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| Techniques for Harnessing Your Subconscious |
Techniques for Harnessing Your Subconscious
A number of techniques have already been developed to help individuals reach their ‘inner self’ that are equivalent to harnessing their subconscious minds.
Meditation
During meditation you are fully conscious, but strive to contemplate your inner thoughts without interruptions from the environment. If you are successful at reaching a meditative state, external stimuli are suppressed and there is just you, your thoughts, your breathing, and your heart beating. Some claim that meditation is useful for marshalling the body’s defences to relieve pain, heal injuries, fight infections and disease, and control addictions.
A meditative state can be reached through relaxation and the reduction of environmental stimuli. Some practices include performing a simple repetitive task, saying a simple phrase repeatedly (a mantra), relaxing and contemplating a peaceful setting, or using hypnosis.
Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles Department of Psychiatry are studying the effects of meditation on the well-being of teens and adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity (ADH) disorder. Preliminary results suggest that a few training sessions in meditation can ‘reduce stress and improve attention, emotional balance, and self-awareness’.
The use of sensory deprivation was originally investigated by the military in the 1950’s as a technique to destabilize candidates for interrogation. However, by the 1960’s it was realized that the first few hours of sensory deprivation had significant positive effects. The lack of external stimulation triggers a relaxation response. Muscle tension, blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen consumption are reduced. Blood vessels dilate and cardio-vascular efficiency is improved. Chemicals associated with stress such as epinephrine and cortisol fall to lower levels in the blood while more endorphins are released in the brain. You remain awake but your brain waves slow down to about 6 Hz, characteristic of the theta-state that you reach just before falling asleep. This state of body-and-mind is similar to the meditative state reached by experienced Yogi and Buddhists.
There is now a growing movement to use Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (R.E.S.T.) flotation chambers to assist individuals in reaching a profound meditative state. A float tank is a light-proof, sound-insulated chamber filled with about 30 cm of water and Epsom salts. The water-salt solution is kept at skin temperature and provides enough buoyancy to keep you floating with your face out of the water. As you lie in a flotation chamber most external stimuli are blocked, and you float with a sense of weightlessness. The effects of R.E.S.T. flotation have been investigated at a number of universities including Stanford, Harvard, and Yale.
Several commercial organizations now provide R.E.S.T. flotation experiences.
Other experiments have shown that while in a relaxed meditative state, your brain is able to learn quickly and efficiently from audio and video messages. For example, float tanks are used by a number of top athletes to enhance their training for mental and physical challenges.
Mental rehearsals
Athletes have also learned that mental rehearsals for challenging maneuvers are almost as effective as actual physical practice. A basketball player can improve success in scoring baskets through repetitive mental rehearsals of shooting the same shots. Downhill skiers can enhance their performances by imagining themselves making all the best moves that they want to repeat in an actual competition. Formula One racers can reduce actual lap times after imagining themselves accelerating, braking, turning, and shifting gears as they complete a mental lap around a race course.
With enough practice and rehearsal, you can often leave control of complex actions to your subconscious. Your subconscious mind has more speed and mental power, and can often outperform your conscious efforts.
Recitation
The simple process of expressing your own thoughts aloud utilizes a variety of neural pathways and has a number of benefits for clear thinking. It forces you to put your ideas through a linear analysis so they can be converted into a string of words. It forces you to search through your vocabulary bank to find the most appropriate words to describe your thoughts, ideas, and problems. It allows your ears to hear your thoughts, and then your own words are processed as input through your ears and another important part of your brain is brought into play to analyze what you are hearing. Your subconscious mind is activated to deal with all of these processes. Music and art
Music has patterns in rhythm and tones that can stimulate or relax your mental activity. Stimulating music increases your sense of energy and the urge to be active.
Relaxing music can lull your senses and make it easier to sharpen the focus of your attention.
Visual art presents colour, shape, texture, images, and symbols that can inspire creativity and stimulate your memory.
Imagination
Unleashing your imagination allows your thoughts to proceed without inhibitions, restrictions, or assumptions. Your subconscious is then given free rein to present unusual combinations of ideas to your conscious mind. Composing new combinations of ideas is the essence of creativity.
Daydreaming
Daydreaming involves a state of rest and semi-meditation. You may be watching waves roll on to a beach or relaxing in a shower, and drift into a semi-conscious state.
In such a state you tend to lose touch with environmental stimuli and let your thoughts drift. While in this relaxed state your subconscious can sometimes work through problems or analyze situations more efficiently than your conscious mind. Any ideas that come to you while daydreaming are usually soon forgotten (like dreams), so if you think of something creative and you want to save that idea, you should record it as soon as possible.
