Because we believe that we control our lives, we also believe that by making 'conscious' choices we can change the course of our lives. So if 'we' decide to eat better, or take more exercise then 'we' should be able to make this new thing happen. After all 'we' are in charge of our lives, so what 'we' decide goes - right?

But as we all know, nothing is ever that simple. For whatever reason or reasons, somehow we never quite succeed in losing that surplus weight, quitting smoking, getting a better job or whatever it is we have 'decided' to change.

And the reason is simple - our subconscious minds simply prevent these changes taking place. Why? - because quite simply if 'our' choice was also what the subconscious mind wanted it would already BE our reality.

All our efforts to change by using our 'willpower' are doomed to failure because our subconscious minds will simply sabotage anything which would result in a movement beyond the limits it has set. These limits can be placed on almost any aspect of our lives, from body weight to financial or social success.

As soon as we find ourselves approaching such a limit, we will be automatically hauled back to our internal 'set points' to (as the subconscious mind sees it) protect us from risk or uncertainty. Because of this, anyone seeking intentional change, whether it involves dieting, exercising, increasing their income, behaving more confidently in social situations, or getting rid of inappropriate behaviours and habits, will find themselves in conflict with their subconscious 'guidance system'.

And in this battle there can be only one outcome: they will lose!

The subconscious mind is immensely powerful. It has encyclopaedic knowledge of you and everyone you meet, and powers to 'make things happen' that we are only just becoming aware of. Against this power, your 'willpower' is a rather feeble little thing, as the almost universal failure of diets, attempts to get fit or to climb out of the financial rut amply demonstrate.

The fact is that WHEN THERE IS DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN YOUR CONSCIOUS DESIRES AND YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS DIRECTIVES, YOUR CONSCIOUS DESIRES WILL ALWAYS LOSE THE FIGHT.

How Our Subconscious Minds Control Us

Despite its tremendous power over our lives, this mysterious entity is in many ways neutral, and by our (conscious) standards may seem very strange, even stupid.

The subconscious mind doesn't appear to question the directives it follows its only concern is that they ARE followed.

It seems to lack initiative and logical reasoning powers, and so cannot (or at least appears not to) apply logic or judgment to the information about the world that it receives. Experiments have even been conducted that show that the subconscious does not distinguish between an actual experience and an imagined one, between truth and a lie.

This strange entity thinks primarily in pictures and symbols, and its language capabilities appear to be limited to those of a 5 or 6 year old child. For example, the subconscious is apparently unable to properly understand negatives (no, not, none, never etc.), or to be able to correctly interpret complex nested sentences or subclauses (if, provided that..). Its understanding of language appears to be completely literal, with no consideration of context. As a result it seems to be totally confused by spoken homophones (words that sound the same, such as pair/pear, hear/here, sense/cents/scents, their/there/they're, etc.).

In many ways the subconscious mind seems to operate in a manner that has been called 'savant autistic', with enormous resources and power being controlled by an emotionless computer-like entity with few of the reasoning and communication capabilities we associate with the conscious mind.

So we seem to have evolved a rather curious mental structure in our incredibly complex brains; an enormously powerful 'subconscious mind lacking reason and initiative, and a rather faulty but very active conscious mind which is largely governed by the subconscious, but which in turn supplies important controlling input to it.

But despite its enormous powers, the fact is that the subconscious mind relies on the conscious mind to interpret the world, especially the world of human society, and to determine the goals and 'instructions' it should act on, based on this interpretation.

These instructions are themselves derived not from the essentially neutral input that the brain receives from its senses and bodily feedback, but from the reactions of the conscious mind to these inputs together with the emotional reactions they have given rise to.  This results in millions of 'feedback' loops which automatically strengthen as stored reactions are fed back to the conscious mind each time an emotional memory is triggered, and the emotionally coloured response is in turn fed back to the subconscious storehouse.

In other words, the subconscious acts on what you have perceived throughout your life, rather than on any objective reality. This includes all the social and emotional baggage you have attached to every situation and set of circumstances you have ever experienced, including all those you acquired through childhood and puberty, when (to put it mildly) you were not in control of yourself or your world. This is why 'role models' observed during childhood (especially parents) come to play such an important part in the paths our lives take.

But even more importantly, the power of the emotional 'feedback loop' attached to every little event in our lives acts to re-inforce our programmed reactions, giving rise to deeply entrenched habits which become ever more difficult to change. So in the absence of any conscious direction, the subconscious simply runs in default 'safe' mode - ensuring that we stay out of 'danger' by never venturing beyond the internal limits we have set for ourselves, and which actually grow stronger over time if we do nothing about them. If we were fearful, hesitant, unsure, worrying or procrastinating the last time we encountered a particular set of circumstances, our subconscious minds will ensure that this is exactly how we feel and act the next time around.

Even if we have simply imagined a situation at some time and reacted emotionally to this 'virtual' scenario, the reactions will be absorbed by the subconscious because even our thoughts are a part of our life experience.

The bottom line is that we are continuously and unconsciously compelled to do more of the same so that we get more of the same. It's rather like possessing a large, powerful car which is capable of effortlessly taking us huge distances to exciting new places whenever we want, but only ever using it to amble aimlessly and without purpose around our local backstreets.

But this potentially mighty ally is ready and willing to bring into your world everything that you desire and need in order to live your life to the full. All it lacks is your direction - your specific instructions and clear goals, delivered unambiguosly, in a way it understands.

Once it has these directions, your subconscious mind will set about its new purpose with total dedication - to quickly and effortlessly bring you whatever you want.

Its as simple as that.