Our conscious processes are capable of using up to only 9 bits of data at any time. All the rest of our brain is operating at a level unknown to the conscious and has a hundred trillion data connections. It is also thought to be operating about a hundred times faster than the conscious as well as being automatic. Some people call this the subconscious, but it really is far superior in ability to the conscious and for this and other reasons the term unconscious is a more appropriate term.

Right now your unconscious is running thousands of processes, reading this being only one of them. It is also running your mood, temperature, blood circulation, posture, eye movements, repairing body parts, checking all information against everything stored there, being creative, talking to you and listening, etc, etc. infinitum.

Everything you do for the first time is done consciously and after many repetitions is passed over to the unconscious for it to deal with it at the appropriate next time. Just think of how difficult letting the clutch out whilst accelerating was at your first several attempts of driving and how easily you do it now!

As an example next time you are in a conversation just notice how little of what you say you are aware of before it come out of your mouth!  And that voice in your head now, and your reaction to this article – all formed in the unconscious and brought to consciousness.

Our physical and mood reactions to everything occur just before our consciousness of what triggered them. Bearing in mind (no pun intended) how much goes on below awareness and happens automatically I would confidently state that less than 1% of our thought processes are conscious ones. You are in effect mainly being run by your unconscious.

The purpose of the conscious is to direct our unconscious. It enables us to “drive our life” because if we don’t drive it who does? The unconscious will of course check everything you ask of it against its learning and belief systems and its survival mode. So to get anything changed we have to work out if we need to change any of our beliefs and check our understanding from life’s lessons to ensure they are in line with our new desires.

The latest research states that 80% of all we know about life we learned before we were 6. So take 5 years off your age and that is how outdated some of your programs, beliefs and rules are. Also give it some thought to how much you actually learned for yourself in that time and how much was from others by their example or through them repeated telling you something (great if it was true and positive and you were shown love, not so great if you are called stupid or clumsy and abused or ignored). Either way would you really let a 5 year old run your life for you, yet this is what we are all doing!

We all know what we “should do” and we can tell others how to deal with their issues, yet we struggle with them ourselves. This is because we have trained our automated unconscious programs to cut in and do whatever fits in with our learning and belief systems.

So being “mindful” is in effect just bringing to awareness an automated program that is unwanted or unhelpful. This act of awareness may make it possible to change just by the very act of “catching it out” and thinking of a better way of doing whatever it is. Usually this will take repetition and vigilance (willpower), but with only 9 bits of data held in the conscious is more often than not pushed aside by any other task or issue that needs access to conscious thought. Hence Mindfulness being taught during trance like states, where the concentration on breathing alone occupies our conscious processes enough to drive out most other thoughts.

So how do we work with the unconscious to get it to do what we want it to? The next step up from Mindfulness is to take what we have found out about this troublesome automatic program and changing it at the unconscious level. The change comes from overwriting the old program or deleting it. I teach and use a unique method called #BrainBargaining. In effect you are finding out information using the unconscious and then you bargain with it until you convince it that you would be better off without the problematic issue. For some things you can do this yourself just by learning the technique. It really is simple once you know how (and of course once done several times becomes, in itself, an automated program).

For removing the lifelong effects of a trauma you will need to get the help of someone good at accessing the unconscious and work with them. This is because anything perceived by the unconscious as a protective “program” will be held firmly onto. It is no good trying to remove a shield unless you convince the shield holder that there isn’t danger that it is protecting them from!

The main issue is to work on the cause not the symptoms, find the under-lying belief that is no longer true or helpful. If you have many symptomatic issues look for the thread that runs between them and deal with that.

If you have found this interesting please contact me to let me know and will provide more articles to follow-on with this theme.

If you have a long time source of anxiety or lack of self worth please use the contact details on this site to access a free 7 minute phone assessment of what may be possible for you. And yes I appreciate if you suffer from anxiety you will be anxious about calling me, all of my clients were!

Regards, Steven