Sometimes something stops you from doing something. Someone makes a comment you don't like, and instead of replying to the person, you remain silent. At night, of course, you know exactly what you should have said at that moment. Or you want to go somewhere, but decide at the last minute not to. Afterwards, you regret that decision. Why is that now?
This may be the result of unconscious thoughts.
What is the subconscious mind?
Your subconscious mind is the part of your brain that thinks without language. These thoughts often resemble feelings. For example, your gut feelings are driven by subconscious thoughts, but they can in turn cause conscious thoughts. Your subconscious thoughts are also often influenced by the environment you are in.
This is often a spontaneous process and can create unconscious desires[1], such as suddenly feeling like going for a walk (or a piece of chocolate).
Your subconscious mind is the part of your brain or thoughts that you don't usually turn on consciously. It has no conscious intention to do anything. You are not aware of the influence of the subconscious, and thoughts or beliefs in the subconscious generally do not influence you with conscious thoughts.
Meanwhile, your subconscious does have a lot of influence on your conscious thinking. For example, your subconscious can cause you to look at the world a certain way, what stereotypes you have and how you judge people or situations.
Even conscious goal setting is influenced by your subconscious. This is because those goals in turn activate automatic associations; for example, you link your goal to an image of the outcome when you achieve the goal and behaviors. This is shaped by the environment in which you have done similar things before[2].
According to Ellenberger, the subconscious mind has 4 functions, namely:
- Storing knowledge, your memory as it were that you always carry with you in what you do and that determines your view of the world.
- Disassociation, fragmenting different facets of you that can affect normal functioning.
- Creativity, because where do all these ideas actually come from?
- Fantasy, fictional scenes of all kinds. (visualizations and other fictional fabrications)[3].
What are unconscious thoughts?
So unconscious thoughts are thoughts that do not express themselves in language. When you think consciously you often think in language and in images or sound. When you have unconscious thoughts it expresses itself more in feelings. You feel that something is good, a positive unconscious thought, or is not good, a negative unconscious thought.
Those feelings of whether something is right or wrong naturally influence your behavior, and those feelings come from somewhere. That, of course, comes from the first function of the unconscious mind, which is the storage of knowledge that influences your view of the world.
The role of unconscious thoughts in your daily life
Because something can feel right or wrong, it can cause you to take steps, freeze or even flee. After all, with "wrong" feelings, you experience some form of danger. This need not always be serious, but if someone says something nasty to you and at that moment it feels "wrong" to say something in return you remain silent. It's a mini-form of freezing.
Perhaps because your unconscious fears that if you do say something it could cause a discussion or even an argument. If this happens to you at work it is not always helpful.
But you have to be careful not to avoid arguing so often that it could jeopardize your job. Standing up for yourself can feel wrong, even though it is necessary because you have had a negative "wrong" experience in the past that your unconscious really knows about.
Changing unconscious thoughts
Sometimes you can change those feelings of unconscious thoughts quite easily. With hypnosis, for example, you make contact with your subconscious, that part of your thoughts where they are not yet conscious.
A hypnotist can then help you get rid of a negative feeling if you suffer from this on a daily basis. This is because we are convinced that you have everything within you to solve your problems, but sometimes your subconscious or unconscious needs a little help to do so.
Because the subconscious mind is also important for creativity and imagination, you can use those 2 tasks to get rid of negative feelings.
Initially, you are put under hypnosis by a hypnotist. In fact, in the state of hypnosis, you are more open to suggestions from the hypnotist. Those suggestions can tap into your imagination and creativity to get rid of the negative feeling in your body.
For example, you can put this feeling in your arm after suggestions from the hypnotist. Then the hypnotist can give you the suggestion that those feelings in your arm disappear at a certain time.
Then you have taken over your body with your imagination and creativity to move tension and other negative feelings into your arm and have them dissolve.
Then a hypnosis expert will still verify that the feeling is truly gone before removing you from hypnosis.
Finding out the source of unconscious thoughts
Sometimes, however, getting rid of unconscious thoughts is a little more difficult. That's when you have to dig a little deeper into your subconscious.
So what is it about you right now that causes you to block when you actually want to do something else? What causes you to swallow your words and ruminate about them at night.
What causes you to cancel activities at the last minute?
To do this, it is important to find out what influences your unconscious. In particular, the store of knowledge that informs your view of the world, how it functions and how you function best in the world is important to dissect to remove blockages.
We usually do this with regression.
During regression, you go back to the moment when you first had a particular feeling, an unconscious thought. This is the moment when a belief was created about how the world works and how you function in it.
Because with hypnosis you're in close contact with your subconscious, the suggestion "go back to the first moment when you got this feeling" can cause your subconscious to instantly conjure up the image that caused it. Suddenly you know instantly.
It usually involves a childhood event because that is the period in your life when your unconscious life rules.
For example, as a 9-year-old during a funeral, I determined that apparently as a man you are not allowed to cry, so I did not process emotions for a very long time. Fortunately, I was able to change this with hypnosis.
You then go on to do something with that moment. This could include empathizing with other people who were there at that moment. With this, the hypnotist helps you.
So during this moment of yourself, you empathize with the other individuals who were there at the time. As a result, you can find out that what you have always thought does not make sense at all. Or you can forgive people and put it better behind you so it no longer affects your current life and future.
So your unconscious and subconscious are totally connected and often trigger your conscious thoughts and behaviors.
Your unconscious thoughts are often feelings triggered by memories stored in your subconscious that is constantly comparing the situation you are in with situations from your past and whether or not you are in danger.
Sometimes your subconscious may have given you beliefs that block you from doing what is right for you.
In this case, hypnosis can help you change your unconscious thoughts, by influencing things in your subconscious, for example. This will make you feel "right" more often and thus you will be less blocked.
Want to know what hypnosis feels like and if you can hypnotize people? Then come to a free online master class.
Do you just feel the need to work directly with your own blockages and problems or help people with them? Then come to a seminar or enroll in one of our trainings.
Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
Sources:
[1] http://sci-gems.math.bas.bg:8080/jspui/bitstream/10525/235/1/ijitk01-2-p08.pdf
[2] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alex_Stajkovic/publication/6835947_A_first_examination_of_the_relationships_between_primed_subconscious_goals_assigned_conscious_goals_and_task_performance/links/09e4150c0d5084172e000000.pdf
[3] https://search.proquest.com/openview/d7aeeb2874f7afed54d6c5ad50990efe/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=42308
