After reading Success through PMA about a man who was in coma, but managed to moved his eyelid to let the nurses know he was still alive. After remembering a self-motivator he had memorised; “You can do it if you believe you can”. After the conversation I had with my writing partner about the subconscious mind, I realised how important what we absorb from our surrounding environment is, to how we turn out to be as people.
Who we are, what we think, what we do depends on things we’ve learnt. An example that shows that you are what your mind absorbs is the fact that you could be you a Xhosa child, and raised by a Zulu family. Zulu is a language they speak, and that’s all they’ll teach you. Xhosa, is what you’d want to know but that’s not what you’ve been taught, so, you won’t know it. In the same way, we become who we are.
Your mind takes in anything and everything that is around you and stores it in the subconscious mind. It knows things you didn’t know it knows, things you also didn’t know you took in. This could be the good or bad things, things people do or say, things you read, things you do consciously, the music you listen to, the list goes on. You can agree that, to some extent, this is how you habits, behaviours and beliefs will be formed and this is how you will act without having to think about it (subconsciously).
If it’s subconscious, this means, it’s a reflex action. You did it involuntarily. It’s a reaction your mind knows is the best for you. This is where think before you act comes into play. Your reactions are subconscious, but the subconscious knows no wrong or right. The subconscious just knows that you have to act. Which is why it needs the conscious mind, because it then evaluates, and makes decisions. It argues, this is wrong or right. Oh I think it’s okay to do or say this or that.
If you could see people running your direction, and you don’t know why. The subconscious mind would say run and you would, but then you didn’t think about it. If you did think, you’d be conscious and ask why are they running, before you do. You’d run based on reason and not because someone is doing it. The same applies to someone who could have had an abusive childhood. They would react by beating someone without thinking and regret later when they think and realise it was wrong. This is the reaction, the mind knows is the best, given the situation. The subconscious makes us act blindly.
I’m sure after reading this, you can see that character is caught and taught. What you take in matters the most as you are what you eat. You can only take out, what you take in. We cannot blame everything on subconscious actions, but this could be the reason why you could be acting against your will sometimes. This means, something has to change. You have to unlearn and learn how you want to be. You have to keep close, the ones that lift you up, the positive, the extraordinary, so that you exert the same energy, not consciously but unconsciously too, as that is the part of the brain that is responsible for most of our actions. Let your blind actions or reactions be ones that you can be proud of. Let them be good, let them reflect who you want to be.
Life, motivation and everything in-between. 