Conscious and unconscious
KeithHandy posted in So You Want... on September 24th, 2007
Something that I might want to work into one of my existing So You Want… installments, specifically the “in and out” sections, but which by itself isn’t enough to asplode into a whole post:
Think of your conscious and subconscious minds as left and right feet. In order for your subconscious to do anything useful for you, you have to alternately take conscious steps. If you try to do everything entirely with your conscious mind, or entirely with your subconscious mind, you will just spin yourself around in a tiny little circle, just like if you tried to walk by only moving one foot.
A more concrete way of putting this: if, before you go to bed (or before you meditate), you begin to work on something tangible — be it something creative, solving a specific problem, whatever — you will wake up in the next morning having made some subconscious progress on it, and be in a better state to go forward with it. You’ve “stepped forward” with one foot, so now the other foot has a new destination. You don’t need to make fantastic progress, just have taken that step. If, on the other hand, you simply put the whole thing off, rationalizing that you’re not in the mood now but tomorrow will be a better day, you will just have weird (and possibly scary) dreams that don’t do you any good, and when tomorrow comes you won’t be in any better shape to do it. You’ll be able to do it, but you won’t have the benefit of that extra boost from your subconscious.
That’s it! Simple concept.
