Unconscious Myths: Understanding Your Inner Mind and How It Shapes Your Life
In this article, I want to take a deeper look at one of the most powerful, yet often misunderstood, aspects of the mind: the unconscious (or subconscious). Many people are unaware of how it works, let alone how to harness its full potential.
Our unconscious mind operates in ways that are almost alien to our logical, conscious thinking.
As a result, we often find ourselves in a tug-of-war between what we want to do and what our minds keep telling us to do, often resulting in stress, self-doubt, or frustration.
Here, I’ll unpack some common myths about the unconscious mind and how understanding it can make life much easier. Plus, as practitioners and hypnotherapists, how can we use this knowledge to empower our clients?
Myth 1: All Our Thoughts Are Under Our Control
One of the biggest myths we hold about our minds is that we are fully in control of every thought that enters our head. While it’s true that we can consciously choose to focus on certain ideas or block out distractions, not all thoughts are consciously controlled. In fact, many of the thoughts that pop into our heads are simply flashes of inspiration, remnants of old habits, or knee-jerk reactions from our unconscious mind.
For example, have you ever had an intrusive negative thought that felt completely out of nowhere? These “negative” thoughts may seem spontaneous, but they often stem from past conditioning or automatic patterns of thinking designed to keep us safe. We have a tendency to default to negative thinking because our brains are wired for survival—our ancestors had to constantly look for danger to stay alive, so we’re still hardwired to scan for threats.
However, it’s important to note the following: these thoughts are just that—thoughts. They’re not real, and they don’t need to control us. Michael Neill’s 2013 book The Inside Out Revolution touches on this idea, suggesting that thoughts are merely constructs that we create in our heads. They are either memories of the past or projections of the future. Instead of focusing on them, Neill recommends viewing thoughts as passing trains—observe them without judgment and let them pass by. This simple shift in perspective can greatly reduce the power that negative thoughts hold over you.
Practitioners can help clients recognize that intrusive or negative thoughts don’t define them. By guiding individuals to observe these thoughts without judgment, hypnotherapists can teach clients to disengage from harmful thought cycles, reducing stress and self-doubt. NLP techniques also help by reframing these automatic patterns and creating pattern interrupts, enabling clients to shift their focus and mindset toward healthier, more positive behaviors.
Myth 2: Recurring Thoughts Are More Important
Another myth is that if a thought keeps recurring, it must be important.
This is not necessarily true.
While it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that repeated thoughts signal something significant, the real power lies in how much attention we give to those thoughts.
When a thought keeps popping into your head, you might start to give it more and more focus, and in doing so, you strengthen the neural pathways in your brain associated with that thought. This can lead to an overactive thought cycle, where one worry spirals into a dozen others. Over time, this strengthens the mental habit of worrying or ruminating, making it harder to break free from these thought patterns.
Generally, we are particularly adept at this. A single worry can quickly expand into a full-blown disaster scenario in our minds, often more fictional than factual. But the more you focus on a thought, the more real it feels. The solution? Shift your focus away from these recurring thoughts. Recognize them for what they are—just thoughts—and remind yourself that the energy you give them only makes them stronger.
Myth 3: The Unconscious Mind Can Solve Everything on Its Own
When you first start exploring the power of the unconscious mind, it’s easy to get swept up in the idea that it holds the key to all personal transformation. After studying techniques such as NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and hypnotherapy, it’s easy to fall into the trap that the unconscious mind can work miracles on its own, bypassing the need for conscious effort.
While it’s true that the unconscious mind plays a crucial role in shaping our emotions, habits, and perceptions, the conscious mind also has an important role to play. The conscious mind is our critical thinker—it helps us assess whether a thought or behavior makes sense, whether it’s logical or illogical.
Let’s take a moment to consider how this plays out in a therapy or coaching session. If someone is dealing with deep emotional pain—like guilt, anger, or fear—working with the unconscious mind can help to release those emotions. However, the conscious mind also needs to be aware that these emotions have been released. This conscious awareness helps solidify the change, ensuring that the person no longer carries around those negative emotions in their daily life.
