The Power of the Subconscious Mind

What is the subconscious mind?

• While the idea of different levels of consciousness has been around for centuries, Freud is often credited with bringing the ideas into popular awareness.  He described a three-level model of the mind.

• The Conscious Mind – contains all thoughts, feelings and actions within our awareness.  “All of the thoughts that pass through your mind, the sensations and perceptions from the outside world, and the memories that you bring into your awareness are all part of that conscious experience.”  (Ramsey, 2019)

• The Subconscious Mind – all “reactions and automatic actions that we can become aware of if we think about them.”  (Farnsworth, 2020)  

• But they are generally operating just below the level of conscious awareness.  

• Breathing or automatic skills such as playing the piano (if you can) can happen with little conscious awareness because they are so automatic.  But we can stop, focus on them and alter them.

• The Unconscious Mind – this is made up of “thoughts, memories, and primitive/instinctual desires that are buried deep within ourselves, far below our conscious awareness.  Even thought we’re not aware of their existence, they have a significant influence on our behavior.”  (Ramsey, 2019)  

• “Freud viewed the unconscious as a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression.”  (Wikipedia, 2021)  

• Internalized racism is an example of an unconscious thought.  “Psychologists and mental health professionals believe that even if we’re consciously against racist ideology, everyone is likely to have some conditioning of internalized racism.”  (Ricee, 2020)

• This model is often described as an iceberg.   In fact, Freud said “the mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.”  

What evidence supports the idea of a subconscious or unconscious mind?

• Questions about how the conscious and unconscious levels of activity influence each other is one of the most intriguing questions facing psychologists and neuroscientists today.

• At this point it is impossible to observe different depths of the mind directly.  But a significant body of research has validated the influence of the unconscious by observing the effects of things such as “priming” and “subliminal messaging.” These terms will be explained later.

• While Freud popularized the idea of an unconscious mind that drives behavior, his claims were based on clinical observations not scientific data.  However, since then significant research has supported his essential claim.  “In recent years, however, a large body of experimental research has emerged in a number of independent literatures. This work documents the most fundamental tenet of psychoanalysis--that much of mental life is unconscious, including cognitive, affective, and motivational processes.”  (Weston, 1999)

• Weston cites a number of ways in which the scientific community has found evidence of the subconscious mind.  For one, once we learn a skill, we generally don’t need to consciously think about how to do it – such as throw a baseball or drive a car.  In some instances, conscious attention is counter productive to say a pianist or basketball player who is “in the zone.”  

• He also presents evidence of associative memory which shows that associations outside of conscious awareness can guide behavior and judgment.  For example, subjects primed with the word “dog” were more likely to quickly identify the word terrier with just a few letters than those not primed with the word “dog.”  “According to one model, priming with the word dog activates a network of associations, spreading activation to anything on that network…”  Our mind links things we see as related without our having to consciously think about it.  This may lie at the root of our having a strong emotional reaction to something that “triggers” (or reminds us, unconsciously) feelings related to a traumatic or negative experience in our past.

• Shawn Achor in the book The Happiness Advantage cites a startling amount of research on the power of positive or negative priming:

• “Jell-o at Lunch” – 4-year-olds were given a series of learning tasks, such as putting together blocks of different shapes.  One group was primed for positive feelings before undertaking the tasks by being asked to think briefly about something that makes them happy.  The other was simply given neutral directions.  The group who first thought about something that made them happy outperformed the other group – completely the tasks more quickly and with fewer errors.

• “Give the Doc a Lollipop” – doctors were asked to come up with a diagnosis for a hypothetical patient based on symptoms and a medical history.  The doctors given a box of candy to take home after the study (they weren’t allowed to eat it) outperformed the doctors not given candy.  The happy doctors made the right diagnosis much faster and exhibited more creativity than the control group doctors.

• In an even more startling study, Poison Ivy – Japanese researchers blind folded a group of students and told them their arms were being rubbed with poison ivy.  Afterwards all 13 students reacted with the classic symptoms of poison ivy – itching, boils and redness even thought their arms had actually been rubbed with a harmless plant.  On their other arm they were told they were rubbed with a harmless plant.  In fact, they were rubbed with poison ivy.  And even though all 13 students were highly allergic to poison ivy, only two developed any symptoms.

