The Subconscious. It is omnipresent, sees everything that you don’t, and arguably knows more about who you really are and what you really want than you do… and yet, most of us pay it little mind. Wait, was that a pun? Maybe my subconscious just felt like making a funny… but, I promise, it was punintentional.
Okay that one was no accident. That one was all me, baby.
Deal with it.
See, your subconscious mind essentially works as the storage bank of your awareness, except it sees and stores things you don’t even conciously register and it never shuts off. Ever. It is, in a very real sense, your all seeing eye.
hmmmm… I wonder…
And though you may not be able to ever fully control this very strange and mysterious part of your psyche, you can take steps to bridge the gap between it and your conscious awareness, bringing you a broader, deeper, and ultimately clearer understanding of yourself and how you operate.
I recommend you not take this lightly, dear reader. A better understanding of your own subconscious leads to a more sensitive intuition and a greater influence over your mental processes and perception. This, in turn, leads you to having a greater influence over your reality.
All great things start within the mind, after all.
Understanding your Paradigms
If your subconscious mind is the operating system of your awareness, then your paradigms are the code that influence and alter that system to function and perform in a certain way.
A paradigm (in this context) is simply the way you see life. It’s the way you feel towards certain things, your biases, beliefs, perceptions, and how they all culminate to create your worldview, your reality. They are solidified by continuous exposure or repetition.
But how much of your paradigm(s) is really yours?
How much of what you think, feel, and believe is decided by you, rather than your upbringing, your surroundings, and your influences?
Many of you may scoff at this concept and even take offense to it, insisting that you are fully in control of your perceptions, preferences, and decisions… but I recommend you reconsider your certainty. The thoughts, ideas, and images that have saturated your awareness since birth have a much, much greater influence on your worldview and belief systems than you realize, especially those that persisted when you were a child.
I can understand if this makes you uncomfortable. This idea challenges both your identity and sense of self, but don’t turn a blind eye to it.
It is only in becoming aware of this concept that we can begin to challenge our worldview and belief systems, giving us the rare opportunity to determine if they are really ours to begin with.
Do this and you’ll find out more about who you are as a person and begin to see the proverbial “matrix” of your own mind. Maybe even become a supreme edgelord that flys.
Depends on what you’re after I guess.
If you figure out the whole flying thing, lets hangout
Learning to Feel
“Feeling” is the word we use to describe our conscious vibration.
I know that may sound a bit “wooey” to some of you, but think about it.
What else is emotion if not energy in motion.
Get it? e-motion?
The distant sound of your minds being collectively blown all at once is truly a beautiful one.
It’s like music, really.
And this vibration, the way we feel, is something we can learn to control.
Most of us live our lives through a reactive state of being, meaning when things happen to us, they determine how we feel and, as a result, control us and how the situation impacts our lives.
But we can learn to live our lives through a responsive state of being instead, meaning when things happen to us, we determine how we feel and, as a result, control ourselves and decide how the situation impacts our lives.
In other words, it’s adapting the idea that “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you react (or respond) to it” and putting it to use.
Lets take a hypothetical man and, for no particular reason, call him Greg.
For all you Gregs out there reading this, my apologies. It isn’t personal.
Lets say Greg reacts to circumstances without thinking first. Little things upset him easily. He has a tendency to lose control of his emotions, causing what would otherwise be small situations to blow up way out of proportion. Things usually don’t go Greg's way, making most of Greg's days bad days.
This is because of his paradigm(s). His thoughts, his beliefs, his recurring self talk. These negative things happen to Greg because, to at least some extent, Greg views the world in a negative light, making Greg that much more likely to find himself in less than desirable circumstances.
The Opposite is also true.
Let’s say Greg thinks situations through before responding. He chooses not to sweat the small stuff. He allows himself to feel his emotions, but doesn’t let them control him. Things tend to go Greg’s way, making most of Greg’s days good days.
Again, this is because of Greg’s paradigm(s). His thoughts, his beliefs, and his recurring self talk. These positive things happen to Greg because, to at least some extent, Greg views the world in a positive light, making Greg that much more likely to find himself in highly desirable situations.
Now, which version of Greg do you think you are?
Which version of Greg would you rather be?
You can “train” your body and mind how to feel. It takes time, it takes patience, but making a conscious effort to think positively and optimaly will eventually become your “modus operandi” or default state. You will have programmed your brain to naturally and automatically settle into a more positive, progressive state of being, which will significantly improve your quality of life.
Shifting Your Paradigms
A funny thing happens when you start responding instead of reacting.
You start to develop a deeper sense of self control.
You start experiencing situations in a more rational light, and, as a result, their power and influence over you begins to weaken.
More important than this, though, is that you start to recognize the patterns that lead you to experiencing negative situations in the first place, not only giving you better control over your self, but better control over your reality.
The power this gives you is incredible. When you reach a deeper state of self awareness, when you begin to recognize that your habits, the things you do automatically and on a daily basis, literally create the person you are and the person you are constantly becoming, you give yourself the power to change.
This is how people are able go from unfit and sickly to the pinnacle of health, from rags to riches, from going through a traumatic experience to saving others from going through it too. These people aren’t superheroes, they aren’t paragons of self control and self discipline, they simply realize and embrace two very fundamental truths.
Life functions as a compounding effect, meaning the little things added up on a daily basis determine the quality and outcome of the whole.
You can take negative energy and make it positive.
Thats it. The concept is simple, but the execution is usually tough. Habits are hard to break, thats what makes them habits in the first place.
And a lot of us experience really hard, really soul-crushing situations. It’s easy to talk about how “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react” when your reality isn’t seemingly crumbling from under your feet. I get that. But there are plenty of people who have gone through terrible experiences and still found a way to make those experiences work in their favor.
It really is up to you.
Taking Steps
There are simple things you can do on a daily basis to change your paradigms. They include, but are not limited to:
1. At least 30 minutes of exercise.
2. Regular Meditation. Even just a few minutes is a good start.
3. Adopting mantras to promote a healthier self talk.
4. Experimenting with different hobbies to better define your passions.
5. Changing your diet.
This list can go on and on guys, and entire books have been written on every one of those options. This is a highly personal thing, and I can do my part to show you the door, but I can’t make you walk through it.
Just know that it doesn’t have to be complicated. Maybe you spend an average of three hours watching television or mindlessly surfing the internet per day. Changing your paradigm is as simple as taking one of those three hours from television or the internet and concentrating them on something more productive and beneficial to you. Little changes like this will compound over time, and with enough effort, discipline, and perseverence, you can completely alter your life in a relatively short period.
You get out what you put in, but what you put in is ultimately up to you.