulfilled.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, you could imagine certain people who are constantly searching for answers to mysteries of life and the universe. They aspire to have peace and harmony in life instead of pain and suffering. They want to know why they are here and question their purpose within the context of the systemic universe. Such individuals could be confronted with exactly the same issues and challenges in life and yet, they suffer less stress and are driven to be connected, remain conscious and live to learn.

    

Understand how the mind works – In continuing your effort for a greater understanding of forces around you, joyfully, become a high-level expert in how the human mind works. It is quite easy to learn. All you require is your passion for knowing the essence of who you actually are and how you think and behave. Understanding the self will provide the necessary base for you to question your negative ways and consciously change your inner in order to bring about and maintain your quality of life. 

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Have you ever thought why so many people have this serious aversion and deliberately avoid knowing about the characteristics of what goes on in their minds and in their lives? This could be due to the unnoticeable/ subtle dominant nature of the subconscious over the conscious mind, especially when an individual is not generally familiar with how to exercise “conscious will” over emotionally charged experiences. Such individuals with the disempowered conscious mind would also find it hard to sit still, relax and meditate as their subconscious hates to lose its control.    

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Notice any small internal movements within you - Become more sensitive to your internal voices and the interactions between the Conscious and Subconscious minds (who is saying what to whom and why). Notice the emotion as it rises and learn about the type of pressures the subconscious places on the Conscious. Say to yourself, “I am noticing this internal dialogue” and here we go again and watch the interactions. Ensure you DO NOT get caught up in your feelings and just become an observer. 

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This is somewhat of an alien concept for most people to comprehend and practice. The easiest way to realise this is to note that there are “two of you” in your head. For example, when you talk to yourself, it implies there must be two parties present (talker and listener) otherwise, no conversation could possibly take place. The notion of this identification opens amazing new possibilities and soul-searching such as: 

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• Who is talking to whom and which one is me? 

• Which one is the wiser one? 

• Who is the controlling one? 

• Which one should I really trust? 

• What are the mandates and driving forces for each of these two minds? 

• What should they want from one another? 

• Are they part of the same system and serving the same master? 

• If they have different masters, how come they belong to the same organisation/ system?

• With genuine intention and conscious practices, you learn to wake up from the undifferentiating concept of your mind and see the two aspects working within you.

 

Get in touch with your inner hidden drivers and beliefs – In my view, this is the main reason why we are born into this life - “to resolve all leftovers and unhealthy views on life that are currently shaping us with our current energy fields of attractions and repulsions”. We owe it to ourselves to consciously roll our sleeves up and get to work. We need to expand on our knowledge of our systemic universe to allow the emergence of new insights that can allow our individual inner tapestry to be openly displayed and reveal our true purpose of being. This soul-searching endeavour will fill in the missing link aspect of our place in the universe, changes our perspectives and bring a sense of purpose into our lives. It helps us answer the question of who we are and what we are made up of, what we are to do and why?  

 

Our combined hard and softcore intelligence allows us to survive, learn and develop objects to sustain us individually and collectively as social entities. There are many combinations of concepts and things we can perform in this life. The question you need to ask yourself is that “why do I end up having this set of understandings, aspirations, behaviours and experiences which are so different to anyone else around me”? What is it that uniquely defines me and decides I should do this and that?  The more we question the roots of our foundation, the more we can change the underlying beliefs and drivers for better and wiser existence. We can consciously help ourselves or even get external help from holistic practitioners and address all underlying beliefs that are not in line with our greater good and harmony in life. Do not become slaves to the obsessive fuelled drivers as they become your masters and rob you of the potential for a peaceful existence. 

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Realise you can choose to be happy – Consciously and honestly ask yourself that “if I had a real choice in my life, would I rather be happy or Sad”? Remember at any moment in time, you can be happy or sad, or somewhere in between. Despite what happens in front of you, you could choose to feel OK. There are absolutely no gains in being miserable. If you disagree, please write down the benefits of being miserable and read it out to yourself or even better, go public with it. You can imagine two people in an exact situation responding differently to the same event.                                                                                                                                                               

 

For example, they could have both lost their jobs in an exact circumstance, but one is cool about it and looks at new opportunities and the other person is angry, revengeful, and sad or perhaps touch suicidal. The point here is not about being happy when you lose your job, it is about the concept of your real happiness that is not dependent on the fact that everything has to go your way or else.  A bit of wisdom could reveal that life takes us down different paths and changes our world constantly, we could just appreciate the journey and smile as we go through it. The reason we feel miserable is that our emotional mind (the subconscious) generates sad emotional responses in accordance with its rigid and sometimes false expectations of life.

 

Ask yourself, “Do I REALLY want to be happy”? If the answer is “YES” then, the next time your subconscious whispers in your ears to be sad or miserable, you consciously allow yourself to intervene and say “my state of being is not dependent on my subconscious emotional ups and downs and for this reason, I choose to be happy, relaxed and follow my passion for new adventures”. Every time you challenge your subconscious mind, you regain more and more conscious powers and freedom from potential preoccupations with dramas and negativities. 

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CONCLUSION

Our deep personal cravings for living a happy life and experiencing a quality of life on a sustainable basis (in terms of physical and mental wellbeing) can only be achieved when our conscious vigilance rises to a level that we can: 1) consciously override our emotional biases; 2) easily change our redundant beliefs at will and: 3) recognise the context of the systemic nature of our world and its dynamic influences.

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