Learning and understanding different brain levels has many benefits in our lives. At birth, as a newborn infant, we start off in Delta, which could be described as a deep sleep. We exist at this stage of life totally in the subconscious. This is why newborn infants spend more time asleep than awake. At 1 year of age, a child is awake more but still is mostly in the Delta brain level and subconscious.. A diagram of a circle which is empty is a good illustration of Early Mind. Gradually as a child interacts with the world, through the physical senses of touch, taste, hearing, vision and smell, he/she has direct experiences which create initial thoughts and feelings. Starting with loving care from their mother, the child accumulates positive experiences of being fed and cared for. With physical motion, the child may have so called negative experiences, such as touching a hot stove, and adds that to those memories in their subconscious. This is how the “Developing Mind” grows.
In the age group of 7 to 12 years, our analytical mind starts to develop and becomes what some refer to as Total Mind. This area of our experience in our conscious realm includes logic, reasoning, and our will to create. All of this occurs in the 5% we call conscious mind, where 95% continues as our subconscious mind.
In researching for this report, I became aware at a deep level of why we have such a battle on our hands to change habits and behaviors. These are all stored in the subconscious mind and are not readily accessible to us. Our analytical mind functions as a solid barrier for accessing our subconscious mind where all our old programs are stored. Thus, we are blocked from changing old habits or uninstalling old programs to make room for new programs.
The expression of “paralysis by analysis” is a very descriptive one. It is interesting to contemplate on the definitions of awareness and analysis. Awareness is achieved through observing or watching thoughts and feelings pass by. A great exercise to gain appreciation of these thoughts and feelings is to set your timer for 3 minutes and write down every thought or feeling you are aware of. It does not matter how often I have done this, it is almost unbelievable to witness how what I put on paper is such a mass of tumbling thoughts and words. The second phase of this exercise is to close your eyes, again with setting your timer, and work at capturing all your thoughts and feelings. With eyes closed, it is a relief that the rapid movement and number of thoughts that I am aware of does decrease.
Again, consider the definition of awareness as observing and watching. Now consider the definitions of analysis. This experience is more complex, as not only does it involve observing but also many questions come forth as we move into “paralysis by analysis”. This is an exhausting experience as it seems to never come to completion.
Now return to the visual of circles. The totally empty circle at birth of 100% subconscious has evolved to 5% conscious and 95% subconscious. This ratio continues for many humans for much of their lives.
There are life practices such as meditation that have the potential of breaking through the barrier of the analytical mind and reaching the subconscious. The outcome is to allow us to uninstall old programs and install new ones. That is a topic to discuss in another article. I will leave you with the positive note that there is hope on the horizon to gain access to our subconscious.
Joyce Mollenhauer