Our behavior and the expression of our characters, beliefs, love, feelings, emotions, fears, anger, intelligence and more are all products of the integrated activities of our unconscious, conscious, and subconscious minds, which are controlled and governed by our level of consciousness.
When consciousness is high, the subconscious mind and morality are strong. In this situation, the conscious mind plays a major role for a better quality of life by controlling and governing the unconscious mind, which is full of several realistic and unrealistic desires, rather than allowing the unconscious mind to dominate and destroy.
The characteristics of morality only operate at a very high level of consciousness. It is not something that can be learned and implemented at any stage of life. Either morality exists or it doesn’t. However, morality can be accomplished and implemented by raising consciousness to a very high level.
UNCONSCIOUS MIND
The unconscious mind works on the principles of fantasy, pleasure and desire. The unconscious mind is a storage of feelings, thoughts, beliefs, urges, hidden memories, emotions, habits, reactions, and desires beyond our awareness. For example, memories and emotions that are too painful, embarrassing, shameful, or distressing to consciously face are stored in the enormous reservoir that makes up the unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind causes us to feel emotionally and physically uncomfortable whenever we attempt to do anything new or different, or try to change any of our established patterns of behavior. The sense of fear and discomfort we feel are actually psychological signs that our unconscious minds have been triggered.
The function of our unconscious mind is to ensure that we respond exactly the way we are programmed to by our unconscious desires and stored databank. Our unconscious mind makes everything we say and do match with the pattern of our “master program,” or our instinctual nature driven by our stored, unfulfilled desires.
Since the unconscious mind works on the pleasure and fantasy principle, it seeks immediate gratification. It does not care if any consequences or complications may arise later, lacks future vision and only seeks immediate satisfaction through the instant fulfillment of desires, much like how a spoiled child behaves.
Starting from birth, every desire enters a person’s unconscious mind without their awareness. All non-fulfilled desires stay in the unconscious mind until they are fulfilled. As we age, we accumulate a large collection of countless unrealistic and delusional desires within our unconscious minds.
The unconscious mind has two instincts; life and death. The life instinct is responsible for satisfaction, joy, good characters, and happiness, whereas the death instinct is responsible for aggression, danger, trauma, sadness, hopelessness, suicidal tendencies, and bad characters.
If the unconscious mind is very powerful, or the leader of our lives, then it means that our level of consciousness is very low and our suffering is more.
The communication between the unconscious and conscious minds is one directional, meaning we have no conscious control over the communication that is fed to us from our unconscious minds. The conscious mind’s only capability is to work like a referee between the unconscious and subconscious minds.
CONSCIOUS MIND
Your conscious mind is your thinking mind. It has no memory, and it can only hold one thought at a time. The conscious mind works on the principle of reality.
This mind has four essential functions:
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The first function is to identify the incoming information it receives from the six senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and feeling. The conscious mind is continually observing and categorizing what is happening around us.
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The second function of the conscious mind is comparison.
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The third function of the conscious mind is analysis. and
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The fourth function of the conscious mind is decision- making.
Our conscious mind accepts or rejects data when making choices and decisions. It can deal with only one thought or idea at a time, like positive or negative, “yes” or “no.” It is continually sorting impressions, deciding which are relevant to you and which are not.
The conscious mind consists of everything within our awareness including sensations, perceptions, and feelings. The conscious mind involves everything we are currently aware of and thinking about. It is very similar to short-term memory, and is limited in terms of capacity. Our awareness of ourselves and the world around us are all a part of our consciousness.
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
The subconscious mind works on the principle of morality. The subconscious mind rewards us with joy and happiness if we are operating on this principle. Otherwise, it punishes us with guilt and grief for not taking right moral action.
The subconscious mind is the powerful secondary system that runs everything in our lives. The subconscious mind is a memory data-bank for everything which is not in our conscious mind. It stores our beliefs, our previous experiences, our memories, and our skills. Its capacity is virtually unlimited, and it permanently stores everything that we have seen, done or thought (realistic and unrealistic).
It is also our guidance system. It constantly monitors the information that comes from our senses, watching out for danger and opportunities. The communication between the subconscious and conscious minds is bidirectional. Every time we have an idea, an emotion, a memory or an image from the past, this is our subconscious mind communicating to our conscious mind. However, the communication from the conscious mind to the subconscious mind is not as easy. Learning how to communicate between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind is a powerful tool for success, health, wealth and happiness.
Because the subconscious mind works on the morality principle, it rewards us with satisfaction, joy, and happiness when we take moral action. When people are not morally and ethically strong, then the conscious mind is preoccupied with managing and negotiating with the unconscious mind like a biological mother constantly trying to convince a disobedient child to behave properly. The subconscious mind punishes us for immorality because it is a form of self- betrayal. The constant stress caused by the resulting guilt and grief ultimately causes us to suffer from a vast number and variety of mental and emotional health problems. Given our current mental health crisis, it is vital for us to raise consciousness to restore our moral faculties so as to release us from the control of our unconscious thoughts, feelings and desires. Freeing our conscious minds from the constant assault of uncontrolled thoughts and mental chatter will put our minds at ease, rewarding us with true satisfaction, peace, joy and happiness.