Being in two minds
Ever described yourself as being in two minds about something? Have you ever stopped to wonder if there's some meaning to that?
In this blog, I explore the difference between two types of thought, or processing, our minds use and the importance of appreciating the role each is designed to play. If you often experience a conflict between what you feel you should do and what you actually want to do, it might be helpful to ask "Am I using the best part of my brain to solve the problem?"
The existence of conscious and unconscious minds have been a topic of discussion since ancient times. However, the idea of the unconscious mind was only popularised when Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis. While his internal drama of the mind is no longer taken seriously the notion of the unconscious is now an important focus of psychology. It's something that is very hard to observe and study but doing so can help us understand why we behave the way we do and make better choices.
Two minds
Unconscious Mind
Your unconscious mind operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. It enables us to perceive the world around us, recognise objects, orientate attention, avoid losses and fear potential threats. It is also the domain of our emotions, our memories and our values and it uses these to help us navigate our way around our world. The unconscious mind will use our emotions, past experiences and learning to help us intuitively make decisions. Its main goal is to run and preserve the body and it will come up with complex, although not always logical, ways to achieve this.
Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is the part responsible for conscious thought. It is the domain of analysis and logical thinking and It requires deliberate concentration. For it to do its job you need to focus your attention. This makes the conscious mind more precise but slower. It also means it has a limited 'bandwidth'. You have a budget of attention that you can allocate to activities and if you try to go beyond this budget you will fail.
Here are some features of both the conscious unconscious minds:
If you want to experience the two in action try these activities:
Look at this picture
As quickly as you have noticed that the subject is male you also detected that he is angry. Furthermore, you started to guess his state of mind and predict his short term future behaviour. You may have concluded that he is about to shout, that he might say some angry words or even that he is about to move aggressively towards someone. You possibly created a back story for the situation or perhaps it reminded you of a situation you have experienced yourself in the past. You didn't decide to analyse the emotions of the man in the picture and it wasn't something you consciously did, it just happened. This is your unconscious mind at work.
Now try this sum:
12 x 27 =
You knew instinctively that it was a multiplication problem, whether or not you could solve it in your head and you'll have a vague intuitive range of parameters of possible or implausible answers. When you tried to work it out you retrieved the memory of how to do multiplication and applied it. This was a strain and you felt the effort of holding all the information and calculations in your memory and keeping track of where you were going. It was deliberate, effortful and orderly. Your muscles would have also tensed up, your heart rate will have increased slightly and your pupils dilated. This is your conscious mind at work.
Why this important?
Most of the time the two work efficiently together. The unconscious mind generates suggestions for the conscious mind: impressions, intuitions, intentions and feelings. If endorsed by the conscious mind these impressions and intuitions turn into beliefs and impulses turn into voluntary actions. When all is going well he conscious mind adopts the suggestions of the unconscious mind with little or no modification. You believe your impressions and act on your desires and this works well for you.
This works because the unconscious mind is generally good at what it does. Its models of familiar situations are accurate, short-term predictions are usually sound and responses to challenging situations are usually appropriate.
It's helpful stuff. Imagine how awkward it would be if you had to consciously decide how to operate every door you ever come across. Regardless of whether you come across a door that has a handle, knob, push plate, electronic entry, is sliding or revolving, as soon as you knew how to open one door you had a programme stored for using all of them. By reusing a past strategy it frees up your focus and energy for learning new things. To this end, the unconscious mind is very efficient and most of the time it serves us well.
Why is this important?
When we think of ourselves we tend to think of ourselves in terms of our conscious mind. In our society we place a huge emphasis on the logical and rational thought, often believing these more important than feelings or intuition. Anything deemed too 'touchy feely' can sometimes be dismissed as being trivial, particularly in the field of education or in our professional lives.
Think about where you work or who you work with. Is it considered appropriate to spend a time ruminating on how you feel about things? Would your boss be happy for you to make your decisions on gut feel? Yet our unconscious minds are where it's at. I'll explain in another blog why the unconscious mind is in the driving seat but for now consider the implications of putting too much emphasis on just one way of thinking.
Often when we have a problem we try to solve it using just our conscious mind. Perhaps you have a habit you've struggled to break, a goal you've never quite reached or a behaviour you'd like to stop doing. Typically we try and use the conscious thought to get us over the line.
For example, let's say you want to get fitter and use the conscious mind to tackle your goal. You do all the sensible stuff, you set a SMART goal around going to the gym 3 times a week. You buy the clothing and equipment. You sign up for classes. You set yourself a target and break it down into smaller milestones to create a plan. You tell people about your goal and perhaps take some advice on getting a trainer or a buddy to keep fit with. You read up on all the knowledge you need to exercise well. You watch videos and take advice from experienced people. In other words, to go about doing a lot of 'stuff'. Lots of tasks towards your goal. You then consciously use your will power to push yourself into your goal and you try to make your new activity a habit.
You will probably give up after a while or even if you are successful it will feel like hard going. Why? Look again at the diagram of the two minds above. Which part does all of this activity fall into? The bit that is slow, deliberate and requires conscious thought and focus. The bit with limited bandwidth. It might give you some success but it feels exhausting!
Looking again at the diagram consider:
- What part of our minds are responsible for habits?
- Which creates the impulse to pursue the goal in the first place?
- Which part is quick and effortless?
We need to use both parts of the mind employing the right part for the right role. The unconscious mind generates suggestions for the conscious mind based on impressions, intuitions, intentions and feelings. If you're struggling to move forward with something the answer lies in these areas. Work with these to remove any barriers and choose your direction, then use your conscious thought to create a goal and detailed plan.
Reflecting on your emotions and values might not feel as tangible as creating a plan and it's not as immediately rewarding as ticking something off the to-do list, but that to-do list can give the illusion of moving forward when you aren't and can create a busy fool.
- What do you think?
- How do you tackle goals?
- Which part of your brain do you tend to rely on?
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