Do you ever find yourself thinking you want to do something, but find yourself doing something completely different? For instance, I may promise myself that I am not going to react next time the love of my life says something annoying. But then the next thing I know an annoying comment has me flapping my arms up and down, stomping my feet, hurling insults. Well, there is a likely a reason for wanting to behave differently and being unable to ‘not react’. I likely have a disconnect between my conscious and unconscious mind.
The conscious mind is our logical thinking mind that reasons, discriminates, analyzes, judges, plans, selects, chooses, etc. It knows persons, places, conditions and things and is capable of self-awareness. Doing things with the conscious mind takes effort. And the conscious mind can only do one thing at a time. With only being responsible for around 5% of our behaviours, the conscious mind is just the tip of the iceberg.
The unconscious mind is emotional, illogical, expansive and creative. It doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined. It responds to imagined monsters the same as real monsters. Our unconscious mind is effortless. We don’t need to be conscious to breath, perspire, digest our food, … Emotions just come to us. The subconscious mind is responsible for 90-95% of our behaviour.
When there is a conflict between our conscious and unconscious mind, the unconscious mind always wins. The conscious decision to make an action is done after the unconscious mind decides to do it. Decisions for action are made unconsciously. The conscious mind rarely decides to do anything. While I rationally know flapping my arms up and down is not the best way to react to an annoying comment from my beloved, my subconscious mind believes this is the right way to respond. As such, my subconscious mind will always win.
There is a filter between the conscious and unconscious mind that is like a trap door. When it comes to my reaction to annoying comments, this trap door is closed. Hypnotherapy can help me open that door by relaxing my body and mind. In this relaxed state, my subconscious and unconscious mind can communicate with each other. In hypnosis, I can imagine new possibilities for communicating my annoyance in more productive ways. My subconscious can begin to feel differently. As such, hypnotherapy can help me resolve my inner conflict and repattern my beliefs and behaviours.