In short, both the conscious and unconscious mind need to work in harmony. The unconscious mind is powerful, but the conscious mind provides the awareness and critical thinking that help us integrate those changes effectively.
Hypnotherapists and NLP practitioners assist clients in integrating both the unconscious and conscious minds, ensuring that changes made at an unconscious level are consciously understood and reinforced. This collaboration engenders a lasting transformation, whether it’s releasing emotional pain or enhancing personal growth.
Myth 4: Gut Feelings and Intuition Are the Same Thing
A lot of people confuse “gut feelings” with “intuition,” but they aren’t the same thing. Your gut feeling is often a knee-jerk reaction from the primitive part of your unconscious mind—the part that’s concerned with survival and keeping you in your comfort zone. It’s part of the ego’s job to keep you safe, and stepping outside your comfort zone can trigger this kind of response.
Intuition, on the other hand, comes from a deeper, more expansive part of the mind. Some may call it the higher self, your inner wisdom, or even your deepest unconscious mind. It’s the quiet voice that offers you insights or creative ideas, often without immediate logical reasoning. Intuition is about expansion and growth, while gut feelings tend to be about preservation and safety.
When you’re in a situation where you feel a pull to take action, it can be hard to differentiate between a gut feeling and intuition. A good way to tell the difference is to ask yourself, whose voice does this sound like? If it’s your own voice, it might be a gut feeling—something your ego wants to protect you from. If it’s more of a quiet, non-judgmental sense of knowing, then it’s likely intuition.
To strengthen your intuition, it helps to spend more time in stillness—whether through mindfulness, meditation, or simply spending time in nature. These activities allow you to listen more closely to that deeper part of your unconscious mind and tap into those intuitive insights that can guide you forward in life.
Practitioners can ease the discomfort of a gut feeling by integrating the parts that create the dilemma or inner conflicts. By gently reminding the client that the gut feeling is more about staying in the comfort zone, however unhelpful that zone may be, and their discomfort may be from the survival-above-all-else part of the brain, rather from an outlook of growth and expansion.
Myth 5: Beliefs about ourselves are fixed and form our personality
Possibly the most common myth about the unconscious mind is the belief that it is fixed and unchangeable—many people think that once certain habits, patterns, or beliefs are formed, they are permanent and form our personality.
This myth can hold individuals back, as they feel stuck in negative thought cycles or behaviors, believing they are powerless to change.
However, when this myth is debunked, it opens the door to a growth mindset.
Understanding that the unconscious mind is highly adaptable and can be reprogrammed with conscious effort endows individuals with the realization that they can create new habits, break free from limiting beliefs, and develop healthier thought patterns. This is supported by the concept of neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain's ability to reorganize and form new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity shows that our brains are constantly changing and adapting based on our experiences, thoughts, and actions. Techniques like hypnotherapy and NLP can help reframe old, unhelpful beliefs and encourage a mindset of continuous improvement. Once people embrace the idea that their unconscious is not a fixed entity, they become more open to learning, evolving, and taking action toward personal growth and success.
Importantly, whilst the concept of neuroplasticity is incredibly liberating, some clients may find it overwhelming or daunting that their minds may be overhauled and that they may change so much that they are no longer themselves. Of course, this is untrue. However, it is for the professional to work calmingly and reassuringly with the client to show them that, taking one step at a time and using gently soothing techniques, change can be made in comfortable, unhurried, small progressions.
Conclusion
Understanding the unconscious mind is a powerful step toward personal transformation. By debunking common myths, such as believing that all our thoughts are under our control or that recurring thoughts are more significant, we free ourselves from unnecessary stress. We also learn to work with our unconscious mind instead of against it, tapping into the deeper layers of intuition and creativity.
By working with both the unconscious and conscious minds, you can create lasting change, reducing stress and enhancing your overall well-being. It’s all about the relationship you build with your mind—one where both sides work together in harmony, rather than in conflict.
By dispelling these myths about the unconscious, professionals can guide their clients toward a deeper understanding of their own minds. By knowing that they are in control of their own mind, they are empowered to live more balanced and fulfilling lives.
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