• Other research also confirms the influence of information that isn’t perceived consciously.  In one study, participants were asked to rate the friendliness of a hypothetical person they read about.  On their way to the lab, they all were bumped into by a lab assistant.  He would ask them to hold a cup of coffee for him.  Those who were handed a cold cup of coffee later rated hypothetical people as colder, less social and selfish.  Those who held a hot cup of coffee rated the person as more generous, more social, happier, and better natured.  (Williams & Bargh, 2008)

• Some have suggested that the evidence that the brain can be psychologically hot-wired or swayed by priming and subliminal influences is now overwhelming.  (Carey, 2007)

• In another study, participants engaged in an activity that involved deciding how much money to share with another study participant.  Some of the participants were seated at a large conference room table where at the end of the table there was a brief case and a leather portfolio.  These subjects were also given an executive style pen.  The other participants were seated at a table that contained a backpack and were given a traditional wooden pencil.  What they found was that those in the room with a brief case were far stingier than those in a room with a backpack.  After they completed the task, they were asked to list any factors they felt influenced how they play the game.  No one mentioned the briefcase or the backpack suggesting the influence was unconscious.  (Kay et al., 2004)

• Yet another research study found that the presence of a bucket of water with a splash of citrus-smelling cleaning detergent led to greater cleaning after participants ate a messy biscuit.   Those who smelled the cleaning fluid cleared away crumbs three times more often than those with no scent in the room. (Holland et al., 2005)

• A number of studies analyzed the role of fear and feelings of vulnerability in racist attitudes.  The researchers examined whether a situation that induced a feeling of vulnerability, a darkened room increased the likelihood of white people responding in biased ways toward Blacks.  What they found was that white participants were more likely to rate the neutral faces of African-American men as hostile when they were in a darkened room in comparison to those in a well-lit room.  The darkened room was meant to increase feelings of temporary vulnerability.  The researchers also measured which participants scored high on a scale measuring a “Belief in a Dangerous World” - a self-report measure assessing chronic concerns about vulnerability to danger.  Those who scored high were also more likely to make racist assumptions.  This suggests temporary and chronic feelings of vulnerability increase the likelihood Caucasians will perceive African Americans as hostile. (Schaller et al., 2005; Schaller et al., 2003)

• Similar results were found when white subjects were asked to rate the faces of those with apparent Arabic ethnicity under more (darkened room) or less (well-lit room) threat. While all photographs depicted target persons with neutral facial expressions, participants were told that the targets were photographed while they were deliberately trying to mask an emotion that they were feeling. The task of participants was to rate the extent to which each target person was feeling one of several different possible emotions (anger, fear, happiness, etc.).  What they found was that those who already held negative stereotypes of Arabs were more likely to see the faces as reflecting anger.  “Fearful participants perceived greater anger (but not other emotions) in the faces of Arab (but not White) target persons.”  (Maner et al., 2004).  In this case, the amount of prejudice before the darkened conditions heightened the influence of a threatening environment (a dark room)

• Carey (2007) describes another study that documented unconscious feelings influencing behavior.  “In one 2006 study…researchers had Northwestern University undergraduates recall an unethical deed from their past, like betraying a friend, or a virtuous one, like returning lost property.  Afterward, the student had their choice of a gift, an antiseptic wipe or a pencil; and those who had recalled bad behavior were twice as likely as the others to take the wipe.  They had been primed to psychologically ‘cleanse’ their consciences.” 

• There are many other studies that reveal the role of unconscious influences on our decision-making.  For example, when a liquor store played German or French music, it influenced the wine chosen.  On the day they played German music, 2/3’s of the people bought German wine.  When they heard French music, 2/3’s bought French wines.  The stock market goes up much more on sunny days than rainy days.  A light touch can increase a person’s willingness to agree to a dance, sign a petition and give a generous tip.  And, ranking certain political candidates more favorably than others in internet engine searches (meaning they showed up at the top of a search engine list) can sway people’s opinions about candidates by as much as 20 to 50 percent.  (CBS News, date unknown)  

• The existence of the subconscious mind is also evident in what is called the placebo effect. A placebo is a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect.  People given sugar pills (or some other medical intervention with no real therapeutic benefit) but told they were being given powerful medicine, often recovered or felt better.  Many trials have confirmed that even when given a placebo (but not told it was a placebo), people tend to get a reduction in symptoms.  This has been documented in the treatment of migraine headaches, cancer-related fatigue, depression, pain, sleep disorders, irritable bowel, Parkinson’s symptoms and menopause.  (Legg, 2017; Saling, 2020)

