Your mind is the best and most beautiful thing you have. Most people struggle to define the mind, and some even treat it as synonymous with the brain. Invisible to the eye, think of the mind as an intangible enterprise, not a tangible thing. The brain, on the other hand, is a tangible, physical organ. The body and all its individual parts work cohesively with the brain at the helm, under the guidance of the mind. Of course, the brain is the most complex and paramount organ of the body, and techniques such as meditation and concepts such as neuroplasticity go a long way in making the brain more aligned with what you want to achieve. Nevertheless, if you think of the brain as the CEO, then think of the mind as the Chairman—the boss of the CEO!
A simple example to better appreciate the mind-brain difference is when you read about people in hospital who have been in a coma or “brain-dead” but, when they come back to their natural state, recall that in the comatose state they had awareness of all that was going on. That awareness comes from the mind, which goes beyond the physical faculties. Likewise, as is commonly known, animals have less-developed brains than humans but more evolved instincts; those evolved instincts also come directly from the mind. If you want to learn more, I recommend the work of the neuroscientist, Dr. Caroline Leaf.
The mind comprises the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is much more powerful than the conscious mind and is best thought of as the power center of the mind. The conscious mind accounts for less than ten percent of mind power, and the subconscious for more than ninety percent. If you would like to learn more about the mind, I would suggest Joseph Murphy’s The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, first published in 1963 and widely regarded as the most influential book on the mind.
The conscious mind is the intellectual or thinking part of the mind and can swiftly accept or reject information and ideas. The five physical senses—See, Smell, Taste, Touch and Hear—are the faculties through which the conscious mind is acquainted with ideas and information.
The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is the feeling or emotional part of the mind and cannot reject what permeates through to it. It receives ideas and information exclusively through the conscious mind and, unlike the conscious mind (which can accept or reject swiftly), needs consistent repetition for the ideas or information to enter. Because it cannot reject, what it eventually accepts it treats as true, instilling the relevant pattern. Negatives (or the word “not”) do not exist in this realm. So, if you say to yourself or think/feel that, for example, you have no ill health or no debt, the subconscious mind will see it as you having ill health or debt. By contrast, if you say or think/feel that you have perfect health or abundant wealth, the subconscious will consider you healthy or wealthy. Furthermore, the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is imagined as true and what is real in a physical sense—what it considers true, whether imagined or physically there, it converts into a pattern and the equivalent manifests in your life.
As you now know, patterns in the subconscious mind account for the entire set of experiences you manifest in your life.
Nonetheless, there is no existing method to identify your patterns because humankind has not evolved to such a level. However, the manifestation results in your life are a direct reflection of the matching patterns within your subconscious. Consequently, the best approach to then manifest your desire is to work backwards and instill the corresponding pattern mirroring your desire.
A pattern can only be established in the subconscious mind through the conscious mind—there is no other route to do so! So, for a new pattern to be instilled in the subconscious mind, not only does it first need to progress from the conscious mind into the subconscious, but then it also needs to successfully replace the existing pattern prevalent in the subconscious.
Rest assured, there will be an intense battle between the two patterns before one emerges as the clear winner. Alternatively, there may not be a clear winner, and you’ll end up somewhere in the spectrum between the two warring factions. This will obviously translate into results somewhere along the spectrum as well.
The reason for the stubbornness of the original patterns is that these have been in place for years, if not decades, and you have created them subconsciously without really knowing what was going on. On the contrary, we are now consciously trying to replace them and so need to learn new methods to do so. These methods, although simple and straightforward, will not yield results overnight because of the historical strength of the old patterns. These are time-tested, though, and will certainly yield the manifestation results if you follow them in a disciplined manner on an ongoing basis.
Extracted with permission from 'Manifest Your Infinite Riches' by Pushkar Anand, published by Rowanvale Books; and JAICO in India.