How our mind works?
Just like every coin has two sides – so does our mind! Where one helps us to observe, view and feel our surroundings, the other is more inclined towards understanding the same. These two sides have been given many names in the past – conscious and subconscious, subjective and objective, waking and the sleeping mind, surface self and the deep self, voluntary and the involuntary....and many more. Call it what you may, we cannot function without either!
Conscious mind relies on our five primary physical senses. It is our only guide to the environment. It learns through observation, experience and education. It is the part of the mind which focuses on reasoning. Look around you – what do you see? Everything you observe is controlled by your physical senses and ultimately your conscious mind. Think of your conscious mind as the Captain of the Army – he is the one who gives the orders and every part of the body follows it without any further objection. It is your conscious mind, thus, which helps you in performing your daily activities.
Now you may wonder – if everything is controlled by the conscious mind, then what really is the job or requirement of the deep mind or the subconscious mind? Have you heard the old adage “Night brings counsel"? How often have you wondered at night what the answer to a particular problem was, and when you turn the request over to the subconscious mind it give you the solution in the morning? Your subconscious comes into play when the conscious mind is at ease, or like some might say – drowsy. It is the part of your mind that takes control of your beliefs and suggestions. Subconscious works on suggestions. Whatever suggestion you feed to it, it will accept it as true. It does not focus on good or bad values but values as a whole. Anything you believe, your subconscious agrees. Your beliefs as well as the feelings related to your past memories, are stored in your subconscious. Subconscious mind controls our emotions thus sometimes you may feel anxious or upset without even knowing the cause of it. (http://www.apathtowisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Conscious-Subconscious.pdf)
As mentioned above, if your conscious is the Captain, your subconscious is a loyal soldier. It will complete every task according to the rules laid down by it’s Captain, no questions asked. If your conscious mind thinks it will only feel better after half an hour of taking a medicine, your subconscious mind will inform to the rest of the body that it cannot feel better without the medication. And instantly after taking the meds, you will start feeling a million times better! The same goes for the food we desire or dislike, sleeping pattern, etc...
In order for your subconscious mind to work effectively, it’s necessary that time after time your conscious mind is put to rest. Have you ever heard people saying that they can come to the best decision when they are relaxed, gardening, taking a nap or strolling in the park? This is because, their conscious mind is hardly at work (drowsy) and their subconscious mind is more in control of the situation.