• “Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard University estimates that placebos yield beneficial results for up to 90 percent of diseases. Clinical studies have shown that placebos are effective for up to 60 percent of subjects suffering from aliments such as pain, depression, and ulcers. In one study, doctors painted warts with dye and told patients they would disappear. The warts later vanished, despite the fact that the dye had no medicinal quality.”  (Hunter, 2019)

• The effect of placebos are not imaginary.  Placebos can lead to actual physiological changes.  “The placebo effect isn’t ‘all in the mind,’ as some mistakenly claim. After patients with inflamed intestines were treated with a placebo, over half of them reported improvement, which was verified with a sigmoidoscope. Placebos can open the airways of asthmatics, and placebos said to contain pain relievers can cause the release of actual opioids, the body’s natural pain relievers. All of these are real, verifiable physiological changes in the body that are caused by the brain.”  (Hunter, 2019)

• There is some suggestion that the placebo effect in some way unleashes the natural healing abilities of the body.  Working with the unconscious mind is a pivotal part of a program developed by Dr. Howard Schubiner to end chronic pain.  It is detailed in his book, Unlearn Your Pain.

• The unconscious mind is mostly “visible” through its influence on our feelings, behaviors and thoughts.  Researchers have shown that “priming” (introducing a stimulus that affects how people respond to another stimulus) and subliminal messages and images can, without being consciously perceived, affect behavior, judgment and even physical health.  It can contribute in good ways to people’s decisions but it can also lead to negative outcomes.  This is why it is so critical to understand the role of the unconscious mind.

Why do we need to understand the role of subconscious mind in our lives?

• Most of our day-to-day actions such as driving a car, talking, walking, doing dishes are automatic and don't require a lot of conscious thought.  These routine actions are the product of learned neural patterns in the subconscious part of the brain.  (Wegner, 2002; Wilson, 2002)  

• “The subconscious mind is habitual.  It has programs in it – habits.  These habits play automatically without us thinking of them.”  Gustafson, 2017)  This is why even small activities done repeatedly can become habits that we do routinely.

• This is the kind of “unconscious” behavior that allows us to do many things throughout our day without a lot of attention and effort.  But the unconscious can also shape behaviors in ways that are self-defeating or counterproductive.

• Most people assume we are primarily rationale beings, whose actions and behaviors can be understood with that lens.  However, much behavior seems to defy rational thinking.  And, we all struggle with habits or patterns we know are irrational, but knowing that doesn’t simply turn them off.

• Wilson (2002) in his book Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Subconscious estimates that approximately 95% of our thoughts, feelings and memories live in our subconscious.  The human brain can absorb about 11,000,000 bits of information a second, the conscious mind can only process about 40 bits a second. 

• This was estimated by counting the number of receptors on each of our sensory organs sending nerve signals to the brain.  The eyes alone take in 10 million bits of information every second. (Wilson, 2002)

• The brain is bombarded with information and it is the subconscious mind that processes all of it and decides which information to pass on to your conscious mind.  The unconscious mind is the engine of information processing.  Much more is recorded by the unconscious mind than the conscious mind.  Subliminal messages and images can be picked up by the unconscious mind even when they aren’t consciously seen.  And these messages and images can drive behavior.  (Mayer, 2018)

• Schubiner (& Betzold, 2019, p. 43) cites a number of studies that manipulated behavior using subliminal messages that registered in the subconscious but were flashed so quickly they were below the threshold for conscious perception.  In one study people who were subliminally presented with words like "old," "wise," "retired" and "grey" walked more slowly from the room than those shown random words.  

• In another study people subliminally shown aggressive words interpreted the behavior of others as being more hostile than the control group shown random words.

• The nonconscious mind acts like a spot light and draws you to the information it thinks is most relevant.  But not surprisingly, its selection is often shaped by past experiences and what it considers important to your physical and emotional well-being.  

• “When it comes to maintaining a sense of well-being, we are ultimate spin doctors of information. We will twist, confuse, contort, and ignore whatever information we need to maintain our sense of self.  Daniel Gilbert refers to this as the psychological immune system, which fires up whenever we are trying to protect our psychological well-being.”  (Clear, date unknown)

• In this case our unconscious is trying to maintain our wellbeing.  But in some instances what it thinks is good for us is based on problematic conclusions we reached as children for how to stay safe.  For example, if the people you trusted, hurt you growing up, you may still be unconsciously reluctant to trust others.  This may create a reluctance to ask for help when you need it or a tendency to withdraw from others when you feel vulnerable. 

