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Writer's pictureAngela McPherson

Conscious vs the Unconscious Mind


It has been estimated in every second of every day there are approx. 2.3 million ‘bits’ of information our brains have to organise and sort into meaning in our lives. That’s 2.3 MILLION BITS - IN EVERY SECOND - OF EVERY DAY!!!

That’s a loooot of information to decipher from the available reality. Of course our conscious mind cannot handle that amount of information - it can only really process 126 bits (which is about 1/1000ths or 1% of reality or raw data available) in a way that gives us meaning.

Like a computer, our brain employs a series of programmes (or FILTERS) to sort this information and process or make sense of this in our world. And of course we all live in EXACTLY the same world as everyone else… Don’t we? Of course we do.... Mmmmm....

These filters DISTORT, DELETE, and GENERALISE. It sorts or ‘chunks’ the raw data from the external world into roughly 2-7 categories or groups so our mind can process and make sense of it quickly.

Now if we look deeper at the Unconscious Mind we can think of our Conscious Mind as the Captain of the boat of our life and the Unconscious Mind as the crew.

The Unconscious Mind is the part of us that you are unaware of until you bring attention to it right now. It stores for you every part of your day; how your feet feel on the floor, what you had for breakfast, if your bum is numb on the chair, how your pen feels in your hand, how your clothes feel against your skin, if it was raining this morning, and, what about your feet on the floor – you had forgotten about them now hadn’t you?

There are 21 basic tasks of the Unconscious Mind, and with this points 16, 19 & 20 are very important to ponder in relation to our unconscious beliefs and the things we consciously want to have or achieve in our life.

What happens when the crew want to go in a different direction to the Captain... mutiny! The question is does the crew really know where it wants to go? Are either of you really driving the boat... or just following the current? Who’s driving the Boat!?!

Next we will look more at WHY WE DO THE THINGS WE DO - and what we can do to change it..

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