"The subconscious is that aspect of Mind that takes care of everything that you
do without having to consciously think about it."
Habit Types
All habits are, by the Force of Habit definition, operated by the subconscious mind,
because they cannot be run by the conscious mind. They can be influenced to run
differently by the conscious mind, but they are not under the control of the conscious
mind. Regardless of what caused or influenced them, all habits, by definition, are
running on subconscious mind autopilot. Regardless of what caused the earth to spin
on its axis and to orbit the sun, it is now in the habit of doing so.
I will call the habits that are hard wired into our neurology, biology and physiology
(habits like heartbeat, respiration, and wound healing) Type I habits. They are
primary habits, they are directly connected with our physical survival, and they
are built in. We are born with them; we never had to learn them. The rest of our
habits-the ones that we do have to learn-I will call Type II habits. Type I habits
can be influenced and modified by our emotional and mental habits (for example,
stress can cause our blood pressure to increase and our digestive tract to malfunction),
but they come as standard equipment at no extra charge and they run on their own.
In order to get your mind to work the way you want it to work, we will need to appreciate
the nature and role of the conscious and subconscious mind. How they work together
is how the mind works.
Conscious Mind and Subconscious Mind
Despite ultimately being one entity, the conscious and subconscious mind seem to
each have characteristics that distinguish them from each other. This is useful
for understanding which one is operating at any given time. These characteristics
reveal what the inherent nature of each of these two aspects of mind is. These "two"
work seamlessly together, and yet they are as much like partners as they are two
sides of the same entity.
For the purposes of Force of Habit, the conscious mind will be thought of as being
made up of those aspects of our awareness of which we are consciously aware while
in a waking state. We are aware that we are aware of what is in the conscious mind.
Another name for this is self-consciousness. While driving your car you may be consciously
aware of the streets and signs if you are trying to find a place you haven't been
before. But if you are traveling somewhere you have been many times, you may be
consciously aware only of your own thoughts-or your phone conversation-and totally
oblivious, on the conscious level, of the streets, signs, traffic, and buildings
around you. While you are consciously aware of only your own thoughts, your subconscious
mind is paying attention to the other things, including the streets, signs, speed
limit, odometer reading, proximity of police cars, the locations of the shoulders
or curbs along the road, and the landmarks that will cue your mind that you are
near or at your destination. At that point you will come out of light speed and
start paying attention. We know this because, while your conscious awareness is
focused on something besides driving and navigating, you are still keeping the car
"between the ditches" and managing to get to your destination in one piece.
The subconscious is that aspect of Mind that takes care of everything that you do
without having to consciously think about it. The things that you do without doing
them intentionally-and without focused awareness-are done automatically by the subconscious
mind. They are all considered habits for the purposes of this book.
 | THINK RESPONSIBLY! |
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