todays short read is about a correlation i have noticed between almost all highly successful people in their field of work,

the role of their subconscious mind.

a lot of my journey is dedicated to researching healing. true healing.

whether it’s reading books, articles, case studies, listening to podcasts, ted talks, speeches or through my own journey and study.

i will try and stay as concise as i can, but sorry if i ramble, i am sooo incredibly passionate and fascinated about this wonder we all hold.

what is the subconscious

everyone has a subconscious mind, and i mean every single person.

our subconscious is the part of our mind that is constantly running around in the background… quite literally, it never sleeps.

it works around the clock to keep us alive in ways we rarely notice

with healing our wounds, regulating our heartbeat and breathing, maintaining equilibrium, activating survival responses, digesting our food, filtering all the input we see each day and much more.

now, not many of us are even aware our subconscious exists, as we can’t directly control it in the moment,

however we do hold the power to influence and retrain it over time.

(i mean i knew something was inside me but i had no idea what it was)

our subconscious absorbs the information it is taught, and stores what it learnt from our unique life experiences, especially our early life.

please make note that it doesn’t store everything it hears,
it holds on to what feels true to us, (especially if its repeated, reinforced by experiences or emotionally significant to us).

our subconscious stores our learnt patterns, our habits, beliefs, survival responses, emotional reactions and sense of self. 

can i change my subconscious?

the subconscious is quite resistant to change. this is due to the wired pattens we learnt through our past experiences.

these are the patterns our body learnt as ways to keep us safe and protected.

our body repeats these patterns as they feel familiar to us, even if they no longer serve us.

but thankfully, our subconscious can be reprogrammed through consistent, repetitive actions and a profound sense of trust and belief.

if i could do it, i hold faith that you can too.

what does the subconscious do?

our subconscious shapes our personal reality and influences our behaviour through deeply, deeply ingrained beliefs. 

it is where our sense of self, identity and self perceptions live.

influencing our intuition, how we interpret experiences and events, our imagination, and shaping our emotional responses.

it is the parts of us working beneath our awareness, quietly influencing how we think, feel and react, (even if we want something different).

for you to be reading and learning about this today is already a massive step you should be incredibly proud of.

by doing so, you are gently understanding yourself while noticing your patterns, and this is exactly where real, lasting change can begin.

how to use our subconscious

although i said our subconscious runs in the background of our conscious awareness and we can’t necessarily control it in the moment, we can begin to consciously connect with it.

okay so tell me how… how do i connect to this thing i hold within me and use it to benefit my life?!??

we can do this by bringing awareness to our thoughts, emotions, and habits.

i really need to make sure you understand something though. this journey isn’t something that happens overnight,

it takes time, it requires effort, it needs you to make this investment in yourself, because oh my gosh, it is so worth it.

through this new awareness, we can begin to understand the patterns within us and gently guide them toward positive, lasting change.

ways to use the subconscious mind

journaling

journaling will always be something held ever so close to my heart, because it quite literally saved me.

take away all judgement, all perfectionism, all needs to make things sound perfect or be spelt correctly, just write without stopping.

by doing so we are allowing our thoughts to flow directly onto the page, and these words can actually be the voice of our subconscious.

when i look at my page, i can see exactly when my subconscious comes out because my handwriting changes completely.

our conscious mind will put up a fight, try and stay in control, making sure to stop us here and there, try to ‘think’ about what to write next,

but i find around the 5 minute mark of continuous writing is when my conscious mind gets tired and my subconscious begins to express itself.

visualisation

if visualising doesn’t come naturally to you, there’s no need to worry.
this is just one of the many ways we can learn to connect to this part of us.

these ideas i provide are invitations for you to explore what feels most natural and aligned with your unique journey.

but, visualisation can create a direct pathway to our subconscious when it’s repeated consistently while paired with emotion.

this is because our brain responds very similarly to imagined experiences to real life experiences.

how cool!

we just need to convince our brain that what ever our desired outcome may be, it is already occurring in our life (our mental image).

emotional significance

just above when explaining visualisation, i mentioned ‘visualisation paired with emotion’. why is this?

our emotions are of incredible influence.
the subconscious is driven by emotion.

it learns through our feelings, input, repetition, language, observations, (and more).

so by adding emotional significance we are teaching our subconscious what experiences to prioritise and store.

daily engagement

our body holds alot more than we will ever realise, well i sure was shocked when i found out the extent to what we hold.

engaging our body in a daily routine can help us bring awareness to our body.

our body tends to hold patterns before our mind notices them.

so during these moments of movement, while our conscious mind begins to rest, our subconscious can provide insights to guide us to self understanding.

whether its going for a walk, cooking, exercising, breathwork, playing instrument, gardening, yoga, journaling – just find how you enjoy to move your body.

sleeping and waking

i have found the most magical, pivotal time to connect with the subconscious is right before we fall asleep and right when we wake up.

i won’t get too much into the sciencey stuff behind this but to briefly explain it, it’s when we are in a sleepy state.

during this state our brain shifts into slower waves, where our conscious mind becomes quieter and our subconscious becomes more open.

so this is apparently the best time to connect with your subconscious to gently teach and rewire it.

meditation

when we meditate, our brain activity often shifts into the slower waves.

this is powerful when connecting with our subconscious as it calms our nervous system, quietens our mental noise and turns awareness inward.

when we reduce the external stimuli constantly surrounding us, we are giving permission for the things we hold deep within us to open up.

self talk & affirmations

as you may have noticed by now, our subconscious mind absorbs what is repeated to it (to us), especially when tied with emotion and belief.

so, when we talk to ourselves positively or repeat affirmations, we have the power to reaffirm what we desire to ourselves and our subconscious.

this talk is ever so powerful over time, as these repeated thoughts become our inner monologue and can reshape our thoughts, habits and reactions.

for us to connect with our subconscious, we need to whole heartedly believe in what we are saying and use present tense statements.

and for our self talk, well i talk to myself how i would to my best friend.

gratitude

practicing gratitude is ever so powerful. it is another one of the correlations i found between most highly successful people.

regular gratitude reflection or expression helps us connect to the subconscious by creating positive emotional experiences.

this reinforces our positive emotional patterns by focusing on what we’re thankful for, which can gradually shape our automatic thoughts.

the ways gratitude can be practised is pretty much a form of something already spoken about,

(gratitude journaling, speaking gratitude aloud or in your head, gratitude meditation, visualisation, saying thanks before bed / when waking up)

your journey

i wish you all the best on your journey with connecting to your subconscious.

it will take time, but i am sure this time you invest in yourself will all be worthwhile.

may this gentle but powerful connection help you guide your own healing journey and allow you to feel more in control of your life.

healing isn’t about forcing change, it is about listening, exploring and allowing our inner self to guide us towards a more aligned, authentic life.

with quiet honour,
mao x