Your Brain/ Conscious

So your brain… The brain is a beautiful machine, responsible for so many parts of our existence. I have studied two of those parts for the past few years: the conscious and unconscious. What I have learned about our brains has helped me to transform my entire life. Learning about my brain has allowed me the opportunity to navigate through my life differently- better. It has been so life transforming that it has become my intent to help people of all ages- learn how their thoughts impact their life experience and that each individual has the tool to experience a better version of the life you are living.

YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND

Your conscious mind is very diligent. It awakes and sleeps when we do. Its job, while we are awake, is to collect information for us. It has been doing that since the moment we were first born (some would argue even before that). How does it collect information? Through our five senses. TASTE TOUCH SMELL SIGHT and SOUND. Remember learning those in grammar school? Well, they started working long before you knew about them.

You are gathering information every second. If the milk has expired and you didn’t see the date, how do you know it’s spoiled? You taste it. Very valuable, don’t you agree? How often do you touch the hot stove? The sense of touch will warn you that perhaps it’s not a good idea. Have you ever smelled something burning or maybe a gas leak? How about a baby’s soiled diaper? Again, this is pretty valuable information in my opinion. What do you see that provides valuable information for you? How about the red traffic light? A rash on your skin? Important? What about the sound of someone calling your name? Or the sound of a child calling for help, or a person calling you stupid? Your senses are working for you every second you are awake. We use them to navigate through the world.

So the conscious mind collects, interprets and then stores information for us. It stores the information based on what has been already stored. Let me explain. Starting with the moment we are born, our journey is led by what feels good and what doesn’t. We determine that with our senses and then that information is gathered and stored. If a food makes you ill, you probably avoid that food throughout your journey. If a person makes you feel good, you probably plan being with them. Maybe certain material feels good on your skin so you prefer wearing it. The perfume or cologne you wear may reinforce how people respond to you which makes you want to wear it more often. The smell of apple juice is connected to the smell of diapers for me. It is not a favorite. My sense of smell collected that input during a time in my life when I was changing a lot of diapers and pouring a lot of apple juice. Not the greatest connection, but nonetheless it was collected, interpreted, stored and has affected how I think and feel about apple juice.

Many years ago I worked in an Aveda concept salon. There were many oils that could be used for many different purposes. We were taught that before you use oil on a client, a test needed to be done. We had to determine what smell was appealing to the client and which was not so that their service would be completely enjoyable. So I would ask them to pick about five oils and then I would pick a few more. The interesting thing is that they would report the ones they picked as smelling like a “time” or “memory”. Pine for example, would smell like “Christmas” and cinnamon would smell like “fall”. I would even get responses to some of the oils like “grandma’s house” and “the beach”.

Now, the oils they would smell that they had no connection to would get a different response. Thinking back it is so fabulous to think of them starting a new connection. They would smell and smell again and think and smell again. They would try to associate it with one that was familiar and finally that would dictate whether they liked it or not. Your senses are always working for you. Pause autopilot for a moment and see what they are telling you. How do you feel right now? Do a check of your senses if you haven’t already.

How does each of those things make you feel? Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Are you comfortable? If the answer is yes, you will probably continue reading, but if not, you may have to stop and take action in some way. You may have to respond to the information your senses have provided for you at this moment. What adjustments can you make right now with this awareness? (Get something to eat, adjust the music, lower the sound on the TV, adjust the lighting, grab a blanket…)

Our conscious mind works very hard for us. It is constantly giving us information about our surroundings. Congratulations on paying attention to it. I suggest you do it more often, but we will get more into that a bit later. Much love.