Chapter 3
Discovering Who’s
Directing Your Life
In This Chapter
▶ Understanding the unconscious mind
▶ Finding out how the brain works
▶ Overcoming your fears
▶ Discovering your motivators
B
reathing is something you do unconsciously. Until we ask you to
become aware of your breathing you don’t notice each breath, the air
going in through your nose, or the movement of your chest and diaphragm
with each inhalation and exhalation. By paying attention to your breathing,
you bring your breathing into your conscious awareness. As you continue to
read these words, you then stop noticing your breathing again; it slips back
out of your awareness along with the other processes that run your body.Do you consciously know when the time comes for you to feel thirsty or
indeed, how to consciously pick up a glass of water when you’re thirsty?
We challenge you to activate consciously each isolated muscle in your
arm, in the right order, to pick up a glass of water and get it to your mouth.
Impossible? Do you need a degree in anatomy and physiology before you can
attempt to raise your arm consciously? This example goes to show the huge
influence that your unconscious mind has on the running of your body, out-
side of your conscious awareness.If you still have any doubts about the power of your unconscious mind on
your body, consider an experiment conducted by researcher Paul Thorsen,
who hypnotised a man and told him that the pen that Paul was holding was a
hot skewer. Paul then touched the arm of the subject with the pen and... a
blister formed on the subject’s arm where he had been touched by the pen.