Making the Unconscious Conscious
Carl Yung, famous psychologist and philosopher, once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
What exactly was he talking about? Short answer; the power of your subconscious mind.
What is the Subconscious Mind?
The mind, according to psychologists, is primarily made up of two parts, the conscious and unconscious mind. Many liken it to the metaphor of an iceberg with the tip of the iceberg above the water representing our conscious mind and the rest of the iceberg, as much as 95% of its entirety, submerged below water, representing the subconscious mind. Like the iceberg, the subconscious mind is the part of your mind that operates below your normal level of waking consciousness.
Also like the iceberg, 95% of the time you are operating by the directive of your subconscious mind. You're running on auto-pilot, and for good reason. This allows the subconscious mind to pump your blood, fill your cells with oxygen, and direct hundreds of thousands of other routine tasks to keep your body in a balanced state of homeostasis. If we had to think about all of that happening at once, there would be no "life" as we know it. But it can also greatly limit you if the programs, or as I like to say the design, of your subconscious mind - all of your habits, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and at that highest level; identity - is outdated and no longer serving you.
There was a time when this blueprint once served you or the habit, thought, emotion, etc. wouldn't have been created and stored in your subconscious mind. There was a time when it solved a problem, or possibly you believed it solved a problem, you were experiencing. Today, this may very well be the design that's holding you back from living the life you know is waiting for you.
If you take a look around and identify an area of your life where you're experiencing pain, suffering, frustration, irritation, or any related emotion (we can all do this, myself included, quite easily) you will see where your subconscious mind is running a program that may have worked at one time in your life but is no longer supporting your growth and expansion. This is an area of your life where you have not yet made the unconscious conscious. It's time to change that. Making this shift is the catalyst for all of the others we will work on in this 4-week course. It's the foundation.
What is Consciousness?
At one point, all of those patterns in your subconscious mind were conscious. Many of these were created when you were very young and in what neuroscientists call a highly plastic state, which is just a fancy way of saying your brain and mind were doing a lot of learning as you tried to make sense of this odd place called earth. Learning, creating, and imagining all require high levels of consciousness. Once those behaviors are repeated long enough, or a highly emotional event occurs that quickly creates an imprint in your subconscious mind, they are moved to your subconscious mind to run on auto-pilot. Basically, instead of doing something you become it. It becomes a part of you and you operate from that place of existence. Naturally, the way to redesign this process is to reverse it. Make it conscious and create again.
The way to do this is through what many of us call mindfulness. Mindfulness, awareness, presence, and consciousness are all routes to the same destination. They are simply the language we use for trying to somehow make the intangible state of consciousness tangible.
Only once you become aware of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can you change them. It's like shining a light into the darkness. You can't see what's there until you turn the light on and take a good look at it. This can often be a painful process, which is why many of us avoid it, find routes around it, or let it remain completely in the dark where we'd like it to stay. It's also a process that requires more energy, and goes completely against what your brain and mind are designed to do to help you survive - conserve energy. By default, you will always do what's easier, safer, and faster, otherwise known as defaulting to the design that's already in place. This is a great way to stay stuck in a stagnant comfort zone though, unable to grow and expand. Awareness requires energy but the reward, higher levels of consciousness and therefore growth and expansion, is immeasurable.
The good news is, strengthening your awareness is like building any other muscle in your body. You start small. You recognize a thought that has moved into your mind and without judgment, observe it. Notice it and get curious about it. Then, once it's in the light, you can choose to change it or keep it. You decide if it's working for you or not, instead of your subconscious mind running the show. Then you practice. You become the observer. Noticing each time a thought, emotion, or behavior isn't serving you. Over time, especially when reinforced with meditation, journaling, and the exercises in this course, you'll learn to become entirely present. Many spiritual teachers call this enlightenment (in other words you've shown a light on all of the darkness, so much so, you become the light) but in this practice, we will call it becoming conscious.
True consciousness leads to a greater understanding of yourself and essentially, a greater power to make positive changes in your life. Power to experience a deeper level of love and fulfillment in all areas of your life. Power to be more authentically yourself without apology, and power to create exactly what it is you desire in this beautiful life of yours. Moving intentionally from this place, instead of unconsciously led by past conditioning and programming, is where we become the true designers of our ever-evolving self. And a self by design is always a life by design.
