In NLP we often talk about the 3 minds – the conscious, unconscious and higher conscious mind. Ultimately, it is the unconscious part of our mind that runs us, maintains us and gets us either moving, or not. Our conscious mind is the analytical, thinking mind, but it isn’t actually responsible for much at all.
Think about it – can you consciously sneeze? Get goosebumps? Feel happy? Motivate yourself?Well – we can consciously choose, but then the unconscious mind has to get involved.
I know that when I train NLP I put a lot of emphasis on trusting your unconscious mind. And, we veto the question why? Simply because it accesses reasons and blames yet doesn’t actually help us to do or be anything.
It has been demonstrated time and time again that being too conscious can create an interference and barrier to success. Even the great ‘thinkers’ of the world relied more on their unconscious mind than their conscious mind. Einstein is quoted to have said “Imagination is more important than knowledgeâ€, George Bernard Shaw said “Imagination is the beginning of creationâ€, and Ray Bradbury said “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do thingsâ€
Now, we are not actually saying that thinking is the enemy. We have to think! Well, it helps! If I want to prioritize my tasks, get to a meeting, understand a concept or find my way to a new place – I want to use my conscious mind.
But, guess how often I ask myself the “why†question? Very rarely! In my own life I have found it doesn’t help me. The conscious mind doesn’t store information readily – to actually remember something is an unconscious process. To solve a problem is also largely unconscious.
Lets take songs as an example of remembering things. Can you recall a recent time when you heard a song that you hadn’t heard in 20+ years? I bet you knew all the words too! Where did they come from? Your unconscious mind.
In a lot of NLP we aim to be-friend the conscious, thinking mind so that it can also start to trust the unconscious mind. When both minds are working together, there isn’t a need for a hierarchy, no need to concentrate to complicate, or work from a place of fear.
Truly trusting the unconscious mind is freeing, empowering and so extremely rewarding! But, why would you want that? J