The Subconscious Mind
Our ability to engage effectively with the world is highly influenced by the signals we send to our subconscious mind. This is crucial to understand because this deeper aspect of our psyche permeates/influences all aspects of our life, from our perceptions of the world, the kind of choices we make, to the quality of our relationships with others and with yourself. Ultimately, it is the influence of our subconscious that can determine to a large extent the kind of life we will experience. On a broader scale, it is the ‘collective unconscious’ of individuals that can alter the functioning and direction of communities and society.
While the role our subconscious plays in our lives is profound, many people are either unaware of or refuse to acknowledge its influence. Still, there are some that reject its existence and look only to the conscious mind to explain aspects of human behavior. To reduce the totality of an individual to their conscious mind is to disregard all of the underlying subconscious systems that form the foundation of an individual’s psyche.
The more we continue to ignore the subconscious, the more the human mind, and the solutions to our problems will continue to evade us.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” This is a perhaps the most famous quote by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in which he summarized the important influence of the subconscious mind. Much our behavior is driven by unconscious tendencies patterns and deeply embedded subconscious systems that keep you alive. However, some of our unconscious tendencies are highly limiting in that they prevent an individual from developing.
In some cases, it is our subconscious mind that creates problems in our lives. If left unresolved, our subconscious can make us and the people around us to suffer. Everyone has a family member, colleague, a friend or acquaintance that exhibits a behavior pattern that they are unaware of and which has a negative effect on the people around them. This is an outward manifestation of the unconscious mind. In a similar fashion, you are likely to have unconscious habits that irritate others and or prevent you from developing as a person.