What is the Mind?
In this podcast (episode #422) and blog, I talk about what the mind is. This podcast is part 5 of my series on the different parts of the mind and brain.
As mentioned in my previous podcasts on this topic, The Difference Between the Nonconscious, Subconscious & Conscious Mind (part 1), How to Tap Into the Nonconscious Mind to Unwire Trauma & Toxic Thinking Habits (part 2), How to Listen to & Learn from Your Mental & Physical Warning Signals (part 3), and The Difference Between Thoughts & Memories (part 4), when you consciously engage the nonconscious mind through deliberate, intentional, strategic, and proactive deep thinking, you draw your thoughts, with their embedded memories, through the subconscious mind and into the conscious mind. When these thoughts arrive in the conscious mind, they’re in a malleable state, which means you can change them and reconceptualize them—you can change the way they impact your life.
But what exactly is the mind? And why is it important?
The mind can be a tricky concept, so it’s best to start with what the mind is not. Your mind is not your brain, just as you are not your brain. The mind is separate, yet inseparable from, the brain. The mind uses the brain, and the brain responds to the mind. The brain doesn’t produce the mind. The mind changes the brain. People do things; our brains do not force us to do things. Yes, there would be no conscious experience without the brain, but experience cannot be reduced to the brain’s actions.
The mind is energy, and it generates energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing. That means we generate energy through our mind-in-action 24/7, which is part of the activity we pick up with brain technology. When we generate this mind energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing, we build thoughts, which are physical structures in our brain. This building of thoughts is called neuroplasticity. In our clinical trials, we saw how the energy in the brain changed as the subject was thinking and how this stimulated neuroplasticity. The brain was responding to the person’s thinking, feeling, and choosing as a stream of conscious and nonconscious activity.
The mind is a stream of nonconscious and conscious activity when we’re awake, and a stream of nonconscious activity when we’re asleep. It’s characterized by a triad of thinking, feeling, and choosing. When you think, you will feel, and when you think and feel, you will choose. These three aspects always work together.
As mentioned in my podcast on the different parts of the mind, the conscious mind is awake when you’re awake and is limited in what it can pay attention to. The nonconscious mind is awake and working 24/7 and is huge and infinite. The subconscious mind is between the two, kind of like that tip-of-the-tongue feeling. The unconscious mind is when you’re knocked out or under anesthetic.
You have a unique way you think, feel, and choose, which is your identity. When your thinking, feeling, and choosing are off for some reason, this will affect your identity. When you think, feel, and choose, you create, and this creation is a thought.
And you’re always thinking, feeling, and choosing! When you’re awake, you think and feel and choose to build thoughts. When you’re asleep, you sort out the thoughts you’ve built during the day.
What does the brain have to do with all of this? The brain is an extremely complex neuroplastic responder. This essentially means that each time it’s stimulated by your mind, it responds in many different ways, including neurochemical, genetic, and electromagnetic changes. This, in turn, grows and changes structures in the brain, building or wiring in new physical thoughts. The brain is never the same because it changes with every experience you have, every moment of every day—and you control this with your unique thinking, feeling, and choosing. You use your mind to use your brain. You are the architect of your brain!
For more on the mind and brain, listen to my podcast (episode #422), and check out my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and app Neurocycle. If you enjoy listening to my podcast, please consider leaving a 5-star review and subscribing. And keep sharing episodes with friends and family and on social media. (Don’t forget to tag me so I can see your posts!).
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This podcast is sponsored by:
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Podcast Highlights
2:14 Why the mind is the hard question of science
2:44, 4:50 Our mind is our “aliveness”
4:00 We are the product of our minds
5:00 We are not our brains
6:30 How the mind affects the brain & body
9:15 Why we need to learn how to manage our minds
This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional.