Unconscious Mind

What is the unconscious mind? It's the part of our mind that filters all the stimulus that we come in contact with day after day. If it didn't do this, we would be overwhelmed by what comes our way.
This filtering is also known as the reticular activating system...have you ever noticed that the minute you decide to buy a particular new car, you start to see lots of them on the road? It's almost as if heaps of people have gone out and bought the same car!! Well that might be true, however, closer to the truth is the fact that the car is now important to you, (on your mind!), so the unconscious mind allows that information through to the conscious mind. There always were those other cars on the road, just not on your radar!
The unconscious mind is also the part of the mind that keeps our bodies ticking along so we can do the things we want to...when was the last time you had to consciously make yourself breathe, your heart beat? So you can see it's an important thing to have around and yet it is usually taken for granted and not utilised to our own ultimate success.
Did you know that the unconscious mind can't differentiate between what's real and what's not? When we look at a picture, consciously we know it's a picture, however the unconscious mind doesn't...that's why we can feel great just by looking at a picture of a sunset.
This is why positive affirmations can work! I know that affirmations have been maligned in the past, however, if you repeat them often enough, the unconscious mind starts to think it's true and will start to act accordingly. Just tell your conscious mind you're play acting otherwise it might keep telling you it's not true! Now of course there still has to be some ability to do what your affirming...all the positive affirmations in the world won't make you a brain surgeon if you don't have the necessary skill set for it to be so!
The other day I was talking about intention and this is another way for you to program the unconscious mind. I wake up every morning and have a quick conversation with myself about what sort of day I'm going to have and set a firm intention around that. As I mentioned before, the unconscious mind is a filter, so it will now let in the stimuli that supports that intention!
To finish off I'd like to share a quote I saw many years ago and have used often..."if you don't consciously choose your state, one will be unconsciously chosen for you..."