Here’s an interesting fact that might be a bit unsettling. Did you know that over 90% of your daily decisions, emotional reactions, and habits are being controlled by a program running in your subconscious mind?
The truth is, every single day, you are unknowingly programming your subconscious mind. This presentation will unpack how that hidden operating system works, why it defaults toward worry and negativity, and most importantly, how you can take control and intentionally rewrite the program.
The Two Minds
To understand our subconscious mind, we first have to understand the two distinct parts of our mind: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.
Think of your Conscious Mind as the thinker. It accounts for about 5% of your daily mental activity. It handles logic, short-term memory, reasoning, and deliberate choices. But it’s slow, requires intense concentration, and fatigues quickly.
Next, look at what’s below the surface: your Subconscious Mind. This controls roughly 95% of your daily life. It manages your long-term memories, automatic habits, physical body functions, and your emotional patterns. It processes millions of bits of information per second without you ever having to think about it. It’s fast, tireless, and always running.
Built for Efficiency
So why are we built this way? It comes down to basic biological efficiency. Your brain makes up about 2% of your total body weight, yet it consumes roughly 20% of your body’s total energy. If we processed everything in the conscious mind, it would quickly burn us out.
So, the subconscious mind exists for efficiency. Its job is to take anything you do, feel, or think repeatedly and turn it into an automatic routine. It doesn’t judge whether that repeated pattern is good or bad for you, it simply automates whatever you repeatedly feed it.
The Negativity Trap
Unfortunately there is a hidden trap. Remember the subconscious mind automates whatever pattern gets repeated, and the pattern that gets repeated most often is Negativity.
We all carry an evolutionary mechanism called the Negativity Bias. Millions of years ago, survival depended on focusing our thoughts on the dangers around us rather than on any pleasures. The predator in the bushes was more important to think about than the delicious berries. By doing this, our ancestors who focused on fear lived to pass on their genes.
Today, we don’t face saber-toothed tigers, but our survival brain still scans for danger. It dwells on one negative comment and ignores ten compliments. It rehearses worst-case scenarios to keep you ‘safe.’ And because whatever you dwell on gets automated, reacting repeatedly to stress, fear, and bad news continuously programs your subconscious mind to expect more of the same. In other words, thinking thoughts of stress, fear, or bad news repeatedly programs your subconscious mind, making stress and fear a dominate thought pattern, a habit.
Because of this negativity bias, many of us have negative thoughts, that through constant repetition, have programmed our subconscious mind to be negative, and we develop the mental habit of thinking negatively. Examples are thinking “I’m not smart enough”, or “I’ll never be good enough” or “I’ll never be able to learn this”. This is referred to as ‘negative self-talk’. Recognize that negative self talk causes low self-esteem and a lack of self-confidence; and both hold you back.
Neuroplasticity – Re-wiring the Highways
The good news is that your brain is not hardwired in stone. Thanks to neuroplasticity, we know that your brain is constantly being rewired based on where you focus your attention.
Think of your neural pathways like paths in a dense forest. The more you think the same thought, the stronger those neural pathways become. And through constant repetition, that pathway becomes a highway, so that your brain defaults to it without thinking, and it becomes a habit.
Key #1 – Repetition
So how do we intentionally build new neural pathways and reprogram our subconscious mind? There are three master keys.
The most important key is Repetition. Neuroscientist have discovered that repetition programs the subconscious mind because the brain has the ability to rewire itself based on thought patterns. In other words, the thoughts you repeat grow stronger, and the thoughts you think less grow weaker. Leading neurobiology texts, such as Kandel’s Principles of Neural Science, show that repeating a thought pattern physically strengthens the connections between neurons, a process known as Long-Term Potentiation. Over time, this turns conscious effort into automatic habit. It’s based on the Principals of Neuroplasticity: 1. Neurons that fire together, wire together; and 2. Neurons you don’t use, you lose.
Key #2 – Emotion
The second key is Emotion. Neuroscientist have discovered that emotions play a critical role in programming the subconscious mind because strong emotions influence both what we remember and what we believe. Your emotions act as a tag, telling your subconscious mind that this is an important thought to internalize. When you include strong emotions with your thoughts, the amygdala releases neuromodulators (like dopamine and noradrenaline) during heightened emotional states, which signals the hippocampus to dramatically accelerate memory consolidation by strengthening the synaptic connections of that thought. By understanding this connection, we can harness the power of positive emotions to program our subconscious mind. When you pair a thought or vision with a genuine, heart-felt emotional experience, such as with deep gratitude, excitement, or confidence, it acts as an accelerator. It signals to your subconscious mind that this information is very important, storing it much faster than dry repetition alone. (PTSD is the result of emotional trauma)
Key #3 – The Theta Mind State
The third key is the Theta Mind State. During most of the day, we operate in a Beta mind state where we are alert, focused, but guarded by an analytical mental filter. That filter acts like a bouncer at the door of your subconscious mind, questioning new inputs.
However, during the Theta mind state, which is just before falling asleep and right after waking up, or during deep meditation, that analytical filter disappears. In the Theta mind state, your subconscious mind is wide open and incredibly receptive to direct suggestion, visual imagery, and new programming. Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry (notably Dr. David Spiegel’s research on hypnosis and brain connectivity) demonstrates that focused, highly relaxed states decreases activity in the Default Mode Network (the internal critical filter) while increasing receptivity to suggestion and visual framing.
The Theta mind state is sometime referred to as The Gateway to the Subconscious Mind. That’s why hypnotist put their subjects in a theta mind state to program their subconscious mind. People who practice deep Meditation sometimes put their mind in the theta mind state. You can induce this state yourself by finding a quiet space and using a relaxation technique, such as slowly counting backwards or focusing on your breath, to relax your mind.
Put It Into Practice
So how do we put the three keys together in our daily lives? Here is an action plan putting it all together to program your sub-conscious mind to achieve a goal. The key is to visualize a desired goal while your mind is in a calm and relaxed theta mind state. Imagine you have already achieved that goal and fully embrace the positive emotions that come with this accomplishment. Thinking in the present tense is crucial because the subconscious mind operates in the now. Repeating the process often, while in the theta mind state, will program your subconscious mind.
By frequently imagining yourself having achieved your goal with strong emotional intensity, you program your subconscious mind to generate ideas and insights throughout your day that will guide you toward making your goal a reality.
Conclusion
In conclusion: You are always programming your subconscious mind, every single day, whether you are paying attention to it or not. The only question is whether you are letting default habits run the show, or if you are choosing to program it by design.
Programming A Positive Attitude
For example, by using repetition and positive emotions, you now can program your subconscious mind to be more positive. Just ask yourself, “Are my thoughts positive or negative?” If you notice negative thoughts, consciously shift to more positive thoughts. By repeatedly thinking positive thoughts with strong emotional intensity, such as with gratitude, you will cause positive thoughts to become your dominate thought pattern. (“I am so grateful that I caught myself thinking these negative thoughts because now I understand how I have been programming my mind!”) This simple but powerful habit is known as ‘mindful thinking’. By practicing mindful thinking, you will enjoy a happier and easier life.
Today, most people know that they should monitor the food that they feed their body to be physically healthy; similarly, you should monitor the thoughts that you feed your mind to be mentally healthy. Just become the observer of your thoughts.
Take control of your thoughts, and give your subconscious mind the program you actually want to live out.
Namaste