Mind-Able

The path we often take isn't always the path we consciously choose.

Have you ever found yourself doing the same things, over and over knowing that it is not helpful. Maybe you haven't noticed yet, or perhaps you are just beginning to see that this behaviour is no longer helpful to where you want to be.

Welcome, to Mind-Able in this blog we will explore aspects of our mind, Conscious, Unconscious and Subconscious.

Let's Talk about: Becoming mind-able

Firstly what do we mean when we talk about, our brain, our mind, our conscious, unconscious and subconscious and what does it mean to you?

Why we do the things we do even when we know that they are no longer helpful to us.

How to notice, understand and overcome maladaptive and entrenched mind 'walks'

So let's first talk about what we mean when we say my mind or my brain.

There is not one way to think about either your own mind or brain. Everyone looks at things differently and from a different perspective, that is perfectly normal, what makes sense to you may not for others. This exploration is about learning what this means for you.

Scientifically speaking our brain is an organ, the most complex part of the human body. It is the centre of our intelligence, it is the interpreter of our senses, the creator of movement in our bodies, and is the controller of our behaviours. Our brain is part of our physical bodies.

Our mind is our invisible processing it is our cognitive faculties, it our awareness of self, our consciousness. Our mind is usually what we think of when we are talking about our-self. It is our very imagination, perception, judgement, and thought. It is our feelings, attitudes, and emotions. It includes both our conscious and unconscious processing.

What then is our conscious mind, this is the part of the mind we are aware of, our thinking centre that forms our thoughts, opinions, judgements, and can change and learn based on what we are presented with and perceive around us.

Our unconscious mind then is our processing centre, sorting and filing all of the sensory input received by our bodies. We receive and process all stimuli around us from our sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell. It also controls processes like breathing and blinking that we do without any need for conscious thought.

That is a lot of input all of the time, our unconscious processes this so that our conscious mind is not overloaded, and can disregard anything that is not categorized as essential to survival.

Sleep is where our unconscious gets to work processing and filing that information.

The subconscious is the data bank of the mind it holds beliefs, previous experience, memories and skills. Everything that you have experienced, seen, done, smelt, tasted is there stored for any time we need to retrieve it.

In order to organise the data our subconscious mind classifies it based on our own understanding and previous experience. This for example is how we can learn to react or behave a certain way to something. It also then controls our responses to threat and danger and the flight, fight and freeze reactions.

The subconscious is also responsible for creating pathways or 'walks' in our minds that become patterns.

Some of these patterns can be really helpful to us or at least served a purpose at one point in our lives. Most paths or patterns are created to serve our most basic beliefs and needs i.e hunger, sleep, warmth.

It is when these paths become unhelpful to us or no longer align with what we want.

It’s estimated that around 90% of our behaviour is run without us being consciously aware of what we are doing as it's happening. This is because neural networks or pathways we have created in our brains are all of our habits. Think biting nails when we are anxious, we may not be aware that we are doing it, but at some point this behavior was helpful or calmed us in some way, now when we become anxious we recreate this behaviours or 'walk' the same path without being aware we are doing it.

In this way we reduce our millions of sensory inputs per second into manageable and well walked pathways that mean we can take theses shortcuts we have unconsciously created so we can keep functioning when everything around us would be unmanageable if we didn't. These default pathways or neural networks are so ingrained and effective that we often find ourselves doing the same things even when we know we want to do something different.

An example of this could be identifying a pattern of self sabotage, thinking I want to go for a run in the morning but then staying up late and over sleeping.

Why?

Well behaviours are driven by our own thoughts and emotions and these are linked with our core beliefs about ourselves, these core beliefs can be out of our own conscious awareness and as such we don't give them much thought but they can and do interact with us in a negative way.

Each time we repeat a behaviour we walk the same path until it is so well trodden that we are no longer aware we are walking down it.

So if our goal was to get up and go for a run and you never quite make it your belief could be that you don't want others to see you running as you assume you would be inviting criticism of yourself. Subconsciously we diminish our goal, you have already decided you will be judged so you consciously sabotage yourself to avoid the assumed shame, embarrassment or stupidity you might feel if you were to do it, on top of this the more emotion we attach to core beliefs the harder they are to overcome.

Now it is also important here to acknowledge that this core belief is there for a reason, it may have been helpful before or perhaps it was a coping mechanism in order to get you through something that was difficult at the time, in other words it served a purpose. Now though, it is no longer useful or helpful and has become maladaptive and is getting in the way of your new goals.

As our core beliefs sit in the background of our awareness we don't always realise they need addressing until we notice a pattern or self sabotage or unhelpful thinking.

Now we are aware, what next?

Be kind to yourself, at some point this might have worked well, but as we have grown and developed we find that it is no longer needed.

Or perhaps your pattern is formed around something you have been told, that you have internalised into a core belief and you have come to realise that this is unhelpful and you no longer believe this about yourself, and you are working to replace this with something posative or helpful to you now.

We all have old paths that have been well walk but us both consciously and unconsciously, now we are aware of them we can decide to do differently we can make a new path. We gain to opportunity to recognise our own behaviour and decide to do something different to find our own way that works for us now. The more we consciously choose to walk our new path the more we ingrain a new neural pathway in our mind and brain that is more helpful to us and our goals.

The technique of mindfulness is the opposite of these default processes. It’s enables us to make connections to the present moment in order to make intentional actions, engage our willpower, and exercise our decision making process.

Mindfulness however is a process a technique, that takes practice, if we are new to this practice then we are learning new skill, a new way of thinking and creating new pathways. The more we activate our intentional or conscious brain, the stronger we make it, each time we walk the new path we do so deliberately and we stimulate neuroplasticity, meaning we are stimulating our brain to record our new path with our newly created neurons that are different to the unconscious well worn path we usually take.

We are making the choice to do something different, to be different to walk towards our wellness, we are becoming Mind-able.

We are all a work in progress

How can I help myself

1.When you have identified a path that is no longer helpful, you may be able to identify the core belief beneath, or you might not.

The important part is that you are now aware of it, when you are able to recognise you have started down the same old path you can stop and choose to do differently.

2. Self affirmations and kind self talk. We are always so quick to chastise ourselves when we would show care or concern to others. Would you speak to a child the way you speak to yourself sometimes, no. So why do you speak to yourself like that?

3. Speak to others, when we share how we feel we are better able to process it and think objectively. perhaps someone else feels the same or similar and you can learn from one another, perhaps a comment from someone else is the lightbulb moment you have been waiting for.

4. Therapy if you feel like professional help is something you will benefit from then reach out and get the help you need. You are worth investing in yourself. See help page for more information.

5. Journaling/Vision board writing thoughts,feeling,goals down makes them tangible. What might be a big goal can be broken down into achievable tasks.

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