The irrational side of your brain
Do you ever ask yourself, why did I say that? Why did I do that? Or, why do I feel this way?
If you are struggling to find your irrational side, you’ll find the answer to that within the subconscious mind.
The kicker, your subconscious mind is under no obligation to make sense to you… it’s not rational, it’s responsive…
What does that mean and how does understanding that influence your everyday life?
For years I’ve been passionate about exploring consciousness, how it drives our life experiences and how the Universe and quantum physics play a role in this. I discovered something really interesting after years of study, self-discovery and facilitating thousands of hours of self-development and healing.
Understanding yourself
I learnt that when you can understand yourself and what’s at the core of your challenging experiences you can better self-regulate and heal.
And when you improve your situation through this awareness:
moment by moment,
day by day,
week by week,
you are transforming your life as a whole.
Higher levels of joy are your new normal, self-acceptance arrives with more ease and supportive, positive relationships surround you. (Read more)
Let’s get to work!
Here’s what I want you to try and let me know how you make out.
First, understand that your reactive thoughts and feelings are an automatic response that is not necessarily under the same understanding as your conscious perspective. Meaning, your subconscious has its own set of rules, priorities, and coping mechanisms, as well as emotional/physical reactions, and they either match with those of your conscious mind or they don’t. When they are congruent, your systems runs like a well-oiled machine, but when the subconscious and conscious aren’t on the same page… THAT’S where the seed your problems stem from. That inner conflict wreaks havoc both in your inner world and your external one.
When you witness a grown adult, maybe even yourself, having a toddler tantrum, that is a prime example of how those foundational programs are in conflict with your desired outcome and are subtly influencing every moment of your life behind the scenes. Understanding these situations helps reveal the conflict within the conscious/subconscious minds so they can be addressed and resolved.
When you take a moment to pay attention, you’ll notice you judge your feelings and your responses with your rational mind.
Remembering, the subconscious mind is Responsive, NOT Rational. The moment you subject your subconscious response to your conscious perspective… it’s game over. The judgement of your feelings amplifies the inner disharmony by triggering additional unwanted emotions often like shame, blame, guilt or fear.
Oops!
Instead, I want you to think about your emotions in a different way than you were likely indoctrinated into i.e., good feelings are good, and bad feelings are bad.
Emotional messengers
What I’ve learnt about emotions is they are just messengers, think of it as simple data or information packet. Don’t shoot the messenger! They are not good or bad, they are your emotional and physiological response to your subconscious perspective of your current situation. These emotions are loaded with wisdom about what is really on going on deep inside you and is asking to be resolved.
What your “negative” emotions (or lack thereof) are trying to tell you is that on the subconscious level there’s a conflict with what you are experiencing based on your subconscious programming. If that situation is in fact what you also consciously don’t want then the software is doing its job in many circumstances. If it’s different than what you want, then that’s where taking the time for exploration will really pay off.
Your subconscious programming is also neither good or bad, it’s just software. The programs are either supporting you or hurting you. I’m sure you’re asking yourself why in the world would my subconscious create programs that work against me and my conscious desires? Believe me, I asked myself the same thing and it fuelled my curiosity. That’s a chat in itself, stay tuned for an upcoming post where I dive deeper on that.
What emotions have been coming up for you lately that keep nagging?
Looking back at your life, what emotional patterns can you recognize that are holding you back?
Based on your experiences, how often do your thoughts, feelings and behaviours conflict with your conscious desires?
Addressing negative emotions:
The next time you have an emotional response or experience that is contrary to what you want, I invite you to explore addressing it differently.
Simply observe and recognize the emotion as a little data packet of wisdom about your inner state of conscious/subconscious alignment.
i.e.
Feeling guilt, don’t judge it… explore it.
Connect with the emotion and simply ask… Tell me more…
Move into a state of stillness and non-judgmental observation of what rises to the surface.
When you feel your mental gears turning, that’s your conscious mind turning on trying to use its own understanding and analyze the emotion.
Use your breath to bring you back into stillness. Let yourself get comfortable in the sometimes uncomfortable silence of unknowing and remain in a state of presence and open curiosity.
When the next feeling arises… explore it….. Oh, look! Frustration… that’s interesting… tell me more…
Continue to repeat this process, like moving through the layers of a tiramisu until a thought, image, or sensation rises to the surface and then explore how that experience might be related to your now experience.
Where else do you or have you experienced similar feelings?
Are you listening?
I’ll dive deeper into pattern recognition in my next post, but for now, what you will experience through the gates is this.
At first, it might seem like a trying task, but I want you to keep at it, just like riding a bike, the first time might be wobbly. But continue to take a few minutes here and there when emotional triggers arise and very soon you will notice being able to do this process with more ease.
You’ll witness those unwanted emotions disintegrate before your eyes. You’ll begin to better gently uncover the source of those triggers and take your power back.
Emotional awareness is a powerful tool for healing and self-development but it needs 1 thing to work… for you to listen.
If you are curious about how to better understand yourself, what your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are trying to share with you. I urge you to do so, knowing and understanding yourself is key to creating the life you truly desire.
Come explore for yourself what’s possible with personalized 1-on-1 guidance.
Your Dream Life Advocate,
Anik
