noun: the part of a person that makes it possible for them to think, feel emotions and understand things
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What’s the first thing that springs to mind when considering the word “mind”? A hand-drawn image of a human brain, pink and riddled with squiggly lines, despite Poirot’s insistence that brain cells are both little and grey? The disembodied voice at the train station warning you to “mind the gap”? That age-old saying: “great minds think alike”? I personally find “fools seldom differ” comes up more often… And what is more foolish than allowing one’s greatest asset to become one’s greatest enemy?
Everything is in the mind: from our thoughts, feelings, goals and fears to how we perceive everything around us. Our entire world is within the mind. And the subconscious mind is perhaps the most powerful thing in existence, but also one of the most dangerous…
The simplest way I’ve ever heard it explained is “it gives back what you put in”. The more consideration and conscious thought you give something, the more embedded it becomes in your subconscious, making you more aware of it. This can actually be really useful, for example: people who consistently use positive, self-affirmations on a regular basis overwhelmingly report feeling happier and more confident over a period of time.
Conversely, when something goes wrong and you dwell on it, tell yourself unhelpful things like “I’m no good at that”, lo and behold! You get exactly that. Because the subconscious mind doesn’t make the distinction between good and bad, helpful and unhelpful, and it certainly won’t realise if you’re joking!
Now, I know the more academically minded among you, (unless your area of interest is this very subject,) are thinking something along the lines of: “you can’t possibly go from being excellent at maths to barely able to count because of a stray thought”, or “you can’t possibly go from being totally unfit to an Olympic level hurdler by just thinking it”. And you would be correct. However, if someone who is very good at maths gets a simple sum wrong, as happens to us all from time to time, then dwells on it, beats themselves up over it, tells themselves “I’m stupid”, what then?
They’re just a tiny bit less confident the next time a similar arithmetic problem comes up; so little, in fact, they’re probably not even aware of the difference, but it is there. Then, the next time they get a simple sum wrong, they’re even more acutely aware of it than last time. They beat themselves up even more: “see? I knew I couldn’t do this! I can’t do maths. I’m too stupid…”
The subconscious takes this in. Our poor mathematician becomes more and more aware of when they say or do anything which could be even loosely described as “stupid”. Their self-flagellation escalates. They perceive more and more acts of stupidity until their self-esteem drops to a level that can only be described as a mental health problem.
Fortunately, the reverse holds true, and the more our would-be athlete tells themselves “I’m getting better all the time”, “I love hurdles”, “I can do this” the more inclined they are to practice. The more they practice, the better they get. They enjoy it so much, and are so aware of their improvement, they start looking at other ways to get an edge. They try to further improve their physical health, adjust their diet, etc.
Whether or not our obliging example reaches an Olympic standard, their cycle of self-improvement continues for as long as their conscious mind feeds the subconscious the relevant information. Of course, focusing on certain thoughts and ideas while ousting others almost as they form is not an easy practice: especially if your mind is prone to jumping around like a grasshopper!
Isn’t it funny how our minds create connections and associations between seemingly unrelated things? And what’s even more fascinating, in my opinion, is how some of these connections seem obvious to everyone you meet, while others go completely over their heads: even when you explain using very small words! Yet that same person who missed the obvious will be the one to react to that comment you didn’t really expect anyone to get: the one that was too random, too much a product of your own, internal thought patterns to make sense to anyone else.
Of course some people will generally be more on your wavelength than others, but no-one completely gets it – gets you – because you’re unique. There’s no common frame of reference. No synonym. No antonym. There’s you and only you. Then again, we are all human, and we will all get it some of the time. Different people understand and connect in different ways and about different things. I may never share – or even understand – your view on the history of floral print wallpaper and its significance on interior design, but we may forge a life-changing bond over dinosaur erotica literature. The next person you speak to may have never even heard of dinosaur erotica literature, but they may well understand your frustrations over family as if they were you. None of us can truly, completely, understand each other, but we are all human, we are all connected, and we all have some common ground: however trivial it may seem.
Well, dear reader, I’ve certainly taken up more than enough of your precious time with this one. Hopefully you’ll find some of it worth bearing in mind, but do yourself a favour and don’t think too much: especially about unhelpful things!
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