This week is about practising discomfort and how doing so will make you fall in love with who you are.

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This week we delve into the strata of our minds; we will look at why we ignore specific thoughts and the beneficial reasons behind paying attention to particular nudges. What is the Subconscious Mind? 

Firstly, we need to understand the role of the subconscious; it acts as a guide for our values and beliefs and often our actions. Assuming a birdseye view of the subconscious mind, we would be mistaken in thinking that the subconscious mind is our consciousness; on the contrary, the role of this component is significantly more potent than that. If we look at the subconscious mind from the side, we will see that it runs deep, and its tendrils present themselves in our actions and inactions. 

Why do we Ignore the Subconscious Mind? 

The best example to illustrate our proclivity to ignore the subconscious has been mentioned in AMC numerous times; cast your mind to this morning, or any morning for that matter, did you wake up on time? You did, ok, well did you get out of bed? No, you knew that you needed to get out of bed, but you chose not to. The fact that you know that you need to get out of bed is your subconscious mind attempting to exert its influence on the physical realm, but it slammed into your conscious mind and your desire, a deadly duo, your conscious mind overpowered your subconscious desire to get out of bed and you remained in your prone state. 

So, why do we ignore the subconscious? 

Because it is easy. Usually, the subconscious prods us towards actions associated with discomfort and the vast majority of the time, we suppress these prods and urges despite knowing that the end net result is beneficial. How to Listen to Your Subconscious You will quickly recognise your intense desire to distance yourself from discomfort; this is an issue because the subconscious leans us towards discomfort. Discomfort in this context refers to anything you do not want to do; imagine you have arrived home from a long day at work, knowing that you need to go to the gym, prepare dinner, and clean; it is too much. Instead, you would prefer to peel your clothes off, land on the couch, and order some food. To listen to the subconscious, you need to practice acclimatising yourself to discomfort as often as possible. For example, in the classic stair vs escalator scenario, take that escalator every opportunity you get, walk to the milk bar or drive? You use those feet, and you walk, few dishes in the sink, into the dishwasher or wash them then and there? See, you get the drift.

The idea is simple; life presents us with a plethora of crossroads, the easy or the slightly inconvenient; you will find that your subconscious will gently prod you towards the discomfort, so lean into it.