Understanding How Our Minds Work - Part 1

It is really important to recognise that the unconscious mind makes the changes that we make. That is why we are going to give the conscious mind an understanding of how the unconscious mind works. This means we are going to talk about a part of you of which you are not conscious.

That you're not conscious of, right now.

I mean, until I mention it, you’re not conscious of the feeling of your feet against the floor or the backs of your legs against the chair or your back against the chair. Maybe you’re not so conscious about the noises going on around you.

All of those things that you weren't necessarily conscious of, and certainly you were not conscious of your eyes blinking or your breathing or the beating of your heart and all of those things are things that your unconscious mind does for you.

The prime directives give the concept of change perspective, as the fact is, that when we create change, the change we create is going to happen at the unconscious level and in conjunction with the unconscious mind.

So, let’s get started!

1.      Controls and maintains all perceptions

The unconscious mind stores our memories. This is done in two ways, in relation to time and not in relation to time. So, memories can be stored, for example, in a ‘timeline’ of similar type experiences, or not in relation to time, for example, languages that we learn, the words, the meaning of the words, are not stored in relation to time. It is the job of the unconscious mind to create relationships or connectedness at the unconscious level so that’s really important in relation to the unconscious mind storing our memories.

2.      Is the domain of emotions

The unconscious mind is where all the emotions live. Someone who is not connected with their emotions may not have as good a connection with the unconscious mind as someone who is well connected with their emotions. So, the unconscious mind is that is the part of us that feels, although certainly we are conscious of our emotions. Typically, emotions are stored and organised and kept in the unconscious mind.

3.      Organises all your memories

The unconscious mind uses a timeline and the mechanics of that as the gestalt. Our memories are organised according to time, and also organised according to subject (as in prime directive 1). Memories are also organised according to feeling and that's what allows us to have, for example, a chain of memories of love or a certain chain of memories of anxiety. The unconscious mind will chain all of those together.

4.      Represses memories with unresolved negative emotion

The unconscious mind will protect us by repressing memories with significant negative emotions on them to protect us. We may hold some recollection of these events, although they may be ‘foggy’ or ‘dim’.

5.      Presents repressed memories for resolution

From time to time, the unconscious mind brings those memories up to make them rational and to release the negative emotions. Your unconscious mind knows that those the negative emotions are not good for us. You may have memories that come up in the past and you have said to yourself, “Oh, maybe I need to think about this now” and you may have gained resolution on this, if you have gained resolution on a certain memory, sometime in the past, what you probably found was that having gained resolution on it, it ceased to bother you.

6.      May keep repressed emotions repressed for protection

As mentioned in prime directive number 4, the unconscious mind does have the right to keep repressed emotions repressed for your protection. That's often the mechanism where we don't actually remember the full content of a certain memory.

7.      Runs the body

The unconscious mind runs the body. It's better that the unconscious mind should do it than that we have to do it. Imagine if you had to consciously remember to breathe. Think about that for a minute. You have to breathe in and then breathe out and then breathe in and then breathe out and then you'd have to sit there and go, “Well, is it time to breathe in yet?” You don't you don't have to do that. Everything happens automatically. Who ran your body last night while you slept? And of course, that would be their unconscious mind.

8.      Preserves the body

The unconscious mind maintains the integrity of the body. The unconscious mind will always take as its highest job the preservation of the body.

9.      Is a highly moral being

The unconscious mind accepts the morality which you've been taught and which you have accepted. This is why everyone can have a different morality. This is because the unconscious mind has to accept a certain morality and it will either accept or reject the morality that you grew up with.

10.  Enjoys serving, needs clear orders to follow

The biggest issue here is that most people give the unconscious mind inconsistent orders. For example, one day, I'm a great person. The next day I'm no good. And the unconscious mind gets confused and isn't sure what it should do about that. One of the most important things we can do with regards to the unconscious mind is to remember that the unconscious mind enjoys serving and needs clear orders to follow, one of the most important things that we can do is to give our unconscious mind consistent direction and consistent directives.

Keep your eye out for our follow up article Understanding how we work - The prime directives of the unconscious mind part 2.