How Does Self Knowledge Ease Change?

As we become more aware of our thoughts, feelings, emotions – our actions, reactions, and interactions – each of us can be an agent of positive change in the world, beginning close to home and then expanding our spheres of influence.
Understanding the Mind
In the West when speaking about the mind, we are most familiar with the terms conscious, subconscious and unconscious. In the East there is a tendency to speak about a body-mind – one that is made up of multiple mini brains located at chakra points. This is a more accurate description of what is truly going on.
For our discussion we will use the Western terms for functionality. We will also share our understanding of the correlation between the Eastern and Western view. Later in the series we will focus more on the chakra system and how it relates to the various aspects of our psyche.

Conscious Mind
Our conscious mind is the one we are most aware of and familiar with. This is the part that does our planning, analyzing, problem solving and intellectualizing, as well as our worrying, criticizing, judging and blaming. Some refer to this as the home of the ego.

The conscious mind is the easiest aspect for us to identify and observe. Perhaps you used your conscious mind after listening to the last session to explore your beliefs and family legacies. The Solar Plexus (third) and Brow (sixth) chakras in the energy body are those that we can most readily correlate with the conscious mind.
Subconscious Mind
The subconscious is the part of our mind that holds unresolved issues, incomplete experiences and lost memories. Our bodies are often the best source of information regarding these split off thoughts, feelings, beliefs and incomplete emotional experiences.
In the chakra system any of the chakras may be holding unprocessed material. However, the Root (first) and Sacral (second) chakras primarily are those we associate with early issues in our lives and deeper, sub- or unconscious material.
As we work with the subconscious, there are several key points to bear in mind:
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Material held in the subconscious is out of conscious awareness.
Subconscious learning is rapid, protective, without discernment.
Learning in the developmental years is largely subconscious.
There is tremendous strength to this part of the mind, but we must understand it and know how to use it. If we do not, it tends to work toward our detriment instead of our benefit. This is because it is the storehouse of uninspected beliefs that have accumulated throughout our lifetime. Because most of these beliefs were probably imprinted early in life, they may not be accurate for the present and may be detracting rather than adding to our lives.
To truly have the tremendous power of this aspect available in the creation of something new, we must clear out the clutter that no longer serves us.
We have often had clients with unresolved guilt, anger or grief that has blocked their ability to enjoy the abundance in their lives. They had varying degrees of awareness concerning these issues, running the gamut from total lack of knowledge to a dimly felt sense of the emotion blocking their free flow of life force.
Also common have been clients who subconsciously believed that they did not deserve happiness, that life had to be hard or that they in some deep way did not measure up in life and therefore could not succeed in their goals. Once these areas of blockage were discovered, explored and dissolved, these clients were able to move on and create their lives in ways that were fulfilling, self nurturing, and life enhancing.
So how can you begin to know about this part of yourself? The constant stream of mental chatter that flows through our minds tends to dissipate our life force, but the good news is that it also may hold clues to the deeper belief structures that impede forward movement.
Turn up the volume on your everyday thinking and notice the habitual commentary. What things do you tend to turn over and over in your mind? What conversations and self-talk tend to dominate your thoughts?
How about family legacies and beliefs? Are there themes in the material that runs through your mind that are related to your beliefs? How do you think these may be impacting your inability to create what you want?
For instance, if you believe that life is a struggle, then you will approach a lot of your daily activity with a sense of heaviness, burden or resistance. It will not even occur to you to embrace the moment, look for the joy or be grateful for the good things in your life; you will focus on hardship – drain your energy, feel exhausted and end up creating more of the same by default!
Understanding how this works is not enough. We must actively intervene in the workings of our own minds in order to shift our consciousness. We have included worksheets in this manual to help you explore and unearth these problematic beliefs and install new ones that will serve you better and allow you more and greater access to your higher mind.

Unconscious Mind
The higher mind is contained within the field of consciousness that is often referred to as unconscious. Again, the term unconscious refers to our general lack of awareness rather than a type of inaccessibility.
This part of the mind has a personal and a collective aspect. The personal unconscious is an aspect of our soul. We connect to the universal consciousness – to the ALL THAT IS – through the personal unconscious. Collective or group unconscious is the term given to the place where we connect and share with all of humanity.
So the term unconscious as we are using it is a higher aspect of Self, our spiritual nature. Familiarity with this aspect comes through direct experience – it is experienced as pure awareness, a silent knowing of a presence accessed beyond thought and mundane emotions.
We are always connected to this part – it is impossible to lose this connection – but it is very common not to have an adequate receiver or a clear channel available for relating to it.

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• Conscious and Subconscious Mind