The Power of the Unconscious Mind: How It Affects Your Life
Have you ever wondered about the power of your unconscious mind? This hidden force can influence your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in ways you may not even realize. By understanding how your unconscious mind works, you can tap into its potential to create positive change in your life.
What is the unconscious mind ?
The unconscious mind is a part of the mind that works beyond your conscious awareness. It includes all thoughts, feelings, and memories that are not currently in conscious awareness.
Sigmund Freud popularized the concept of the unconscious mind in the context of modern psychology, He defined the unconscious mind as a repository of repressed memories, desires, and impulses that influence our conscious thoughts and behaviors.
The power of the unconscious mind can include automatic responses to stimuli, For example, flinching when someone throws something at you or feeling anxious in certain situations without knowing “why“
The key differences between the subconscious and conscious minds is that the conscious is more focused on logical and rational thinking,
while the subconscious is driven by emotions and automatic responses.
This is why we often find ourselves doing things without really thinking about them, such as reaching for a snack when we’re feeling stressed or anxious.
Understanding the power of your unconscious mind can help you make positive changes in your life.
Why do we even have an unconscious?
The human brain is a complex and constantly active organ, responsible for processing information from the senses and making decisions. While much of this processing occurs unconsciously, it is essential for daily functioning. The unconscious mind is like an engine, constantly processing information and making connections without us even realizing it. Ultimately,
According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind refers to thoughts, desires, feelings, and memories that do not come into conscious awareness or are beyond conscious awareness.
By this definition, the unconscious is often seen as unacceptable or painfully unpleasant.
Sigmund Freud believed that the unconscious influences conscious behavior in subtle ways.
How does the Unconscious work?
95% of the human mind consists of the Unconscious and the remaining 5% is the unconscious mind used to process conscious information.
To understand the unconscious, the example of the iceberg can be better understood.
A small part of it is outside the water and most of it is underwater, out of sight.
All the things we perceive in conscious awareness. All those things are like a piece of ice that makes us see beyond the surface of the water.
The rest of the information that is outside of conscious awareness is part of the unconscious.
All of the unconscious affects our thoughts even if we don’t notice them.
In the 5 percent of consciousness, most of our thoughts and behaviors are reflected by the people and environment around us.
Power of the unconscious
Unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and painful triggers and feelings in the subconscious can potentially cause several problems,
including:
Excessive anger, prejudiced thoughts, difficult social relationships, hurt feelings, relationship problems, etc
Sigmund Freud believed that all our instincts and desires are part of the unconscious mind. Granted wishes are usually expressed in dreams or involuntary slips of language, also known as Freudian slips.
Unconscious desires are usually very aggressive and unacceptable or unworkable under normal circumstances.
History of unconsciousness
It is generally believed that knowledge about the unconscious has existed for thousands of years.
Philosopher Frederick Schelling was the first to use the term “unconscious” in the late 18th century, later translated into English by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
If you look at the field of psychology, many thinkers, and researchers including William James and Wilhelm Wundt, discussed it, but the work of Freud was the most popular, and Freud himself made these ideas the main part of his psychological work.
Carl Jung also supported Freud’s approach but went a step further and presented the concept of the collective unconscious and emphasized that the collective unconscious is the common consciousness of all mankind.
Modern psychologists are constantly researching unconscious mental processes along new lines, their topics include all of the above negative and unconscious memory.
Sigmund Freud, was not the inventor of the concept of the unconscious mind.
However, the reason for the popularity is Freud. And most theories of the unconscious are associated with the work of Freud.
Uses of the unconscious mind
It is considered very important to bring a thought or idea hidden in the unconscious to the consciousness to get rid of a psychological disorder.
This theory of Freud has been supported by many modern researchers.
So far, many methods have been discovered by which scientists can study the unconscious.
Free association technique
Freud introduced the technique of free association, in which patients were instructed to verbalize any thought or thought that came to mind without effort, and describe to them how insignificant and shameful it was, thereby further opening up those thoughts. The contents of the unconscious mind dating back to childhood can be explored, where hurts and anxieties, and painful memories reside.
Interpretation of dreams
One suggestion is that if one considers the dreams of a person who has nightmares, there may be unconscious thoughts hidden in the dreams.
Freud believed that dreams are a form of wish fulfillment. Since these unconscious desires and thoughts cannot be expressed in conscious life, they are expressed in dreams.
Flash suppression technique
Research in modern psychology has shown that even concepts that we don’t consciously consider or incorporate into our lives can have a powerful effect on our behavior.
Utilizing a procedure called constant flash suppression, the experimenters were able to show an impression on a display without people noticing it in their awareness because they were diverted by other visual displays rather than the image.
Researchers have found that people under the influence of a negative unconscious tend to gravitate toward images with a negative connotation even though there is no direct correlation or cause.
Researchers are also working on things that were previously associated with our conscious intelligence.
It has almost been established that things that we are not aware of in our unconscious mind influence our conscious thoughts.
However, by becoming more aware of our subconscious thought patterns and behaviors, we can start to take control of our lives and make more intentional choices.
This can lead to greater happiness, fulfilment, and success in all areas of our lives.
It’s important to note that this process of self-awareness and intentional living takes time and effort, but the benefits are well worth it.
With practice, we can develop a stronger sense of self and a clearer understanding of our values and goals.
