“The non-conscious mind is absolutely amazing, yet few people even know how it works, let alone teach it others to use it.  Because it is metaphorically hidden from you most of the time, it receives little or no attention or explanation as you grow up, especially not in schools.  It rarely gets any attention when you’re an adult, either.”  John Assaraf

What would be your best guess as to how much of your waking day is regulated by your habits?

And the LORD said to them, “Now listen to me! Even with prophets, I the LORD communicate by visions and dreams. (Num. 12:6; NLT)

Earlier in the week, I said that I was going to do an extended series of DGs on the human brain.  If you missed that introduction, I encourage you to take a couple of minutes and go back and read that introductory material.  (Access that DG by clicking here.) 

When we think of our brain, we hardly ever think about the side of our brain that is called the non-conscious or subconscious brain.  Too many people aren’t sure that subconscious is something we should even be looking at since, by nature, it sounds kind of “woo-woo.”  (To many, anything that can’t be observed by one or more of our five senses, is automatically suspect and arbitrarily labeled “woo-woo.”)

Well, woo-woo or not, the non-conscious mind is very real.  In fact, of the 100% of our brain mass, only 17% is our conscious mind.  The other 83% is our non-conscious mind.  We’ll spend more time with the non-conscious mind another day, but for now, suffice it to say that one of it’s functions is to store our beliefs, memories, and habits.  You do things from habit without thinking about them.  You actually have to think hard to do the opposite.  Most of the time when you’re driving your car, you’re driving from your non-conscious mind.  Frankly, our conscious mind is incapable of processing information fast enough to effectively allow us to drive safely.  I’ve read that more than 95% of our behavior comes from our subconscious or non-conscious mind.  More about that later.

Your brain is effectively an electrical broadcasting and receiving device.  It is constantly emitting and receiving electrical waves in one of four frequency ranges.  As a metaphor, think of those four frequencies as gears on a high performance automobile.  Most of us drive around all day every day of our lives using only two of the four gears…first and fourth.  I believe you can see that performance will be severely restricted by the non-use of second and third gears.  After all, they were designed in by the manufacturer for a purpose.

The four frequencies are beta, fastest of the waves and where we spend most, if not all, of our waking moments.  (This is first gear.)  Second is alpha.  Alpha is that pre-sleep state and is actually far more conducive to focus, to learning, to intuition, and to a number of other desirable benefits.  This state is also accessible by prayer or meditation.  Most people never see this state except just before they fall asleep–and they’re often so exhausted that they zip through it without realizing any of the benefits.

Third gear is Theta.  This state is naturally experienced during sleep, specifically REM or rapid eye-movement sleep.  Creativity and retention are just two of the many benefits of time in this state.  Many “geniuses” have learned how to spend significant amounts of time in this state.  Finally, fourth gear is Delta or dream less sleep or deep sleep.  Again, most of us spend most of our lives alternating between Beta and Delta.

Why is this significant?  Let’s look at goal setting as an example.  Setting a goal is very much a conscious activity, properly done when wide awake functioning in Beta (1st gear).  However, the changes in our behavior necessary to achieve that goal don’t occur in our conscious mind.  Those changes must occur in our non-conscious mind in order to become new habits.  Access to our non-conscious mind is gained while in Alpha and Theta states (2nd and 3rd gears).

If our lifestyles never allow us to enter those states, can you begin to see the disconnect?  Is it any wonder that so many of us struggle with goals?  We’ve never been taught.  We’ve never had the training necessary to effectively operate this magnificent vehicle we’ve been blessed with while in our “earth suits.”  Keep in mind, however, that a lot of this is relatively new information.  Doesn’t it make you want to learn more?

Prayer Power
Lord, open our minds to be able to ponder new discoveries regarding how our brain and physical body operates and learn to apply that insight to facilitate our destiny.

Link of the Day
Who Switched off My Brain?: Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions

Blessings on you as you begin to reach out for more information on how the brain really works.
 

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