• Much of what we believe about ourselves and others is drawn on information in the unconscious that was downloaded when we were still young.  We learn about ourselves, relationships, what keeps us safe, and what wins us love from the people we observe as children – mothers, fathers, siblings and other significant adults.  We are too young to understand the bigger picture.  A father who tells us we are stupid may do so out of his own feelings of inadequacy, but we swallow it whole as a child.  It becomes part of the conscious and unconscious beliefs we have about ourselves.  

• “Of the downloaded behaviors acquired before age 7, the vast majority—70% or more—are programs of limitation, disempowerment, and self-sabotage. These programs were acquired from other people, not from ourselves. Again, being subconscious, these programs are occurring without conscious recognition and awareness. Therefore, though we have the perception in our mind that we are controlling our lives with our wishes and desires, the truth is far from that. Since thought causes 95% of our cognitive behavior to be controlled by the subconscious—i.e, below conscious—mind’s “invisible” behaviors, we struggle to manifest our conscious mind’s wishes and desires.”  (Gustafson, 2017)

• “Throughout our childhood, we gathered many different memories and experiences that formed the beliefs, fears and insecurities that we carry today.  However, we cannot recall most of these memories.  They are unconscious forces that drive our behaviors.”  (Ramsay, 2019)

• Part of the reason we can’t always recall pivotal experiences from our childhood, or understand why they are still affecting us, is because of the way in which these experiences are stored in the brain.   Janina Fisher (2017) explains that trauma in childhood is primarily recorded in the right side of the brain.  While we are born with right and left hemispheres in the brain, we are right hemisphere dominated for most of childhood.  Left brain dominance "is only achieved very gradually over the course of the first eighteen years of life.  In addition, the corpus callosum, the part of the brain that makes possible right brain-left brain communication, also develops slowly and only becomes fully elaborated around the age of twelve."

• The right hemisphere of the brain doesn't have words.  It is more visual.  But it does read body language and facial expressions.  Traumatic "memories are recorded in the right hemisphere outside of conscious awareness, and this realm represents the traumatic memories in imagistic form along with the survival behavior employed as a result of the abuse…and this allows for the fact that emotional learning of the right, especially of stressful threatening experiences, can be unknown to the left." (Schore, 2001)

• What Dr. Fisher is suggesting is that experiences which are painful or traumatic may be stored in the brain in a way that causes them to remain unconscious.  But the survival tactics they give rise to shape our behavior profoundly.  

• Many of our behaviors, feelings, psychological and even physical symptoms make sense when they are tied to the experiences that gave rise to them.  But if those experiences happened when we are very young, it may be difficult to make this connection.  

• It may also be difficult to change our behavior if our unconscious believes they are essential to our survival.  Many behaviors or habits that no longer serve us persist because, on an unconscious level, the thought of giving them up feels dangerous.  

• If we are using alcohol, drugs or food to numb our feelings because being numb was the only way to survive a difficult childhood, our unconscious is terrified of losing this coping strategy.  On a conscious level we know it is hurting us, but at a deeper level, it feels like the only life preserver we have.  If we learned not to lean on others as a kid, because no one was there and it hurt too much to feel so abandoned, we find it hard to lean now.  But as we age, we may need to learn to tolerate being vulnerable and letting others help us because of declining health.  If we can’t relax because we always had to on alert growing up, it is very difficult to turn off our hypervigilance.  If it was not okay to feel angry, or sad or scared growing up, we bury those feelings now.  But these emotions are buried alive and may crop up in ways that don’t make sense or are counterproductive.

