5 Powerful Ways Your Subconscious Distortions Your Reality
Posted on 4th February 2023 at 12:31
The subconscious mind is the part of our mind that processes information and experiences without conscious awareness. It plays a crucial role in shaping our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours by filtering data based on several factors.
The size of the subconscious mind is not a matter of physical size but refers to its vast and seemingly limitless capacity for storing and processing information, experiences, and emotions. The subconscious mind is much larger and more powerful than the conscious mind. It is responsible for several unconscious processes and behaviours, such as automatic physical responses, habits, and instincts. Despite its size and power, the subconscious mind is often difficult to access and understand, and its workings are still not fully understood by modern science.
Subconcious Filtering Factors
Beliefs and values: Our subconscious mind filters information based on pre-existing beliefs and values. If something aligns with our beliefs, it is more likely to be accepted and processed, while information that contradicts our beliefs may be rejected or dismissed.
Emotions: Our emotional responses can influence the information that is processed by the subconscious. Emotional experiences can create strong imprints in the subconscious, shaping our beliefs and influencing future responses to similar situations.
Habits and patterns: The subconscious mind has learned patterns of behaviour and thinking that it uses to categorize information. These patterns help us process information more efficiently and quickly, but can also limit our perspective and lead us to make assumptions based on past experiences.
Repetition: The more often information is repeated, the more likely it is to be filtered into the subconscious mind. This repetition can occur through exposure to information from multiple sources or through the repetition of behaviours, thoughts, and feelings.
Relevance: Information perceived as relevant or important is more likely to be filtered into the subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind prioritizes information that it believes is critical for our survival and well-being, storing it for later retrieval.
Risks of filtering information
These processes help the subconscious mind prioritize and store information in a way that is meaningful and relevant to an individual's experience. However, this filtering process can lead to biases, limiting beliefs, and negative thought patterns. Individuals can improve their mental and emotional well-being by becoming aware of these biases and working to change them.
How much control does your conscious mind have?
The conscious mind is the part of our mind responsible for our thoughts, awareness, and perception of the world around us. It is considered the smaller and more limited part of the mind compared to the subconscious. The conscious mind has several fundamental limitations that impact our perception and decision-making.
Decision-making limitations of your conscious mind:
Limited working memory: The conscious mind has a limited capacity for holding and processing information at any given time. This is known as working memory and is thought to hold around seven items of information at once. Beyond this limit, information becomes rapidly lost or forgotten. This can make it difficult to process complex information and make decisions based on multiple factors.
Attentional bias: The conscious mind is easily influenced by what it is paying attention to at any given moment. This attentional bias can lead to exaggerating certain aspects of our experience and a diminished awareness of other elements. For example, if we are focused on a particular task or thought, we may become less aware of our physical surroundings or emotional state.
Confirmation bias: The conscious mind also seeks and remembers information that supports our existing beliefs and values. This confirmation bias can limit our ability to be open-minded and consider alternative perspectives.
Emotional Influence: Our emotions play a significant role in shaping our conscious thoughts and decisions. When we feel strong emotional, such as anger, fear or excitement, our emotions can overwhelm our conscious mind and lead us to make impulsive decisions that we later regret.
Automatic processes: A large proportion of our behaviour and decision-making is driven by unconscious processes in the subconscious mind. This can include habits, emotional reactions, and automatic physical responses. The conscious mind is unaware of these processes and may struggle to control them.
Time pressure: The conscious mind is also limited by time pressure. When we are under time constraints, our thoughts become more focused, and our decision-making becomes less flexible. This can lead to a decreased ability to think creatively and consider multiple solutions to a problem.
Subconscious filtering means that our reality can be completely distorted, almost like in virtual reality; hence, in NLP is often said that your world map is different from anyone else.
It is estimated that the subconscious mind is responsible for a significant portion of our decision-making and behaviour, possibly as much as 95% or more.
While the conscious mind can process about 40 bits of information per second, the subconscious mind can process up to 11 million bits of data per second. This massive difference in processing power is why the subconscious mind shapes our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
Can I regain control?
Despite these limitations, the conscious mind is still an essential part of our mind and plays a crucial role in processing our experiences and decisions. By becoming aware of these limitations, we can take steps to overcome them and improve our decision-making and overall well-being. For example, we can develop mindfulness and emotional regulation strategies to help us control our emotional reactions, and we can engage in self-reflection and learning to expand our perspectives and overcome confirmation bias. The fastest way of achieving this is to use Clinical Hypnotherapy to stop anxiety and panic, that are anchored behind those unhelpful beliefs.
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