How the Subconscious Mind Works

Have you ever daydreamed? Have you ever missed an exit off the freeway or taken a wrong turn because your mind wandered somewhere else? Daydreaming is a form of hypnosis. When we chop vegetables for dinner, we can become hypnotized. When I go through my workout routine, I can become hypnotized. I have to keep a pen and paper handy because I suddenly get a fresh, creative idea or I remember to calendar something that I had previously forgotten. Hypnosis comes in many packages.

Hypnosis is not a form of mind control. No one can hypnotize anyone into doing anything that is against his or her morals or ethics, and no one can be hypnotized into doing something that they do not want to do. We all experience some form of hypnosis every day – chopping veggies, driving or exercising. When we are in a state of hypnosis, our conscious mind is relaxed and our subconscious mind is susceptible to suggestion, while simultaneously we are very aware of our surroundings and what is happening.

You have heard about the left-brain and right-brain. The left brain is our logical mind -- the one that says: “Don’t touch the stove; you’ll get burned,” “I have to go to work today,” or “Pick up the dry cleaning.” The right brain is the creative mind -- the subconscious mind and the place where the inner child resides. Our subconscious mind has a 10 year-old mentality. It stops growing by the age of 10, and that is why our dreams can be strange and symbolic. It is so the subconscious brain (the inner child) can understand and process. If you have kids, you know how they can take everything literally.

Here are some examples of how children (and our subconscious minds) take things literally. When I was a little girl, I was an Army brat. We moved around a great deal to places like Germany, Texas and Georgia. When I was 5 and my younger brother was 4, we lived in Ft. Benning, Georgia and played with a friend our age – a little girl whose mom is Caucasian and whose dad is African-American. That was my first experience around a “mixed” child – i.e., the beautiful olive skin, the green eyes and the curly blonde hair. One day my mom said to my brother and me: “She’s hateful.” As an adult, I know what my mom meant by that, as the little girl had some sneaky, vindictive ways about her. However, my little 5 year-old mind understood that to be: “Mixed children are hateful.” For a long time after that, I thought all “mixed” kids were hateful. As an adult, this is still embarrassing to me, but I was just a child. Do you see how the little child’s mind works? The right brain – the subconscious mind – is where all of our experiences and memories are stored from childhood.

Most everyone has suppressed emotions from childhood. Even if we grew up in a functional family, we can still suppress issues and hold experiences in our subconscious minds. For instance, here are a couple of other examples how the subconscious mind works: Take the African-American male who was one of the top salespeople in his company, but he couldn’t make it to the number one slot. Whenever he got close, he felt something sabotaging him – pulling him back. He dreamt of making 6 digits a year and having his own company. What came up for him during hypnosis was the suppressed statement his mother made to him when he was a young boy: “Son, you’ll excel at everything you do, but you’ll never have what rich white men have.” Do you see how the young subconscious mind can be affected?

Take the woman who has been married and divorced 5 times – in and out of relationships. Each time she was in a great relationship, she would do something to sabotage it. What came up for her during hypnosis was a memory of helping her mom with the dishes when she was a little girl. Her parents just had a little argument. It was nothing major. They were simply miffed at each other. The mother stated to her: “Don’t ever trust men – they’re not worth the trouble.” Do you see how she was subconsciously sabotaging herself all those years just to keep from trusting men?

In order to have the lives we desire, we must release the gunk. Hypnosis is an excellent way of releasing false beliefs we accepted as children. It is a powerful tool for releasing old concepts and belief systems which no longer serve us. There are many ways to let go of the old, false beliefs in order to make room for the healthy new beliefs, and all of the tools work. Choose the tools which resonate most with you and become the happy, healthy person you really want to become.