Our brains are amazing. They are constantly processing information and we do this in all different modalities. The two primary ones are the conscious and subconscious parts of our brains. The unconscious is the part of our brain that deals with what we are doing without our control, while the conscious process is the part that controls our actions.
We know that the unconscious is more dominant in most of our day-to-day activities, but that doesn’t mean it’s all done in the “black” (unconscious) part of our brain. It’s not that we don’t have our conscious parts, but they are just not as active as they could be.
The conscious part of our brain is what we are thinking and doing, while the subconscious is the part of our brain that deals with what we are not thinking about. For example, if we are thinking about an important upcoming meeting, it’s hard to think about anything else. We don’t consciously care about what we are doing, but its almost like we don’t want to be doing it. We are too busy, but we don’t want to be doing it.
Some time ago, I did a survey on the internet and found that over half of Americans have a problem with the idea that their subconscious is as active as their conscious parts, and that more often than not, it’s not. So I just put the poll up on my blog and asked people to let me know what they thought.
Its a real problem. Its a problem because its not just about being conscious and aware of what we are doing. It’s also about letting go of what we are doing, and becoming aware. We can feel like we are not doing anything most of the time and so we tend to let go of our thoughts as well.
I wrote a post on the blog about how I feel about this. In a nutshell, I think the world needs to be aware, mindful, and conscious of what we are doing and why we are doing it. I think this is what we are talking about here. Its an issue of a person not being able to let go of their own actions which are causing our lives to be not just bad, but also not good.
I agree with you. And I think you just described some of the reasons that have kept me from letting go of my actions as well. I have been in a pretty bad place in my marriage lately and I think that is really starting to affect me and my ability to be more aware of what I am doing and why I am doing it.
You may not realize it, but you are also not your actions. The way you think about anything has an effect on the way you act. We have all been guilty of allowing our own actions to take us down a path that was not in our own best interest. As much as we would like to believe we control our actions, the fact is, we don’t. We just do.
I think it is a lot of what we do that is keeping us from the best life we can have. We are so busy trying to be “perfect” we don’t take the time to really learn what is good for us. We just do what we tell everyone else to do. This can be hard to admit, but in the end, it is what we do that has the biggest impact on our happiness.
I am the opposite of one of those people. I have a lot of self-awareness, but I love to take things for granted. I am the person who thinks, “If I could just take this thing out of my hand, it would be so much easier.” I have the tendency to do things that I would never have done if I were not aware that I was doing them.