Your mind is comprised of what you are consciously aware of and what is hidden from your awareness, the subconscious or unconscious.
Considering your spiritual self is your inner self, it’s very spiritual to get in touch with your subconscious fears, defenses, and strengths. We believe it’s necessary for ultimate self-discovery and to make the most of your life. Until you do that you’re only dealing with the surface you, not the real you.
“One of the unfortunate things about our education system is that we do not teach students how to avail themselves of their subconscious capabilities.”
Bill Lear
“People who excel at book learning tend to call up from memory what they have learned in order to follow stored instructions. Others who are better at internalized learning use the thoughts that flow from their subconscious. The experienced skier doesn’t recite instructions on how to ski and then execute them; rather, he does it well ‘without thinking,’ in the same way he breathes without thinking. Understanding these differences is essential.”
Ray Dalio
Three Examples of Subconscious Mind Power
1. Subconscious beliefs at odds with conscious views generate internal strife, making your life more difficult. This is surprisingly common, particularly involving the topic of money.
Consciously, Trent has a burning desire to be wealthy. He’s making all the right connections and is recognized as one of the best in his field. Yet Trent’s parents routinely vilified “rich people” in Trent’s younger years. He constantly heard about how the rich were horrible people: the owner of the business that employed Trent’s father was a “greedy rich guy,” his mother’s cousin and her family were “rich jerks,” and so on. By the time Trent was eighteen, his subconscious mind automatically associated wealth with terrible people.
Having such a strong negative subconscious belief of wealth, is it any wonder that Trent has made a series of bad decisions in his career and financial life that has led to him being of modest means? No way Trent’s concealed mind would allow him to be one of those awful rich people who his parents hate. Worse, Trent doesn’t even acknowledge this, and attributes his life to “bad luck.” You can’t become what you resent, and if your concealed mind has a big problem with what you aspire to be, it’ll be a constant struggle.
2. Another common way subconscious beliefs are at odds with conscious views, making your life more difficult, is involving attractiveness and looks.
Several lifetimes ago (considering reincarnation is a viable theory), Geraldine had a lifetime as one of the prettiest young ladies in her European village. Unfortunately, an obsessed rogue singled her out, stalked her, and eventually violently raped her, ruining her life.
As a young girl, Faye was sexually molested. Upon maturity, she finds she has an eating disorder; she can’t stop eating.
Both of these women, Faye, and Geraldine, are morbidly obese, though if they lost the weight both would be much more attractive.
The obesity and subsequent unattractive appearance keeps both of them “safe.” Although they don’t consciously realize it yet, they fear losing the weight and becoming attractive because their concealed mind associates attractiveness with sexual abuse and rape. The hidden part of their mind does everything in its power to make them avoid shedding the weight, and thus feeling more vulnerable.
3. Another way concealed beliefs are at odds with conscious views, making your life more difficult, is involving relationships.
Bob wants to be in a serious relationship instead of being single. He seems to unknowingly sabotage every opportunity and relationship he’s in, to his dismay. He doesn’t yet realize that his concealed mind associates relationships with horrendous pain, loss, and suffering due to one of his most recent past lives as a merchant: he was very happily married, yet his wife died young. At that time, he made a vow to remain single in honor of his deceased wife. This painful experience and subsequent vow, deeply hidden in his mind, are causing big problems in his life today.
The subconscious mind, with all of its fears, biases, defenses, and hidden talents, is largely illogical and always in survival mode, like a fearful animal. Subconscious thinking must be aligned with conscious desires in order to reach your goals more quickly. Though it does serve a very important role in protecting you, taking the first step in realizing that there’s more to your mind than your conscious mind is vital toward making the most of your life.
“The minute you say ‘I can’t’, it is another wrong affirmation to your subconscious that you choose to lose.”
Tsem Tulku
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