• This is in part why many therapists focus on uncovering childhood experiences and their role in current problems.  “Unpleasant emotions, unwanted thoughts, hidden beliefs that nevertheless influence behavior, unproductive behavior patterns, fears—all are problems people may bring to therapy in the hope of relief. Most problems resist the simple desire for change because they have some component that makes sense with memories or beliefs stored at a level below conscious awareness.”  (Psychology Today, 2021)

• Understanding the deeper roots of problems is essential to creating lasting change that is driven by the unconscious mind.  “Becoming aware of the subconscious source of our behavior gives us an opportunity to change our lives by rewriting the programs of limitation or the things that interfere with us.  If we change those programs, we are empowered; free to express the wishes and desire of the conscious mind.”  (Gustafson, 2017)

• You do not have to have undergone significant trauma to have internalized messages that hurt your sense of self, create distorted beliefs about others and interfere with having healthy relationships.  “…every child, even if not overtly abused, gets hurt in some ways.  When parents get divorced or argue, when parents are critical or withhold love or give only conditional love, these actions produce pain for their children.  Similar reactions can occur in response to taunting or teasing by siblings or other children.  One of the most common statements I hear when I evaluate patients is “I never felt loved by my parents,” or “I often felt that my father (or mother) would love me only if I acted in certain ways.’”  (Schubiner & Betzold, 2019)

• Understanding the role of the unconscious may provide promising new paths to improved physical well-being.  The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study found that the more adversity someone faced in childhood, the greater the likelihood they would have health problems as adults.  As the number of adverse experiences increased, so did behaviors that jeopardized health (such as smoking, drinking, drug use) and documented health problems, (Felitti et al., 1998).  The health problems that increased included: depression; heart disease; cancer; chronic lung disease; and shortened life span.  Over 65 other studies have confirmed these findings.  (Weinhold, 2015)

• In a book, The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, outlines the many long-term biological impacts of traumatic experiences.  He writes: “For more than a century, ever since people’s responses to overwhelming experiences were first systematically explored, researchers have noted that the psychological effects of trauma are stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response…emotional memories are forever.”  Trauma sparks a host of biological changes that can continue to affect people long after the trauma has “ended.”  (van der Kolk, 1994)

• Even after the traumatic events are over, the trauma lives on in the body.  He suggests the memory of trauma is encoded “in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching emotions, in autoimmune disorders and skeletal/muscular problems.” (van der Kolk, 1994).  A hyper-reactive and overly sensitive autonomic system among other reactions to trauma contribute to a host of medical problems.

• If we ignore that which resides in our unconscious minds, we do so at the peril of our emotional and physical well-being.  But the good news, understanding the role of the unconscious mind, gives us innovative and effective ways to improve our physical and emotional well-being

How can you harness the power of the unconscious mind?

• Recognize its influence and link it to its origins in your past.

• Psychotherapy is one obvious way to do this.  Most forms of therapy aim to make the unconscious, conscious.  Understanding why you behave the way you do is the first step.  

• The second step involves developing compassion for your current and younger self.  You developed a coping strategy because you weren’t getting the love, support and guidance you needed.   Starting from a place of compassion is essential, otherwise you will replicate the absence of caring from which the behavior arose.

• Gary van Warmerdam traces the influence of an experience of shame – such as being bullied or embarrassed in front of your peers - as it shapes unconscious beliefs and adaptive behaviors.

• “Perhaps something embarrassing happened in grade school, other kids teased you, or you were bullied. This left you with a feeling of shame, unworthiness, or anger at others. Your mind learned a set of associations. Your mind learned that getting attention by a group of people means you will feel those same emotions of fear and shame. Like a Pavlov’s dog response, your mind begins to produce a response of shame, unworthiness, or anger if a group of people are paying attention to you. You might begin to feel those emotions if you think about a situation where people will be paying attention to you. Your mind is firing neural patterns together of emotions with learned stimulus and memory…”

• “You probably also learned ways to hide those feelings. You also learned that it wasn’t good to have those feelings or express them so you repressed them so they wouldn’t come out. To cover up that feeling of shame, fear, or hurt, perhaps you also learned to become likable by pleasing others, worked hard to be professionally competent, or the comedic class clown making others laugh. You masked the unworthiness with a positive behavior and image for getting good attention. Perhaps it works for many years and you do it automatically it seems like the real you. This may be much of your normal personality, but underneath is the belief, “I have to behave this way or people won’t like me/they will criticize me and then I will feel hurt and ashamed.” You might feel trapped, or resentful in a positive behavior of protection, but not know why…”

• “As a masking or compensating strategy, being more professional, or doing things to make others like you can be a good thing. When it is overdone, which often happens when it is a strategy for covering other emotions, you can burn out or become resentful….”

