Your Subconscious: Friend or Foe?

 

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about “manifesting”. In a nutshell, we’re told that if we think positive thoughts, we’ll get what we want.

Of course there are some “abundance teachers” who are somewhat realistic about this concept, and suggest that action is required. But the emphasis is always on “being” who you want to be first; thinking and feeling as though you already had that which you desire.

As hard as it actually is to do that, I agree that it’s essential. But it really does feel like lying to yourself sometimes… like how can you feel successful and abundant if you’ve never experienced those things? That’s a good point. But that’s where our gift of imagination comes into play. You can imagine what it would be like to be, say, financially secure. It’s important that you visualize how it would be if you were wealthy. If you’re going for Donald Trump’s life, forget it. It’s not possible to live his life, because you’re not him.

My take on this manifesting stuff is based on the very word, “manifest”. Manifest doesn’t mean to create. It means to reveal what’s already there. The means are there already… you just aren’t aware of them.

In my view, the usefulness of all of the visioning and imagining is to tell your subconscious a different story – different from the one you’ve been telling it. Your subconscious is fairly stupid – it only has your input to go by as to what you and the world are like. So if you’re constantly feeding it the idea that life is tough, the subconscious (which, despite its lack of reasoning power, determines the actions we take) says “well, alrighty then. Life sucks, and so we’re gonna act (or not) to reinforce that reality…. to make it be true and conforming to what you’re telling me.”

But if you can imagine a different reality to the point where that vision is always with you and becomes the reality that you most resonate with, the subconscious needs to shift gears. Now Mr. Subconscious says, “Oohhh.. so that’s what the world looks like now? Well we’d better get cracking and change our actions to match that!”

And exactly how does that work? It gradually shifts your habits of thinking and acting toward the reality you’re telling it is real. But that’s not all. When people say that opportunities begin to “show up”, in most cases they’re dead on –  but not in the sense that they think they are.

The opportunities are always there. When you change your perceptions of the world, yes, the opportunities do begin to show up… meaning that you can now see (manifest) them. So why couldn’t you see them before?

It’s because you simply didn’t notice them before, or they were so far removed from what you expect that they were meaningless. In fact, you were literally blind to them. When the subconscious is trying to realign its operating system with the new reality you’re telling it about, it will do everything possible to make that reality happen. One way it does that is to draw your attention to the new opportunities. And by the way, I believe that our intuitive resources come to us through the subconscious. That’s why many of us don’t need angels and spirit guides appearing before us or speaking to us out loud unless we’re particularly dense and need that experience to make s listen. Personally if my wisdom came from a disembodied voice, I would crap my pants. I swear.  🙂

My favorite example of the subconscious “heads-up” is the “11:11” phenomena. Clocks have always said 11:11 twice a day. But many people (including myself) only begin to notice that number once the decision is made to look into spiritual matters. The subconscious has its orders. Seeing “11:11” has become a signal for right thinking, raised consciousness, etc. in modern spiritual thinking. So, if the number is pointed out to us by our subconscious, it’s facilitating and encouraging us to act in whatever manner is appropriate for us, regarding spiritual development. If we hadn’t been looking at spirituality and actively seeking it, we never would have noticed the number. It’s not really magic, the opportunities showing up. It’s just that seeing the world from that new perspective allows… forces, even… the subconscious to constantly scan for the things that line up with our free will desires.

Of course, there’s a lot more to it. Getting over the idea that one is lying to oneself about reality is a real bugger. You’re told that you should be 100% authentic, right? How can you be really real by thinking like a successful person when it’s just not “true”? In my view, this is where the magic comes in. It’s when you realize that what you see around you can be seen with different eyes. It’s when you understand that your circumstances come from the story you tell about yourself and the world. Much of that story may come from past hurts, aversions, trauma… and, you may have distorted ideas that keep those negativities with you. So telling a new story, one based on what you want, is no more dishonest than the mistaken and subconscious beliefs that were there before you woke up to how all this works.

You have the means to begin telling a new story. Make it real enough, and your subconscious will be 100% on board (eventually; this is a process, after all). The more of you that wants to go along with you, the easier it gets. My wish is that you find a way to take charge of of your subconscious and get it on the same page, so that it can begin showing you what’s possible.