Is it the Conscious or Unconscious Mind in Charge?

Conscious mind? – it has been estimated that the conscious mind can only think of a maximum of seven things at the one time. Personally, all I can say is that this must have been a woman – two is pretty near impossible for most men. So surely, the conscious is not very powerful – perhaps the unconscious is in charge?

Unconscious mind? – communicates with every cell of our body every second – an inconceivably large number of actions. It runs our autonomous nervous system which in turn allows us to depend on the basics without having to think about them – breathing, heart beating, temperature control etc. Without these things we would most likely be dead – so, surely the unconscious must really be in charge?

Yes, all of these essential unconscious things maintain our mind and body, but these tasks are automated in recognition of our need to be more than a mind and body – we have needs above and beyond mere existence. It is our conscious minds which decide which needs we shall satisfy and in which order – it is in these decisions that we not only satisfy our basic external needs for food, warmth and shelter but also our more sophisticated needs….being challenged, learning, needing to be part of something larger than ourselves (family, church, village, nation) and many more. We consciously determine the direction of our own development and unconsciously make it happen. So in reality, both the conscious and the unconscious are vital to our wellbeing, but it is our conscious minds that make us the person we become.

Consider a simple example. If we want to stand up, first we have a single conscious thought - then our unconscious mind makes literally billions of individual co-ordinated micro-decisions at the cellular level in order to achieve that one simple thought. The conscious mind directs the power of the unconscious mind – what a powerful therapeutic tool, and we all have one. Human givens therapy allows you to tap into this resource and use it to overcome your emotional distress.