Ever wonder why real change is so difficult?
Consider breaking a habit: why do you suppose that you slide back to your 'old ways' again and again?
You have two components to your mind: conscious and subconscious. The conscious mind handles all the logical business (weighing, considering and accepting or rejecting) and the subconscious mind handles everything else (including imagining, daydreaming, wishing and hoping). If you LOVE to eat too much or drink too much or smoke or whatever, you do the loving of those things with your subconscious mind. You have to marry the warm fuzzy feelings/thoughts of drinking & smoking with your imagination: with the IDEA of this being a good thing to do...the reasons you choose are your own (sort of).
Enjoyment happens in the imagination (subconscious mind). You don't 'rationalize' enjoyment (conscious mind) unless you have already decided you want to enjoy (subconscious mind) something. If you decide you need to quit something for health reasons, you do that with your conscious (logical) mind. You then use your 'will' (conscious mind) to try and turn your craving (subconscious compulsion) away from whatever you're trying to quit doing when the urge (subconscious mind) arises. It's estimated that the conscious mind takes up 5 % of total mind and the subconscious mind takes up the other 95%. Ever see 5 of anything in a fight with 95 of anything? Are you still wondering why real change is so difficult?
Comments welcome. :)
C ya next week.
Mark, Thank you for giving us perfect explanation to a complex subject. We humans cripple with this every hour of every day. It is a constant fight between our logical mind and our emotional mind. It seems to me that the two minds rarely communicate with each other. We all know what is best for us (most of the time) however our emotional mind leads us astray. Because as you say the emotional (subconscious) mind is the one in charge of the “fun stuff”! When people talk about conflict between their heart and their head, this is exactly what they are referring . I suppose we need to rely on our will power and maturity to execute logic and sense over our silly emotions. Easier said than done!
ReplyDeleteLauren Leah : )