Do you know really just how powerful your mind really is? The truth is, is that many people are actually not aware of the power of their minds, especially their subconscious mind.

Firstly, what is the mind? And where is the mind?! Many people get confused thinking that the mind is the brain, however the mind and the brain are separate entities. The brain is the physical matter, all that gooey stuff you see if you were to look inside someone’s skull, the organ that is filled with about 100 billion neurons (brain cells) that forms part of the nervous system (the spinal cord is the other part of our nervous system).

The mind on the other hand, particularly with regard to thought, is said to be formless; it is non-physical. You cannot see it. You cannot touch it. You cannot photograph it. The mind is where all of our awareness or perception, our cognitive functions such as to think, to comprehend, to calculate mathematical equations etc, comes from. Does this come from within our brain cells, or the cells in the rest of our body, or does it come from an energy field outside of our physical body? The answer to where the mind is located is an ongoing debate.

So coming back to the power of our mind, did you know that the mind is made up of the Conscious mind, the Subconscious mind? The conscious mind is your thinking or objective mind that lives within the realms of the five senses of what you can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. Your conscious mind is the aspect of you that is always aware of your surroundings. It is also the aspect of the mind that compares our current situation with past experiences (memories that are banked up in our subconscious mind), analyses information, and makes decisions. Our conscious mind is the aspect of our mind that decides what we will have for dinner tonight, or decides whether the very large dog approaching us or not is going to be dangerous.

The subconscious mind on the other hand is the unlimited hard-drive that stores every detail from all of our past experiences. It is the aspect of our mind that stores all of our information and memories about very large dogs and whether we know of dangerous experiences with them so that we can then take necessary action about whether we need to be cautious. Thus the subconscious mind is also the storehouse of our trauma memories we have experienced in our life, including the repressed traumas. It is also the storehouse of all of our habits of thoughts and beliefs (both helpful and limiting thoughts and beliefs), such as those that are about how we’re not good enough, not smart enough, that we won’t ever be successful… the list goes on.

The power of the subconscious mind is so incredible that, according to Dr Bruce Lipton, biologist and author of Biology of Belief, the subconscious mind is 500,000 times more powerful than the subconscious mind with a capacity to process 20 million bits of information per second, while the conscious mind has the capacity to process only 40 bits of information per second. Now that’s a big difference!

So basically, it is our subconscious mind that is running our life! If you tell your subconscious mind that you’re worthless, or you can’t do it, it will believe you! If you tell your subconscious mind that you are worthy and capable, it will believe you! The subconscious mind doesn’t evaluate whether something is true or not, it just assumes that everything you tell it from your conscious mind is true. These beliefs most of the time then determine our behaviour we take.

When you go to ask for that pay rise from your boss and your mind tells you “Don’t bother, you’re not worth the extra money, why would you even ask him, you’re just going to look like a fool”, which then fills you with all sorts of uncomfortable emotions like fear/anxiety, shame, and worthlessness leading you then to feel depressed, this is all coming from your subconscious programming/beliefs about how you’re “not good enough”. If you have ever tried to change your limiting beliefs with positive thinking like affirmations, you may find this process helpful, though really slow to shift the belief at the core level. This is because this mental process of positive thinking and affirmations is using the Conscious mind, which does not really change much of our limiting beliefs at the subconscious level. If we really want to change our thought processes, we must change or “reprogram” our beliefs at the subconscious level, in combination with conscious mind techniques.

It is really important that we have a positive framework of beliefs as opposed to a framework of limiting beliefs as it is our beliefs that determine our thoughts and our behaviour which then largely contributes to all sorts of psychological suffering for us such as depression, anxiety, stress, sleep problems, substance use issues, eating and weight management issues, amongst others.

As a Clinical Psychologist whom has expertise in dealing with the mind and psychological issues, I find it very helpful to work with my clients at the subconscious level in combination with the conscious level of the mind to help improve their overall psychological and emotional functioning and wellbeing. To work at the subconscious level of the mind allows us to address your presenting concerns at the root of the issue as opposed to at the surface level which often feels like a ‘band-aide’ fix for the problem to represent itself at some other stage in life when it gets triggered.

Wanting to release old programs of beliefs and traumas that are keeping you stuck in anxiety, low self-esteem, depression and other psychological struggles, but not sure how? Let’s connect about how we can work together to help you achieve the vitality and happiness you’ve been waiting for.

With gratitude,

Ashley Gilmour
Clinical Psychologist
Founder of Vitality Unleashed Psychology

Do you know the power of your subconscious mind? Contact Ashley your Gold Coast Psychologist via email contact@vitalityunleashed.com.au or on 07 55743888. We are more than happy to help you!

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