Have you ever had a moment where you’ve said something or did something and thought to yourself, “Why did I do that?”, “What was I thinking?!” (insert foot in mouth).

Why do we do the things we do? And why are some of these things so automatic that we feel as if we have little control over them?

The subconscious made me do it!

Yes, that driven force beneath our conscious awareness is the Wizard of Oz, otherwise known as the subconscious.

Why do we do the things we do…is that infinite question that psychologists, biologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and all those other -ologists, have been trying to figure out for centuries. And the answer (why do you do the things you do)? ONLY your subconscious knows.

There are patterns within societies, within the human race, etc. but individually, only your subconscious knows why you do the things you do. The answers lie within your subconscious.

These answers and this information is priceless insight; it can mean the difference between repeating self-defeating patterns of thoughts, actions, and behavior or moving forward, deeply understanding yourself, and breaking old habits and maladaptive thoughts and patterns that don’t serve you anymore.

The subconscious is the focus of hypnosis and for good reason! It contains the keys to the past because the subconscious is a recording of your past. And while we don’t want to get stuck in the past, we must realize that it affects us and answers the many why’s we have today.

Why do you get emotional over something when the same thing has no effect on someone else? Why do you buy the things you buy and someone else buys the things they buy? What you respond to today, the suggestions in your environment all around you, are indicative of your past- more specifically your past programming.

What is subconscious programming?

Most of what you operate on each day (how you make decisions, how you react, what you like/dislike, what gets your attention) is based on the subconscious record of your past. 

Your past “record” dictates how you interact with the present. You make associations with early experiences to guide future behavior. This is what becomes your automatic behavior (subconscious programming).

The subconscious stores all that you’ve heard, seen, experienced, and felt. It associates these things to a pattern for future use. It’s a very efficient program that the subconscious is running and it’s crucial to our survival (with a few caveats).

We don’t have to learn to drive every time we get in the car. That’s helpful. But sometimes, the subconscious makes connections and associations that aren’t completely accurate. If you were bitten by a dog at age 8, your subconscious may associate dogs with danger (for your survival) and you may develop a fear of dogs. Are all dogs bad? No.

And you’ve heard about the connection between food and love- another problematic association.

Those examples are fairly basic. A deeper understanding and example of subconscious associations would be someone who didn’t feel they had a voice as a child. They were unheard, often told to be quiet- they’re “just a child”, they couldn’t have a separate or opposing opinion to their parents.

This can form any number of associations in the subconscious depending on the culmination of other experiences they’ve had- it could result in being afraid to speak up for themselves, become very passive or they learn to be ineffective in their lives (learned helplessness). They fear being ineffective and therefore don’t go for the things they really want in life. People will say, “I just don’t know what is holding me back.” Do you see how any number of connections can be made in the subconscious, leaving A LOT OF ROOM FOR ERROR!

Some of those errors are the patterns of thoughts, actions, habits and behaviors that you may find yourself consciously wanting/trying to change.

If you’re reading this, I can probably assume you’ve done some self-work and you’re on a certain level of self-awareness. You may have even drawn some conclusions based on associations in your own life. Meaning, you’ve touched base with things in your past and you know now why you do certain things.

You might even realize that having this information doesn’t automatically lead to change.

It’s great however, to be conscious of these things, but change is lasting and effective on a subconscious level.

Subconscious Versus Conscious

Trying to change patterns of thoughts, behavior, and actions is like telling someone struggling with extra weight to eat less and exercise. Pretty sure they could write the handbook on diet and exercise. They consciously KNOW what to do, but until they change the program/pattern in the subconscious, they will battle, not weight issues, but willpower.

Willpower is conscious effort.

Willpower and effort are short-lived because there’s so many things competing for our attention every day. And attention is attended by the conscious mind. You can’t focus on a diet 24/7. Eventually you’ll slip into automatic behavior.

Since most of your experiences in early childhood were created in your subconscious record and associations, that’s where change must occur- at the deep subconscious level.

But how?

The power of suggestion. Watch the video to learn more!

A relatable explanation of hypnosis.

Peace and Be Well,

Laura