Functioning of the subconscious mind- Purvi

Our brain is a physical organ which has control over the entire human body whereas the mind is a hypothetical entity which is a product of the human cerebral cortex and medulla oblongata. This hypothetical entity has been given certain categorisations to understand our emotions well

• Conscious,

• Subconscious

• Unconscious.

Obviously conscious mind refers to the store house of active information about which our brain is aware of and can process it quickly while majorly interacting with physical world along with it, whereas the unconscious information which said to be stored in medulla; consists of fears, phobias whose actual reason and existence is not well known or can’t be interpreted by the brain on the surface level. Sigmund Freud, father of psychotherapy, gave an iceberg model describing all three components.

But what about the subconscious?

Freud used dream analysis as a method to get inside our mind and understand emotions well. According to him dreams were the royal road to our subconscious and unconscious mind. It reveals our desires and problems and sometimes solutions as well in the form of distorted events and images to get better insight towards what we are dealing with.

Subconscious is a part of mind which is not under focal awareness, which means that the information stored here is not active but can be interpreted or revealed if focused and concentrated enough on, yet it plays a huge role in how we react to and interpret the outside world based on our learnings and beliefs. Now you understand who is responsible for our memories and photographic memory? It stores all your experiences and memories, the photographs and faces you saw once are also stored here and can be recognised as soon as we try to retrieve them.

The function of your subconscious mind is to store and retrieve data. Its job is to ensure that you respond exactly the way you are programmed. Your subconscious mind makes everything you say and do fit a pattern consistent with your self-concept. All your habits of thinking and acting are stored in your subconscious mind. It has memorized all your comfort zones and it works to keep you in them.

Your subconscious mind causes you to feel emotionally and physically uncomfortable whenever you attempt to do anything new or different. It goes against changing any of your established patterns of behaviour. You can feel your subconscious pulling you back toward your comfort zone each time you try something new. Even thinking about doing something different from what you’re accustomed to will make you feel tense and uneasy.

Ever heard of GUT feeling? Which you generally have before diving into some activity or before forming new relations or maybe regarding a person or a situation.

Your intuition is the way how the subconscious mind communicates with the conscious mind. The information that informs 'that feeling' is real. It understands the situation well enough before your conscious mind can understand it but sometimes, we tend to ignore it, confusing it with overthinking.

It’s a ‘knowing’ or at the very least a gentle persuasion that something is off, or awesome, or needs our attention. It’s subtle and doesn’t clamour for attention, which is why it’s easily missed. Research suggests that emotion and intuition have a physical presence in our gut. The gut is lined with a network of neurons and is often referred to as the ‘second brain.’ It’s known as the enteric nervous system (ENS) and it contains about 100 million neurons, which is more than the spinal cord and peripheral nervous system but less than the brain. This is why we get ‘sick’ about having to make a tough decision or knowing we’ve made a bad one.

you’ll know your intuition is there because you’ll be able to feel it – if you let yourself. You’ll feel it in your belly and it will goosebump your skin, send a shiver down your spine, race your heart and quicken your breath. Sometimes it’s even more subtle and the only way to describe it as a ‘knowing’. You’ll feel when something is right – it will feel clear, nourishing and enriching. And you’ll feel when something is off.

Our subconscious has ability to transcend limiting beliefs, it teaches us how to get under self-control & if focused on carefully you will get all the answers to your right and wrongs. It empowers and supports your decisions even before our analytical consciousness takes it into consideration.

It signals our body by giving certain types of hints, for example- changes in heart rate, anxiety and stress kicking in, digestive problems, etc.

Meditation has been proven to be the best yogic method to calm our brain and body so that we can get in touch with our subconscious for better functioning of the human system.