Last post centered around a quote by Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, who wrote, “When an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate.”
And, since most of our emotional junk lies within our much larger unconscious — thus it isn’t usually even considered — there’s a good chance it will manifest as something negative. We might believe it was fate. It wasn’t. The signs were there the entire time.
So, what really is Consciousness? I mean, if conscious (i.e., being conscious) is that important in order to be at our most effective and productive, we should know what it is. We should be able to define it. And, in studying this topic, I’ve heard many excellent definitions. The one that stands out for me however, in terms of practicality, is by T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. He described it as:
“Observing your thoughts and actions so that you can live from true choice
in the present moment rather than being run by programming from the past.”
I love it! Observation is the key. It’s actively digging in there and being…well, conscious of what we are thinking and doing. Only then can we know what we’re thinking and even know what (or, at least, that) we’re not thinking. And, only at that point can we begin to determine if perhaps some of these thoughts and feelings have been programmed into us rather than programs we have chosen to live by.
At the conclusion of the last article, I suggested that we overcome this by digging into our unconscious and becoming aware. In other words, it all begins with consciousness. It begins with it, but that’s not all it takes. As Jim Everett suggested in the Comments section, it’s not everything. He wrote:
“I don’t think the path to improvement is to rely completely on awareness, but to use the scarce and utterly important 2% of the time when we are aware to put into our unconscious what we want to act upon spontaneously and what we want the universe to validate to us.
“We are all equipped with a beautiful ‘auto-pilot’ system called our unconscious that we can program. We simply (not easily) need to understand how it operates and program it for the destination we desire and make the occasional course correction.”
Though I don’t know if the 2% he mentioned is the limit – with work, I’d hope it can be even more than that – I certainly agree with him. We don’t rely completely on awareness. It’s the awareness that allows us to take the next step which, as Jim suggested is to then program and allow our now more benevolent unconscious to guide us to where we consciously choose to go.
Before ending, however, I have a question for you: I mentioned that it was necessary to “dig into our unconscious.” Many, though, might say that’s counterproductive and instead we should step back and observe. What do you think? Have you found one approach to work better for you than the other? Or, could it be both? I’d love to know your thoughts.
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Hey Bob,
Awesome post (of course!) I appreciate you using T. Harv Eker as a reference w/ his book. I love that book & it aligns w/ my teaching from Paul Yonggi Cho-The Power of the Fourth Dimension, Vince Poscente-the ant and the ELEPHANT.
The subconscious mind is the most powerful source of energy, productivity & discernment known. When we become highly intuitive to our subconscious, learn to feed it instead of our unstable conscious mind, we will find huge results.
Personally I don’t believe in fate, consequences or the like. It’s like the hologram of the professor in the movie I-Robot. “Dr. Alfred Lanning: Everything that follows is a result of what you see here.”
Once we learn to “see” it in the subconscious & bring it forward, we will be amazed at the outcome.
One of my favorite scriptures says, “As a man thinks, so is he.”
Blessings,
g
Not really sure, but Carl Jung is definately a person of interest to me! Always used to believe in fate, but no longer. Now I am aware that I can make my own decisions, like my mother used to say, ‘Be a leader, not a follower.’ Thought that was wise advice! Cindy Thanks again for all your insight! ;0) Have a great day!
For me, the question became “How, then, DO we develop our awareness?”
Through many years of study, I believe I have found the answer for me (and for many others, I’m sure).
A great man once said, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, how can you do what you want?” (Moshe Feldenkrais, D. Sc.)
The nexus of his theory/ method was that “until it reaches the peripheral musculature, no neurological event can be perceived either as a sensation or a feeling, or as a mood or action” i.e. one can only become aware of a harmful event (or any event really) in the brain itself when it causes an action in the periphery – only then does it become conscious.
So that leads us to look at movement as a way to systematically develop our awareness. Feldenkrais was genius in his approach. He basically discovered 50 years before neuroscience proved it that the brain is “plastic” (i.e. it’s malleable, changeable). Movement was his means of communicating with the nervous system.
The scientific theory of embodied cognition is beginning to prove (part of) his theory. Feel free to check out various articles on my site for more explanations on this.
Awareness is a skill that can be (and should be!) systematically developed – under the proper conditions.
Thanks for spurring this discussion, Bob.
Have a great day!
This is a GREAT post and conversation. I’m going to have to read it a few times and digest it. However, I know the message and it’s also along the lines of what Napolean Hill talks about. By the way, take a look for Napolean Hill on You-Tube. What a charming man – amazing videos there. A modern view, as I see it, is to keep feeding the messages into your mind, and the mind will operate like an auto-pilot / GPS to direct you to the actions, relationships and resources that will support what you truly want to “come-in” to you life. Have a peaceful and rewarding weekend.
Bob,
I agree that 2% is probably not the limit – hopefully not even close. I know I’ve met some very amazing people who I’m sure are much more conscious than that. For me, some days I feel a lot more consciously aware than others and it seems the trend over the years is higher awareness. However, I make no claims to achieving a certain level or to being a model to follow in this area.
As far as answering your question about digging into the unconscious or simply observing, I do think it’s both. With some of the work I’ve done and being influenced by the brilliant woman I have the fortune of living with, it seems that there are subtle ways using observation as the entry point to get to the root of unconscious conflicts. My personal experience is that they do not result in instant transformations, but in subtle shifts that play out over time with compounding effects.
Check this consciousness definition http://www.BrainExperiments.com/consciousness.aspx
The only one that looks fine to me…