Below The Threshold of Consciousness
One of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford - “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.” His words are so simple, yet so powerful at the same time. For me, this quote ties back to the topic about the subconscious mind, which I said I would write more on… so as promised, here it is.
The subconscious has been talked and written about quite extensively. It’s not only an important subject, but it is very complex, and people are learning more and more about it constantly. This topic is not one that is even fully understood, and I’m not sure that it ever will be. I will be sharing with you a snippet of what I have discovered and my experiences with the subconscious.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the subconscious as “the mental activities just below the threshold of consciousness.”1 This is where I have previously talked about a person’s mind running on auto pilot. Our subconscious mind operates behind the scenes and can dictate decisions or actions, sometimes unbeknownst to us.
Our subconscious is like an internal computer. It is constantly being programmed based on our life experiences, memories, traumas, and the like. As we move through life, our subconscious tries to steer us away from harms way.
Picture if I were to yell “duck” really loud. You’d probably hit the floor without sparing a single conscious thought. Probably because you’ve been exposed to a situation in real life or a movie where something was moving rapidly toward a person and someone yelled duck, allowing them to avoid being struck. So now your subconscious is programmed to dip down quickly when you hear the word duck yelled out loud.
Unfortunately, the subconscious isn’t always spot on. It can start translating stress, anxiety, and other feelings as being harmful to a person when they aren’t necessarily harmful. I don’t know about you, but in my life, I have found that there are good stressors and bad ones. Same with anxiety and uncertainty—some can be good and some are not so good.
For example, a high school kid has their first legitimate date coming up. They’re feeling super nervous about what to say and how to act. They have major butterflies leading up to the date, and when it finally comes time, the date goes horribly wrong and the kid leaves super embarrassed. This kid will now likely associate those butterflies with feelings of embarrassment. Had the date gone really well, perhaps those butterflies would have been aligned with a much more positive feeling.
The subconscious does not always snap to such quick judgement. It could take several really bad dates for the kid to really correlate the butterflies with embarrassment. This varies for everyone though. Everyone’s internal thoughts and feelings will be different. There is no one-size-fits-all scenario for this type of thing. The thing to watch for is random correlations that your brain has concocted over time.
Imagine for a second that you want to start a new business, learn a new language, make a new friend, or start journaling… whatever it might be, but you start telling yourself that you can’t do it or it’s too hard. Maybe you think you don’t have time, it’s too expensive, or it’s not worth it.
Abrupt negative thoughts can be very common for people when they start thinking about stepping out of their box or trying something new. This is our subconscious trying to safeguard us against things that might be uncomfortable or new for us. We have to take a realistic approach to these moments and determine if our subconscious is truly protecting us, or if it’s overreacting.
Often, the subconscious is overreacting. In those moments, by entertaining the negative thoughts, we are pushing ourselves in the direction of failure. Constant negative self-talk is further wiring self-doubt into your brain.
This is where the earlier Henry Ford quote comes into play. We have to learn to take control of our mind and our thoughts… they’re still ours nevertheless—even if we have a subconscious mind that is constantly trying to play backseat driver.
In some of my previous posts, I’ve mentioned “trains of thought.” This came from a former therapist of mine who asked me to envision my thoughts as trains. If a thought was negative, bad, or otherwise not productive, I could simply choose not to hop on that particular train. I could choose to get on a different train that was going in a direction which was aligned with my goals and desired outcome.
This task empowered me with the realization that I can control my own thoughts to certain extents. I don’t have to succumb to my brains initial thoughts. I have a say in my subconscious narrative.
In order to do this, you have to find a great sense of self-awareness. You have to learn to slow your mind down. Be able to locate the correlation between what you’re doing and what you’re thinking.
A big part of this is choosing our narratives, self-talk, and intentions. If we find things within our subconscious mind that are holding us back, then we have to choose different trains of thought. We have to utilize self-talk that bolsters our goals rather than hindering them. Ideally, in the long run, this will reprogram our subconscious bit-by-bit to work more effectively for each of us.
This takes a lot of time and practice. Sometimes it takes an even deeper focus than what time allows for on the fly. For example: meditating or EMDR (a type of therapy that allows people to process traumas or other life events). With more complex stuff, I will actually note it down and return to it later when I have more time to think or meditate on it.
I’ve tapped into many of these more complex thoughts while going through EMDR sessions. It has allowed me to take a deeper, more concentrated look into past events that have programmed my subconscious over time.
Most of this revolved around the anxiety that tried to control parts of my life for many years. The reality is that all of this anxiety was derived from past traumas and events that my subconscious mind was now holding onto. It was trying to steer me away from various activities and situations that it felt could cause me distress.
The reality, however, is that some of these situations just simply weren’t avoidable, or they weren’t even bad for me. In fact most all of them were quite good. Had I listened to those thoughts and feelings as they surfaced, I would have been constantly retreating for safety, and for no good reason.
Looking back, I am very thankful that I was able to realize how my anxiety was holding me back and that I was able to get it under control. Now I use it to try and drive change in other areas of my life that had fallen off course as well. Finding the ability to tweak my subconscious thinking and reprogram my trains of thought has helped substantially to start working toward a better me.
I believe the subconscious mind is somewhat like a continuum. Parts of it are more readily accessible and closer to the surface, while others may be hidden so deep that digging it up could be highly difficult or impossible. Then you have everything in-between.
I highly recommend visiting with a mental health professional to help guide you in the direction that is best for you. Then you can also start building a better relationship with yourself. Knowing ourselves—how we think and why we think in those ways—is paramount to the things discussed in this post. Those things can all go much more smoothly when guided by professionals.
I hope all of you have enjoyed reading this post. Sign up for updates on the website to be the first to know about new posts and other important information. I hope to see you all back here very soon.
Much Love,
Logan August
References
1 “Subconscious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subconscious. Accessed 12 Apr. 2021.