Our Subconscious – Real Deep Dive
Do we over rely on what we currently think we know, or thought we knew? Many consider us humans would do well to learn more about opening-up, to opening-up!
While scrappy debate is possible on many aspects of our subconscious it’s helpful to frame the whole thing as being the ‘dominant force and influence on all non-conscious inputs through our entire existence’. It’s likely this definition would blow most formal descriptions out the back door, and raise some eyebrows along the way, yet the overarching embodiment and its critical importance and credit for our entire existence makes it feel deserved of such a definition.
In a nutshell, our subconscious separates us from all other living species on the planet, yet one of its characteristics is how easily our ‘Sub’ can be influenced – by both us and our environment – and how tenuous and precarious our desirable life outcomes are when we leave our Sub unchecked. There are simple and easy ways to demonstrate this and examine ideas and methods to help manage those big and deep trap doors, and how to get our mind on track.
Our subconscious pokes and prods our conscious mind, almost constantly. Some may experience much more for themselves than that as suggested, opening doors and confidence to talents and capabilities they never dreamed they possessed. Modern science is surprisingly in the dark on a lot of stuff in this area – least of which calls for more basic agreement on defining our subconscious, let alone clearer understanding of its capabilities and nuances. Some suggest successful outcomes as having an implication more of a magical nature, and while we don’t know yet precisely what mechanisms are at play, till then it serves to think of components such as repeating affirmations act more like setting a huge directional arrow for our soul, rather than waving a magic wand. Alternatively think of a rescue helicopter warning a dozen lives about them about to walk straight off a cliff – only identified from the air.
While for a millennium it was believed that it was conscious thoughts which predominantly dictated what we do, what we don’t do, and when we do or don’t do things, it’s actually our subconscious overseeing most of it. It doesn’t just oversee our Innate behaviours (those core biological, physiological, and psychological functions – on which it already performs a truly monumental number of checks and balances) but it also plays a key role on things which we might have only thought we think we do.
So, our subconscious does the ‘big stuff’ (like keeping our blood pumping and keeping us breathing) and all the little stuff (like absently scratching an itch or waking us up in the morning). Consider the behaviour of ‘waking up’ (which might seem somewhat incidental – yet it is really important!) which involves our subconscious continually surveying and monitoring our immediate environment (light and noise levels, air temperature etc) while we sleep and triggers us if anything go a bit wonky (like the roof above us gets blown off) but otherwise patiently waiting to wake us up when the right set of conditions present.
The Cambridge Dictionary (2008) defines the human subconscious as the ‘part of your mind that notices and remembers information when you are not actively trying to do so and influences your behaviour even though you do not realise it’. In this author’s humble opinion and experience, it’s much, much more than that.
Current understanding of our human subconscious has it forming over at least ten thousand generations. From earliest procreation, our subconscious began driving instinct-based survival mechanisms and essentially allowed us as ‘living things’ to be. Think of a chicken pecking through an eggshell and into the world, or two tadpoles almost simultaneously flicking their tails to escape a hungry pond eel: as far as we know, these behaviours do not involve direct instruction from parents or represent learned behaviour from observation.
All living things on planet Earth have built-in, pre-programmed survival skills. These are largely considered ‘subconscious actions’ and are part of our complex DNA code, passed genetically from one generation to the next. Most are totally automatic or ‘wired in’. In the event of a random genetic mutation occurring which alters physical or mental behaviour of new offspring (later proving to be an advantage) do we see noticeable change within a species. When those genetic improvements are reliably passed onto future generations these mutations cohesively then manifest in an overall benefit to the wider new species population – likely of detriment to species members without the improvement and other non-genetically-linked species in the same survival space.
Balancing the scales
So, let’s present a context where our subconscious (our Sub) and our conscious-Self sit at opposite ends of a theoretical set of ‘balancing scales’. Our conscious-Self does the thinking and pokes commentary to our Sub, on which both then work to retain or establish desirable balance and harmony. Our Sub learns and adapts from our conscious inputs, and pokes or ‘massages’ signals back to our conscious-Self. While some theorists propose we might have more than one subconscious (its entirety perceived as a ‘collection of separate entities)’ this is getting close to suggesting we retain multiple personalities, or that of base-line Schizophrenia theory (Smith et al., 2000). Frankly, this sounds akin to high performance sports teams accepting highly enthusiastic fans can move from their team’s changing room to stadium seats as and when they like. So, while we’ll leave the multiple personality theory to one side for now, it’s reasonable though we recognise something close to a subconscious-conscious ‘scale’ being at work. These balancing scales may need lots of little things together to ‘tip’ the balance or could move more dramatically by singular dramatic or traumatic events. Each influences the other, both up and down.
Finding that balance
On our proposed theoretical ‘continuum’, our conscious-Self is led toward decision making from our immediate thoughts and motivations, and our subconscious-Self (our Sub) automatically begins processing the same subject matter, and any related immediate conscious inputs bearing importance on the matter. Our conscious-Self and Sub may continue reprocessing information over a period, both for matters which yet remain unresolved, or even those matters resolved or concluded. Stress and anxiety come into play if important or difficult matters remain unresolved – especially when matters are knowingly swept under the carpet. Our Sub continues to work in the background, unless advised otherwise and even with the best of our ability we ‘hide’ things or pretend they don’t matter, our Sub knows better! Yes, so it is, our Sub ‘bubbles under’ taking care of not just the tediously big and ‘boring’ stuff (such as walking, looking, breathing, swallowing, growing and the million or so seemingly incidental yet critical daily functions) but also nurtures those ‘shadows’ around matters, new or old which ‘bask’ in high levels of perceived importance or difficulty. So, it’s important to recognise when our conscious-Self triggers our Sub, that’s in standby mode for more instruction. Similarly, the other way around when our Sub triggers our conscious-Self we have choices. Whether we act (or even know how to act) is a separate matter.