The Three Roommates in Your Mind: Conscious, Unconscious, and Subconscious Thoughts

Ever feel like part of your brain is with you, part of it is working behind the scenes, and another part is running the show without asking your permission?

Congratulations, you have three mental roommates. So, let’s meet them, shall we!?

Meet the Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious minds. They all live in your head, but they have very different personalities, jobs, and levels of chaos.

The Conscious Mind: The Narrator

This is your voice reading this blog right now…your inner narrator

·      “Should I read this blog”

·      “Wow, this blog is actually kind of fun”.

The conscious mind handles:

·      Awareness

·      Decision-making

·      Logic and reasoning

·      Present-moment thinking

This is the front desk of your brain. It answers calls, processes information, and makes executive decisions; however, it’s only about 5-10% of what your mind actually does. That little voice is not the boss.

The Subconscious Mind: The Autopilot

This is your mind running things quietly in the background.

It’s the reason you can:

·      Tie your shoes without thinking

·      React emotionally before logic kicks in

Your subconscious stores:

·      Habits

·      Beliefs

·      Emotional memories

·      Learned patterns

·      Body responses

If the conscious mind is the narrator, the subconscious is the director. It sets the tone,    the pacing, and sometimes the plot twist.

Ever say, “I don’t know why I reacted like that”?

That was your subconscious stepping in like, “I’ve seen this before. I’ve got this”.

Sometimes it’s helpful AND sometimes it’s operating in an old, outdated version of yourself.

The Unconscious Mind: The Storage

Now let’s go deeper…all things hidden.

This is the basement where everything lives that you’re not actively aware of:

·      Repressed memories

·      Unresolved emotions

·      Survival instincts

·      Deep fears and desires

You don’t think about these things daily, but they influence your choices, relationships, and reactions more than you realize.

The unconscious mind is like, “I’ll stay quiet until something reminds me”.

…and when it does?

Cue in intense emotions, dreams, body sensations, or sudden reactions that seem to come out of nowhere.

Spoiler alert…they didn’t come out of nowhere. They came from an unprocessed experience.

HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER (or DON’T)

Imagine this scenario:

You consciously decide “I want to set better boundaries”

Your subconscious responds “But last time we did that, people got upset”

Your unconscious whispers “And I don’t want to deal with their attitude”

Then suddenly you’re saying “yes” when you meant “no”. and wondering why you feel exhausted.

This is not weakness.

This is simply how our brain works.

Your mind’s #1 job is safety, not happiness, not productivity, and not healing.

The magic happens when the conscious mind starts paying attention to the other two.

Healing then looks like:

·      Noticing your patterns

·      Getting curious about reactions instead of judging them

·      Understanding that behavior is communication

When you bring awareness to the subconscious and compassion to the unconscious, they stop needing to shout.

Your mind doesn’t want to sabotage you. It wants to protect you by using the tools it learned at that time.

Remember…

·      You’re not “overthinking”

·      You’re not “too emotional”

·      You’re not “broken”

You are human with a mind that learned how to survive.

                                    AND….

Once you understand who’s speaking inside your head, you can choose to respond with clarity instead of confusion. Because, when all three roommates start communicating…that’s when real growth happens