The Mind's Silent Architect

There’s a part of your mind that never sleeps, quietly pulling the strings behind every thought, action and decision made. It holds your deepest fears, your long-forgotten memories, your paradigms of life and subtly shapes the person that you are; all without conscious awareness. This puppeteer is known as your subconscious mind and is far more influential than you think.

The human brain consists of two levels of awareness, the conscious and the subconscious. To better differentiate them, picture your mind as an ocean. The surface, where you can visibly see the waves crashing against the shore and the sunlight dancing upon the water, represents your conscious mind. Here, you can easily analyze this area and make quick decisions solely based on what you can observe and experience directly.

In contrast, your subconscious mind isn’t as straightforward. In this analogy, it serves as the unseen factors beneath the ocean. For example, the current, the sea creatures and water pollution. Notice that all these factors affect the surface level of the water (conscious behavior). Our subconscious consists of memories whether traumatic or forgotten, emotional triggers as well as unresolved emotions, your underlying beliefs and unaddressed fears. Even though it's far more complex, these are the main factors that unconsciously affect your behavior.

Now imagine yourself at a job interview. To many people there, you appear poised, confident and ready to slay your interview. However, even though you practiced as much interview questions as possible, rehearsed your answers a thousand times and polished your resume more than a mechanic polishes a car, your heart begins to race, your palms begin to sweat profusely and your legs begin shake as much as a leaf quivering in the wind.

As you await your interviewee, the “sea creatures” begins to approach at you, retrieving from your subconscious vault your previous job interview. You're reminded of all the words you stumbled upon, the awkward and vague way in which you answered your questions and most depressingly, the way you were declined a job. These memories swirl beneath the surface, triggering anxiety and self doubt.

Suddenly “water pollution” begins to surround you and it  makes you aware of the negative beliefs you accumulated overtime. This stems from your childhood, where your parents always pressured you to overachieve or sometimes undermined you by telling you things such as “90%??!! Where’d the other 10 go” or “How can you be so stupid?” the minute you make an error. Subconsciously, these sayings then formulate a belief that you aren’t enough or your capabilities are inadequate, impacting your confidence and your true potential.

To make matters worse, the “current” begins to get stronger as the only thing you can now consciously think of  is “What would the interviewee think of me?”. Since your subconscious mind recognizes that you're emotionally in a danger zone, it provides a coping mechanism that you developed in your younger days to help ease the tension and your feeling of inadequacy; comparison. Eager to reach to a “current-free” zone, you then analyze everyone around you and try to locate a flaw they might embody. Whether that be they way they’re attired or the way they appear, it didn’t have to be substantial, just something that would make you feel better about yourself and your situation. 

From this scenario, evidently, we can tell that our thinking process and the way in which we behave is mostly influenced by the state of our subconscious mind. We can also depict that your subconsciousness roots from childhood experiences. This explains why a therapist may frequently ask you questions about your younger days when attempting to address a current issue.

The great news is, you don't have to be a prisoner of your own mind. Instead, you can take control through self-introspection through journaling and reflection, seeking help from a therapist, meditation or practicing self affirmations. These serve as a few ways to help alter the systems of your mind, in order to curate a positive life experience for yourself.