Relieve your own stress, sorrow, anxiety, desire and fear without a yoga mat!
The key is self-awareness. Learn to distinguish between YOUR three invisible parts:
Conscious mind:
- This part of your mind functions; it’s the aspect that thinks, analyzes, calculates, determines, and judges.
- It’s the part you use to make decisions throughout the day: what to wear, eat, how to do your job, etc.
- It’s the aspect of your mind you’re most familiar with: it’s evidenced by your thoughts and the voice in our head.
- Unlike your sub-conscious ‘doing’ mind which enables you to multi “task”, your conscious thinking mind can literally only think one thought at a time. Skeptical? Try doing two simple math problems in your head simultaneously – or reciting the alphabet and counting simultaneously. Right. It’s not going to happen. Unlike our sub-conscious multitasking ‘doing’ mind, this aspect of each of us functions like our heart and lungs: single, consecutive beats, breaths and thoughts.
Exercise: the next time you’re feeling anxious, impatient or stressed, recite the alphabet (preferably backwards) and experience what happens: the feeling of anxiousness dissipates!
Sub-conscious mind:
- This part of your mind also functions; it has two primary jobs: it’s responsible for all bodily tasks (internal and external senses and movement), and it’s where all your memories are stored (imagine being conscious of all your memories all the time – yikes!)
- Unlike our conscious mind, this aspect is generally silent; we’re typically unaware of it.
- It’s evidenced by insight and intuition rather than less subtle conscious thoughts.
Exercise: the next time you’re doing a routine task like bathing, brushing your teeth, walking, folding laundry or washing the dishes, recite the alphabet (again, preferably backwards) in your head. EVERYTHING you’re doing other than reciting the alphabet is evidence of your sub-conscious mind at work. When it clicks, it’ll freak you out: it’s as if your body is acting ALL ON ITS OWN!
Guess which of these two invisible, functioning aspects of your mind is the troublemaker? Right, the noisy one! As long as your conscious, thinking mind is calm and undisturbed, your sub-conscious mind functions flawlessly (other than for influences beyond your control like disease or disability).
Consciousness:
- This invisible part of each of us doesn’t function; it merely witnesses.
- This is the awareness OF our conscious thoughts (if something is aware of something else, by definition the two are distinct from one another!)
- Without our intangible awareness, our bodies and functioning mind would still work – WE JUST WOULDN’T KNOW IT!
- This aspect of each of us NEVER changes; while our thoughts come and go throughout every day like breaths and heartbeats, the awareness OF our thoughts remains constant.
- Imagine the still, quiet, calm, undisturbed nature of something that literally never changes – and it’s inside you! [Meditation draws us closer to this aspect of ourselves!]
- Consciousness is the only “thing” known to mankind that isn’t affected by the passage of time; it’s literally eternal.
- It’s also universal: the awareness of your thoughts is EXACTLY like mine (though obviously, our thoughts are unique to each of us).
Exercise: practice distinguishing between your tangible, ever-changing thoughts and the immutable awareness OF your thoughts. Practice until the nature of your own consciousness clicks; it’ll freak you out. Religion is right: there IS a part of each of us that never dies!
What are the practical, real-life benefits of learning to distinguish between our three invisible parts?
Perhaps the most practical benefit is learning to mute the voice in our head at will. Realizing the distinction between our conscious and sub-conscious mind (and recognizing the constant interaction between the two) enables and emboldens us to learn to control the bothersome one when we want or need to – making getting through each day easier and less stressful.
[Caveat: the voice in our head is a natural self defense mechanism: it acts like the release valve on a teapot: when too much emotional stress builds in our sub-conscious mind based on our unique fears and desires, those stressors percolate up and manifest in the voice in our head. While we can mute that voice at will, at some point we need to let it vent – preferably at a time and place of our own choosing – hence, we meditate!]
But the biggest, most life-altering and permanent changes come when we truly realize the distinction between our thoughts and our awareness of them.
Recognizing the immutable, permanent nature of our own consciousness is awakening in a whole new way. Science can’t explain it – but consciousness is “tangible” evidence – WITHIN OURSELVES – of the existence of something else, something MUCH greater: the existence of Something unearthly and divine. Realizing THAT gives birth to true faith, the most powerful force on earth.
This is Patanjali’s message. All the rest of the practice is about getting to this realization and maintaining it!
God bless, Allan Dowds
