THE THREE ASPECTS OF THE MIND

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” This outlook allows us to understand the reality, capabilities, and limits of our body, mind, and spirit. As spiritual beings of infinite conscience, our human experience is meant to help our soul learn and grow. We have likely lived thousands of times in this and other realms, experiencing different bodies, genders, downfalls, and blessings.

All the experiences accumulated through these lives have been stored in our unconscious mind.

There are three main aspects of our consciousness and we all have them and use them one way or another. They are:

1. Conscious mind

2. Subconscious mind

3. Superconscious mind.

Although this article will focus on helping you understand the subconscious mind, here is a brief overview of each aspect of the mind.

1. Conscious mind

This is the aspect of the mind that we know the most because it is the aspect that we are aware of. It gathers sensory information from the world around us by utilizing the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) in order to literally make sense of the world. We use our senses consciously (e.i. these flowers smell nice, I see that beautiful landscape, this cup of coffee is hot, this ice cream tastes very good, etc).

The conscious mind is objective by nature, discriminating and determining, which allows it to constantly be changing, growing, and learning. It has short term memory and employs beliefs, judgments, and perceptions to program the subconscious mind.

A thorough appreciation of perception is key to understanding the mind because situations can only be perceived through the individual’s past experiences which can lead two people to have completely different perceptions of the same lived experience; and it is only through the appreciation of perception that we understand that both perceptions are valid.

1. Superconscious mind:

Although this aspect is more complex to comprehend, it is not less valid than the other aspects.The superconscious mind is your Higher Self; your Spirit, Divine Source, God within you. It is the source of Truth, of intuition. This is why it is essential to learn how to listen to our intuition, because it reveals the truth. Although every religious and spiritual scripture tells us otherwise, we have been told to understand that God (or any other higher power) is external and thus separate from us; that is not true.

God/Spirit/Universe/Divine Source, or any other name you prefer to use to call it, lives within you, you are one with the Higher Power and can access our collective consciousness, we just don’t do it as we should.

1. Subconscious mind:

Subjective by nature, this aspect records and returns everything that has been experienced through the five senses throughout all your lives.

All the emotions, beliefs, experiences and learnings that it receives from the conscious mind are stored here and creates a channel to the superconscious mind.

This aspect cannot think or analyze, its only purpose is to bring into your life what you make it understand that you need to validate your thoughts and emotions.

The characteristics of the Subconscious Mind:

• It is innocent: It does not judge. The subconscious does not have a concept of duality, meaning it does not determine what is good or evil, beautiful or ugly, right or wrong. It only assimilates and believes what you tell it through your conscious mind, recreating and validating experiences that reaffirm its preconceived beliefs and dismiss whatever goes against it.

Example:

What you tell your subconscious vs. how your subconscious validates and reinforces this belief.

• “I am so unlucky. Everything always goes bad for me.”

Subconscious mission: Identify situations that have not resulted in my desired outcome and ignore any opportunities this outcome may have provided and bring more situations to validate my unluckiness.

• “I am so fat and I will get fatter if I eat this or that.”

Subconscious mission: Inhibit weight loss results, debilitate willpower or even create body dysmorphia to confirm you are fat.

• “No one loves me.”

Subconscious mission: Showcase times you were wronged, dismissing any external perspective and anyone who is actively showing you love and care.

This is where we must ask ourselves: “What story am I telling myself about who I am? What language am I using?

• The Other does not exist: Since duality does not exist for the subconscious, we are all one in this part of our mind. So no matter if you are talking about others positively or negatively, the subconscious will interpret that whatever you are saying is directed at yourself. Which is most often the case when we consider that others are a mirror of ourselves. This knowledge allows us to understand ourselves much better by pointing out what we like or dislike about ourselves.

Example:

What you say about others vs. how your subconscious internalizes this.

• “That person is so intelligent.”

What your subconscious hears: I am very intelligent.

• “They are so weird. What a loser.”

What your subconscious hears: I am so weird. I am a loser.

• “Did you see what she is wearing? She is so ugly.

What your subconscious hears: What I am wearing makes me look so ugly.

Again we must ask ourselves: How do I talk about others?

Use this knowledge about how our subconscious mind operates to begin truly meeting yourself. This could be difficult at the beginning because it may not be evident why some people may raise those negative feelings in yourself. You just have to keep observing and asking yourself those introspective questions that will identify how you manifest the characteristic that bothers you about others in yourself.

Example:

You are a very punctual person and it really bothers you when others are late. It might be useful to ask yourself what areas in your life you are being “unpunctual” with yourself. Observe if there are areas where you are not showing up for yourself or you are procrastinating.

• It cannot distinguish from the Real, Symbolic, or Imaginary:

The Real, Symbolic, or Imaginary are all the same to the subconscious. If I imagine something, the subconscious understands that it truly is happening. There have been scientific experiments where a group of people imagine themselves exercising for 30 minutes; after a few weeks, the experimental group lost weight at or near the rate of those who actually exercised.

This inability of distinguishing what is real or not is one of the traits of the subconscious most often used by therapists to resolve past trauma. In a controlled setting, the patient is guided to relive the traumatic situation; the subconscious believes that the situation is happening at that very moment, then the patient with the help of the therapist is to use certain imaginary or symbolic resources to change the perception that one had of that situation.

Example:

Imagine that it is very hot and you are very thirsty so you decide to go to the kitchen, open the fridge and you find a jug of water and some very green, juicy limes. You take one of the limes and squeeze it to make it even juicier. Now, imagine that you take a knife and you cut this lemon in half and squeeze its juice in your mouth. The juice is refreshing and delicious. How does your mouth feel right now? It's probably full of saliva. Is this lemon real or imaginary?

• Time is non-existent: The past, present or future does not exist for the subconscious, only the NOW. Everything that is happening in your mind is occurring here and now..

Example:

• Think of a moment that brought you a lot of happiness. How do you feel thinking about this moment? You’re probably smiling.

• Now think of a moment that made you really sad or mad. How did your mood change thinking of this moment?

We live 95% of our time in our subconscious mind and only 5% in our conscious mind. Our subconscious’ only objective is our survival. Here are a few activities that our subconscious does for us without us thinking about it.

• Heart beat

• Respiratory function

• Organ function and synchronicity

• Digestion

• Muscle memory (walking, riding a bike, driving home, etc. )

• Waking up and sleeping

• Fight or flight when experiencing danger

• Emotional response (crying, laughing, etc.)

It is vital to have a thorough understanding about the content that was written in this article. This understanding will help you manage your state of mind in a more assertive way.

Dave Tadros, a friend, years ago taught me the concept of “Synthetic Happiness”. Pretend that you are feeling happy until your mood has actually changed. This is really a “fake it until you make it” mentality that helps you pretend that you are something until you really are.

From now on, look for three resources or activities that bring you joy :

• Dancing

• Listening to music (make sure the content of the music is also happy)

• Coloring books

• Or simply let your imagination fly and do something that makes you feel silly. Pretend you are a kid again and do an activity that would have made that child happy, like jumping on a trampoline.

Another strategy that may give you excellent results is to wear a rubber band or bracelet. Every time you find yourself speaking to your subconscious mind in a negative manner, lightly snap the rubber band so that it gives you a little tap on the wrist. The idea is not to mistreat yourself, it doesn't need to hurt, just to make you aware that you have to shift your thinking.

If you have any questions about what is explained in this article, contact me at luz@lightandsoulhealing.com.