By Luke Chao

Your mind is divided into two parts: the conscious and the subconscious. Both parts are responsible for thoughts and beliefs that lead you to feel or act in certain ways. The difference between them, however, is that we are aware of what our conscious mind is thinking, but not what our subconscious is thinking.

The relationship between the two parts can be described like a man riding on an elephant, to use Buddha's vivid analogy. The man steers and directs the elephant, and because of this he believes that he is in control. And this is true-granted that the elephant obeys his commands. But sometimes, the elephant veers off and disregards the man's commands, and when this happens it is suddenly the man who is being "taken for a ride." Similarly, sometimes our subconscious acts in ways that go against our best interests. Hypnotherapy is used in order to "tame" your subconscious and regain control over you emotions and habits.

If you are having problems imagining your subconscious, think of it this way: Are you aware of your breathing? Probably not, until I pointed it out. What about the feeling of your sock around your foot? Or the hum of the computer as you read this? Do you have to concentrate on your heart in order to keep it beating? All of these things are observed by or controlled by your subconscious.

Your subconscious is absorbing copious amounts of information at all times without you being aware of it, filtering out the unimportant bits so that your conscious mind can focus on what needs to be dealt with at the present time. Consequently, your subconscious holds significantly more information than your conscious mind does. If your mind is an iceberg, then the conscious part is the little tip that is poking out of the ocean and your subconscious is the gigantic mass that remains submerged underwater. Furthermore, your subconscious is not only mechanical but intelligent as well. This means that it makes links between observations and forms opinions and beliefs. It is these subconscious thoughts that cause you to act or feel in ways that you do not (consciously) understand.