Lifting the lid on the unconscious | Innovation
Some 95 per cent of thought happens below the radar – by understanding how that works, you can game the system to beat your bad habits and unconscious biases
Almost all the brain’s activity happens below the level of consciousness. Your unconscious has many vital functions – from controlling breathing to processing incoming information – but there are also a few glitches. Tweak these and you can make the system work better for you.
Hack your unconscious
Your unconscious mind is not a black box of fears and desires working to undermine you, but a powerhouse of thought. Discover how you can take advantage
Conscious vs Unconscious
Most unconscious thinking happens deep within the brain, while conscious thoughts tend to occur at the surface
Bad habits and how to break them
As much as 40 per cent of our daily behaviour is habitual. This can be very useful. For example, while your unconscious is busy driving to work, your conscious mind is free to focus on something else.
Automated behaviours are grouped into distinct routines, or “chunks” – having a cigarette when drinking coffee, perhaps – making bad habits hard to break.
To reprogram your unconscious, you must first derail the existing problematic habit. If you always reach for a snack when you walk into the kitchen, for example, move the snacks so that they are out of easy reach.
Use prominent cues to trigger a more desirable habit. So, to replace snacking with fruit eating, buy a different fruit bowl and put it in a new, easily accessible position in your kitchen.
Repetition is the key. It can take anywhere between 15 and 254 days to form a new habit.
As well as cues, contexts trigger habitual behaviours, so try breaking a bad habit while away from …
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