• “Perhaps you want to let go of some “being perfect” or “trying too hard to get people to like you” strategy. You notice that when attempting to change these behaviors you feel uncomfortable and fall back into them. You just can’t seem to help yourself. Behaviors like this aren’t objects you can pick up and change because they are anchored to unconscious beliefs and emotions. The “trying to get others to like you” or “perfectionist” is part of how you repress emotions of unworthiness, shame, and anger. Removing the masking strategy means that you will feel more of the unworthiness and shame emotions.”  (Warmerdam, 2016)

• You can also use other techniques for gaining access to your unconscious:

• Ask yourself, when did I start doing this behavior that now seems problematic?  

• What am I afraid will happen if I stop?  (Ex. people won’t love me, people will get mad at me..)

• What did I learn from my mother or father that may play a role in this?  What did they teach me (implicitly or explicitly) about myself?  About others?  About relationships?  

• What things did I do to win the love or attention of my mother or father?

• What am I critical about in myself?  What negative messages are running in the back of my head?

• What is my greatest fear?  How might it be linked to my past?

• What makes me sad?  How might it be linked to my past?

• What makes me angry?  How might it be linked to my past?

• Release the feelings that keep limiting beliefs anchored in place.

• For many, a third step is to allow themselves to feel and safely express the emotions they had to bury growing up.  Emotions anchor beliefs and coping strategies in place.  For example, sadness over not being seen or valued as a child drives you to be a people pleaser.  You psyche fears you will feel that sadness all over again, if you don’t keep pleasing others.  Anger at a parent who was abusive, wasn’t safe to express.  So now and as a child you avoided situations that might make you angry.  This interferes with your ability to be assertive.  Fear you had as a child was ignored or punished (“don’t be a wimp”).  This may lead to avoiding things that make you feel vulnerable or afraid now.  

• These emotions need to be safely expressed, witnessed and responded to in a caring way.  You can do this for yourself and respond with a caring and nurturing part of yourself.  But it is likely more powerful to do with someone else, a therapist, partner or caring friend.  

• These deeply buried feelings need to be released because they are keeping you stuck in an unproductive behavioral pattern.  You also need to be able to see that you can tolerate the feeling.  You may need to sit and grieve for the little child who didn’t get the love she deserved.  You may need to smash some ice cubes against a wall to safely let your anger out.  You need to learn that acknowledging your fears doesn’t make you weak, it shows courage and allows you to get genuinely close to others.

• Fear of feeling these feelings is why you created a coping strategy in the first place.  But as adult with internal strength and external support, you can tolerate these emotions.  You may not like them, but they won’t destroy you.  Running from them, however, might.

• Change the beliefs of your past with new messages and responses.  A final important step is to talk to the child who developed these beliefs.  Tell them what they were taught growing up was wrong.  They are loveable.  It wasn’t their fault.  They don’t have to be perfect, it’s okay to be human.  You can convey these messages in a number of ways. 

• Imagine sitting with your younger self and talking to them.  If you don’t feel your “inner nurturing parent voice” is strong enough, have someone real or imaginary join you and coach you.

• Write a letter to your younger self who still carries the pain and distorted beliefs from your childhood.

• List three positive messages you need to hear and recite them when you get up in the morning and before you go to bed at night.  Do it more often if you can, at every meal for example.  You are trying to change the tape that plays often just below he surface every day.  It will take time but you can do it.

• When you catch yourself beating yourself up or about to engage in counterproductive behavior, stop and talk to your younger self with compassion.  Don’t beat yourself up if you still engage in that habit you want to change, this takes time.

• Create habits with small achievable goals.  Because the unconscious mind is driven by habits that become automatic, doing an even small step toward change regularly is more likely to meet with success.  

• The idea of making bigger changes by starting with smaller ones is detailed in two books: Mini Habits, Smaller Habits, Bigger Results, Stephen Guise, 2013 and Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, B.J. Fogg, 2021.

• If you start with something that you know you can do every day such as walk for five minutes or just down the driveway or organize some part of your house for five minutes, you will begin to lay down the neural pathways that make something habitual and automatic.  But you must start with something you really can do daily.  Success breeds success and in time these habits will grow organically or naturally.  But it is essential to start small so you don’t trigger unconscious resistance and the repetition allows it to work its way into your unconscious mind.

• To learn more about this, read either of the books listed above.  It is a way to make change that truly taps into how the unconscious mind works.

