Unconscious thoughts: How do you change them?

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?

That 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 lead to subconscious desires[1], such as suddenly feeling like going for a walk (or eating a piece of chocolate).

Your subconscious is the part of your brain or mind that you usually do not consciously activate. 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 through 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 the conscious setting of goals is influenced by your subconscious. That’s because those goals, in turn, trigger automatic associations—for example, you link your goal to a mental image of the outcome when you achieve it, as well as to specific behaviors. This is shaped by the environment in which you have previously done similar things[2].

According to Ellenberger, the subconscious mind has 4 functions, namely:

1. 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.
2. Disassociation, fragmenting different facets of you that can affect normal functioning.
3. Creativity, because where do all these ideas actually come from?
4. 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 do need to be careful not to avoid conflict so often that it puts your job at risk. Standing up for yourself can feel wrong, even though it’s necessary—because you’ve had a negative, “wrong” experience with it in the past, and your subconscious is well aware of it.

Changing unconscious thoughts

Sometimes you can change those feelings stemming from subconscious thoughts quite easily. With hypnosis, for example, you connect with your subconscious—that part of your mind where thoughts are not yet conscious.

A hypnotist can help you get rid of a negative feeling if it bothers you on a daily basis. We’re convinced that you have everything you need to solve your problems, but sometimes your subconscious or unconscious mind needs a little help with that.

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 that causes you to freeze up when you actually want to do something else? What makes you hold your tongue and keep ruminating about it 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 through regression.

During regression, you go back to the moment when you first experienced a certain feeling or had a subconscious thought. This is the moment when a belief was formed about how the world works and how you function within 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.

During this moment of self-reflection, you put yourself in the shoes of the other people who were there at that time. This allows you to realize that what you’ve always believed doesn’t make sense at all. Or you can forgive people and move on, so that it no longer affects your current life or your 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 feel the need to tackle your own mental blocks and problems right away—or to help others do the same? Then come to a seminar or sign up for one of our training programs.

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