The Female Mind

Archive for August, 2008

Your mind has two parts: the Conscious Mind and the Subconscious Mind. Together these two parts control all of your actions and ultimately the results you have in your life. As we explore each area of your mind, understand that while these ideas may seem simple and elementary, they have a wide reaching and profound affect on your life. They control every aspect of what makes you who you are and will continue to control everything in your life until the day you die. As we unravel the Mind remember that this is only a small portion of the material and more will be posted as time passes. Your best bet is to read the oldest posts first as this information is timeless.

The Conscious Mind

The Conscious Mind is where you do all your day to day thinking. This is where you make decisions and where you primarily operate from in normal life. When you hold a conversation or watch a t.v. program you are using your conscious mind. Both the conscious mind and the subconscious mind think in pictures. If you think about your family members a picture of them will flash on the movie screen of your conscious mind.

You also can only hold one image on the screen of your mind at a time. For example you cannot think of a red apple and an orange in detail at the same time. While you might be able to project them side by side you are not able to see the grain in the skin of the apple or the dimples in the peel of the orange at the same time.

This ultimately means that you cannot think of a negative idea and a positive idea at the same time. While your mind might be able to flip back and forth between negative and positive ideas or images very rapidly, it is not able to hold those two images at the same time.

The Subconscious Mind

Most people would think that the Conscious Mind controls the Subconscious Mind, but this is not so. The Subconscious Mind is the real mover and shaker in our lives. The Subconscious Mind stores all our beliefs about who we are, what we are capable of, what we are not capable of and every other detail we believe to be true about the world. We can refer to the Subconscious Mind as the emotional mind.

The subconscious mind operates in the background of your life and while you sleep. Dreams are a product of your subconscious mind. You can think of the subconscious mind as a computer program running without your help at all times. An example of this would be when you have suddenly realized that you have not been paying attention while driving and you are almost home from work.

The entire drive to and from work is a program that you have put into your subconscious mind through repetition. Your driving is almost automatic and takes very little thinking on your part. In fact without consciously thinking about going to the store when driving that pathway you will drive straight home. Your programming will take over and you will “forget” to go to the store unless you hold the image of the store at the forefront of your mind when driving home.

In Part 2 of this series we will explore how the Conscious and Subconscious Mind interact.

Christina Helwig

Everyone has 24 hours in a day to spend or invest, no more, no less. How you choose to use that time makes a big difference in the quality of your life. It also makes a difference in how long it takes for your goals to materialize.

How we “spend” our time

We spend time when what we do does not benefit us in the future. Watching t.v. for example is “spending time.” After that program is over an hour is gone and you have nothing to show for it except a little enjoyment. The same can be said for occupying yourself with menial tasks that could be handled by another person. You have a small benefit but no lasting effects.

How we “invest” our time

Investing time is when you do something that benefits you in the future. Reading a book on your area of expertise is an example. You are giving up the time to read the book for the reward that the increased knowledge will bring you in the future. Working out is another example of investing your time. That hour on the treadmill has a lasting benefit for you by increasing your health, flexibility, strength and stamina.

Change your activities to investment activities

Once you start to look at activities as either “spending” or “investing” activities you can start to make rapid progress towards your goals. By cutting down on spending your time on unproductive activities and actions, you increase the amount of time you have to really make things happen in your life.

Take an investment / spending audit

The first thing you will want to do is take an investment / spending audit of your time. For an entire week you will write down what you spend or invest your time on, even if you just sit down and watch the news for 15 minutes. Write down everything. The easiest way to do this is to print off a time sheet from Outlook that has 15 minute intervals that encompasses your waking hours. Be honest with yourself and keep an accurate count of your activities.

Trim your “budget”

When you have your time audit completed, go through it and find where you are spending time instead of investing it. Can you cut back on the t.v. watching time, the time you spend on the phone for no real purpose or even on some of the menial chores that could be hired out? Once you have your top time wasters identified think about the activities that would move you closer to your goal in the shortest amount of time.

Convert your schedule

Take an hour and plan out your new schedule and then print it off and hang it everywhere: near the t.v., on the fridge and by your desk. You want to see this new schedule everywhere you look so that it acts as a constant reminder that you have “better” things to do with your time.

Make it happen and take action!

For your new schedule to pay dividends you must act on it and break your old time spending habits. All the good intentions in the world do nothing if you don’t act on them. Everyday make sure that you are checking your schedule and doing what you have planned for that time slot. If you make sure to follow your new schedule and you invest your time instead of spending it you will be amazed at how quickly you move closer to your goals.

Christina Helwig