• If you suffer with chronic pain or another chronic medical conditions that the doctor can’t seem to treat effectively, check out the program developed by Dr. Howard Schrubiner and outlined in the book Unlearn Your Pain.  You can actually do the program on your own using the book.  He explains that past injuries that have healed but still generate pain are experiencing pain because of a neural link between the injury site and the brain.  He says the pain isn’t in your head, it’s in your brain and you can disrupt this circuit using his techniques.  He also works at identifying and changing other unconscious influences that are often at the root of medical conditions.  Check out his website (https://www.unlearnyourpain.com/ ) which contains information on how to see the documentary This Might Hurt, which shows his program in action.  You can rent it or gift it to someone else (https://www.thismighthurtfilm.com/)  I have seen it and found it very compelling.

• Link a goal to a burning desire or strong emotion.  Mayer (2018) argues that to communicate with and shape your unconscious, you have to utilize feelings.  “Communicating thoughts from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind is difficult because it should be done with emotions. Only the thoughts that are conveyed with genuine emotions make it to the back of your mind. And only the thoughts that are backed up by a strong emotion stay there.”  He recommends countering fear and negative self-talk and linking important goals to positive feelings.  He also suggests using visualization techniques that picturing your life after you have achieved your goal.  Another powerful technique involves repeating a mantra that helps you overcome a difficulty or fear.  This might include: “I have the strength and wisdom to overcome my fears” or “I am willing to take chances because it is okay to make mistakes.”  Finally, he suggests writing out your goal and repeating it out loud regularly.  

• You can find additional suggestions from life coaches on-line or in books.  See books below by Tony Robbins, Cassandra Bodzak, Cheryl Richardson and Dr. Kristin Neff.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
- Carl Gustav Jung

You have to begin by posing questions to your unconscious mind, and then listening very carefully for the answers. If you pose the right kinds of questions, and listen well, you can begin to tap into the power of your unconscious mind.
- Nick Morgan

“Almost all of our mind is unconscious. We have to learn to communicate with that mysterious part of our mind. It has its own language, and symbols help us do that.”
- Elsa Punset

“You may not yet be able to bring your unconscious mind activity into awareness as thoughts, but it will always be reflected in the body as an emotion, and of this you can become aware.”
- Eckhart Tolle

References

Achor, Shawn (2010).  The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work.  NY: Crown Business (division of Random House). 

Carey, B. (2007).  Who’s minding the mind?  The New York Times.  On-line at: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/health/psychology/31subl.html  

CBS News (date unknown).  From love to voting: Who really decides you or your brain?  CBS News, The Nature of Things.  On-line at: https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/my-brain-made-me-do-it-who-decides 

Clear, J. (date unknown).  Summary of Strangers to Ourselves.  James Clear blog.  On-line at: https://jamesclear.com/book-summaries/strangers-to-ourselves 

Farnsworth, B. (2020).   What is the subconscious mind?  Imotions Blog.  On-line at: https://imotions.com/blog/what-is-the-subconscious-mind/ 

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Fisher, J. (2017).  Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation.  NY: Routledge.

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Reading List

Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Subconscious, T.D. Wilson.  Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.

Unlearn Your Pain, Howard Schubiner and Michael Betzold.  Mind Body Publishing, 2019.

The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk.  Penguin, 2015.

MindWorks: A Practical Guide for Changing Thoughts Beliefs, and Emotional Reactions, Gary van Warmerdam.  Cairn, 2014.

Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, Leonard Mlodinow.  Vintage, 2013.

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, Joseph Ledoux.  Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive, Dr. Kristin Neff.  Harper Wave, 2021

Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, Dr. Kristin Neff.  William Morrow, 2015.

The Art of Extreme Self-Care Revised Edition: 12 Practical and Inspiring Ways to Love Yourself More, Cheryl Richardson.  Hay House, 2019.

You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter, Dr. Joe Dispenza.  Hay House, 2015.

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, Nadine Burke Harris. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal,  Donna Jackson Nakazawa.  Atria Press, 2016.

The Biology of Belief 10th Anniversary Edition: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Bruce Lipton, Hay House, 2016.

Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! Tony Robbins.  Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement, Anthony Robbins.  Free Press, 1997.

Manifesting Through Meditation: 100 Guided Practices to Harness the Power of Your Thoughts and Create the Life You Want, Cassandra Bodzak.  Rock Ridge Press, 2021