Q&A:
The subconscious
Q&A: The subconscious
Welcome to July’s newsletter!
This month, the newsletter is a Q&A on the subconscious and its role in the awakening journey.
Question
The term the subconscious is used a lot these days in popular psychology. But what does the subconscious have to do with spiritual awakening? Do I really need to go into the deeper parts of the psyche to awaken spiritually?
Answer: When I use the term the subconscious, I refer to the deeper layers of our inner life that we are unaware of.
Before we awaken and begin our spiritual journeys, there are usually a lot of closed-off places inside us where we store individual and collective beliefs, memories, old experiences, and in some cases, even traumas that we have experienced and picked up throughout our lives.
Those deeper places inside us are not visible in our daily lives. And yet, they are there underneath the surface, controlling how we think, act, and feel in our daily lives.
They also become part of the ego, our conditioned self.
When we awaken spiritually, we have the possibility to discover and deal with those closed-off places so that we can free ourselves.
We can do that by becoming attentive to how we think, feel, and act daily and gradually going deeper as we are ready.
When I talk about the subconscious, I am not referring to psychology. I am not a psychologist and have no such training.
My work is spiritual, and my experience of the subconscious involves how the subconscious keeps us stuck in the ego and the egoic state of consciousness. And how we can face, heal, and remove the subconscious layers to free ourselves.
So, what I am sharing comes from a level beyond the human mind and psyche. From that deeper place, which is a place we all can access inside us, we have the capacity to see ourselves “from the outside,” so to speak.
So, instead of becoming the old programming inside us and acting out our old fears, beliefs, and experiences, we can become aware of them. And when we can do that, we also have the possibility to go deeper into our inner life and process and heal what has been lingering there so that we can let it go and free ourselves.
Doing that is part of the spiritual awakening.
The hidden places inside us are part of the ego, and they keep the ego intact. They also affect us as long as they are there. So, working on our inner life is part of the awakening process.
We don’t have to deal with every little thing – if we did, we would never be done.
But enough of our old programming has to go for the new consciousness to arise because if there is too much in the way, there is no space for anything new to come through.
I have heard of people who awakened and dropped all their conditioning all at once, so it is possible. But that is different from my experience.
But it is possible to go through the awakening journey by gradually removing the layers of ego and allowing our true selves and higher consciousness to take up that space inside us and replace the ego and old conditioning.
And I show you how you can do that in the book I am writing and my upcoming online programs.
Question
How do I get in touch with my subconscious?
Answer: We need to create a safe relationship with our inner life to receive deeper answers. And it can take time.
Our relationship with our subconscious is like a relationship between parent and child.
A child with a parent who always rushes around, never listens, and gets angry at the child when the child feels bad or does something the parent doesn’t like or approve of, will not feel safe to open up and share their feelings or experiences with their parent.
The child will not feel safe to tell their parent when they are in trouble, because they fear being punished, maybe even having their emotions or vulnerability turned against them.
Even if the parent isn’t angry, there is no safe space for the child to open up if the parent is always busy.
So, we need to provide time and space for our children if we want to have close relationships with them that don’t just deal with the practical aspects of life.
Our relationship with our inner life, especially our subconscious, is no different.
If we constantly run from what we feel, are impatient with ourselves, always busy, or become upset at ourselves when we are afraid or can’t do something we think we should be able to do, there is no safe space for our subconscious to start to open up and share what it is holding onto.
We must provide a safe environment if we want to know what is hidden on those deeper levels inside us.
We also need to listen without judgment and interference so that the truth has space to reveal itself.
Provide a safe environment
To build that kind of relationship, we can begin with the easier things, such as our daily agitations, thoughts, and reactions.
When we can deal with them in a healthy way, we are ready to go deeper.
But patience is required.
If we, for example, have been busy, angry, not listening to or providing space for our child – or if we have been trying to mold them into a version that we would like them to be, we can’t expect them to open up to us the second we decide to begin to provide space. Because, of course, they don’t trust us.
It takes time to build trust, and trust is earned.
It is earned by continuously showing up and showing them that we have changed and can be trusted.
The same is true when it comes to the subconscious.
We can’t go directly from running from and covering up our emotions, or indulging in them, to thinking that our inner life will trust us with its secrets.
We need to show up first. And when that safety and trust is there, the subconscious can begin to reveal its truths.
Question
How do I know that an answer or insight is coming from the subconscious vs. the mind?
Answer: The easiest way to know the difference is that when something comes from the mind, a lot of thinking is usually involved. The mind can spin in endless loops around different topics. It can also come up with various answers to why it believes we are experiencing certain things.
Some of the answers that come from the mind may seem right for a time, but they often shift again after a while.
And the mind doesn’t know the deeper answers that have to do with the subconscious. The mind can think about and imagine the answers, but it doesn’t know the truth.
When the deeper answers reveal themselves, the feeling is very different. They don’t come as thought processes, and they don’t shift. When something hidden on the deeper levels of our inner life reveals itself, it comes as a knowing, an insight, a memory, or a clear answer.
It also breaks through the noise of the mind, and we don’t need to think about it because the answer is right in front of us. It is clear, and it usually comes with a feeling of relief.
We may want to think about it later to understand, process, and integrate what we have realized, but no thought process is needed the moment the answer appears.
I hope you enjoyed the Q&A and found it helpful!
Love,
Hanna