A number of techniques have already been developed to help individuals reach their ‘inner self’ that are equivalent to harnessing their subconscious minds.
Meditation
During meditation you are fully conscious, but strive to contemplate your inner thoughts without interruptions from the environment. If you are successful at reaching a meditative state, external stimuli are suppressed and there is just you, your thoughts, your breathing, and your heart beating. Some claim that meditation is useful for marshalling the body’s defences to relieve pain, heal injuries, fight infections and disease, and control addictions.
A meditative state can be reached through relaxation and the reduction of environmental stimuli. Some practices include performing a simple repetitive task, saying a simple phrase repeatedly (a mantra), relaxing and contemplating a peaceful setting, or using hypnosis.
Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles Department of Psychiatry are studying the effects of meditation on the well-being of teens and adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity (ADH) disorder. Preliminary results suggest that a few training sessions in meditation can ‘reduce stress and improve attention, emotional balance, and self-awareness’.
The use of sensory deprivation was originally investigated by the military in the 1950’s as a technique to destabilize candidates for interrogation. However, by the 1960’s it was realized that the first few hours of sensory deprivation had significant positive effects. The lack of external stimulation triggers a relaxation response. Muscle tension, blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen consumption are reduced. Blood vessels dilate and cardio-vascular efficiency is improved. Chemicals associated with stress such as epinephrine and cortisol fall to lower levels in the blood while more endorphins are released in the brain. You remain awake but your brain waves slow down to about 6 Hz, characteristic of the theta-state that you reach just before falling asleep. This state of body-and-mind is similar to the meditative state reached by experienced Yogi and Buddhists.
There is now a growing movement to use Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (R.E.S.T.) flotation chambers to assist individuals in reaching a profound meditative state. A float tank is a light-proof, sound-insulated chamber filled with about 30 cm of water and Epsom salts. The water-salt solution is kept at skin temperature and provides enough buoyancy to keep you floating with your face out of the water. As you lie in a flotation chamber most external stimuli are blocked, and you float with a sense of weightlessness. The effects of R.E.S.T. flotation have been investigated at a number of universities including Stanford, Harvard, and Yale.
Several commercial organizations now provide R.E.S.T. flotation experiences.
Other experiments have shown that while in a relaxed meditative state, your brain is able to learn quickly and efficiently from audio and video messages. For example, float tanks are used by a number of top athletes to enhance their training for mental and physical challenges.
Mental rehearsals
Athletes have also learned that mental rehearsals for challenging maneuvers are almost as effective as actual physical practice. A basketball player can improve success in scoring baskets through repetitive mental rehearsals of shooting the same shots. Downhill skiers can enhance their performances by imagining themselves making all the best moves that they want to repeat in an actual competition. Formula One racers can reduce actual lap times after imagining themselves accelerating, braking, turning, and shifting gears as they complete a mental lap around a race course.
With enough practice and rehearsal, you can often leave control of complex actions to your subconscious. Your subconscious mind has more speed and mental power, and can often outperform your conscious efforts.
Recitation
The simple process of expressing your own thoughts aloud utilizes a variety of neural pathways and has a number of benefits for clear thinking. It forces you to put your ideas through a linear analysis so they can be converted into a string of words. It forces you to search through your vocabulary bank to find the most appropriate words to describe your thoughts, ideas, and problems. It allows your ears to hear your thoughts, and then your own words are processed as input through your ears and another important part of your brain is brought into play to analyze what you are hearing. Your subconscious mind is activated to deal with all of these processes. Music and art
Music has patterns in rhythm and tones that can stimulate or relax your mental activity. Stimulating music increases your sense of energy and the urge to be active.
Relaxing music can lull your senses and make it easier to sharpen the focus of your attention.
Visual art presents colour, shape, texture, images, and symbols that can inspire creativity and stimulate your memory.
Imagination
Unleashing your imagination allows your thoughts to proceed without inhibitions, restrictions, or assumptions. Your subconscious is then given free rein to present unusual combinations of ideas to your conscious mind. Composing new combinations of ideas is the essence of creativity.
Daydreaming
Daydreaming involves a state of rest and semi-meditation. You may be watching waves roll on to a beach or relaxing in a shower, and drift into a semi-conscious state.
In such a state you tend to lose touch with environmental stimuli and let your thoughts drift. While in this relaxed state your subconscious can sometimes work through problems or analyze situations more efficiently than your conscious mind. Any ideas that come to you while daydreaming are usually soon forgotten (like dreams), so if you think of something creative and you want to save that idea, you should record it as soon as possible.
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