Why you need to become conscious
By: Pretheesh Presannan
Tags: Creativity, Spiritual Secrets, Consciousness, Mental Health, Healing

Perhaps we all have this habit — switching habit.

The habit of switching from conscious to unconscious.

We are trained professionals in switching. Most of us had learned this very well from childhood — if nothing else :).

Perhaps it was an essential strategy for that little child, that we were once, to survive the heaviness of unpleasantness. It could be that we were not equipped — our brains — to face them consciously.

But this habit had gotten the better of us — this unconscious avoidance. And this makes us suffer the weight of suppressed emotions, the ugly ones: anxieties, shame, embarrassment, humiliation, …the list goes.

And at some point in our lives, mostly through some sort of suffering, that this switching process no longer works — become ineffective. At this point, we get to see that all is ‘not’ well as it seems.

This compulsive switching to unconscious can happen in two ways depending on one’s unique makeup:

one might jump into action with the intention of having to not face the sensations.

one might flee or pull back more when the threatening sensations are felt.

Whatever be one’s way of avoidance, at some point the body-mind cannot take it anymore.

Panic, sheer panic arrives!!!.

It becomes difficult to simply deny the force of suffering arising from this old habit in our body-mind. But still, we continue this habit via thinking — we think for a solution, yet thinking cannot solve it; moreover being overwhelmed by thoughts, we remain stuck in the unconscious mode even worse.

To be conscious is to see what is happening within — the habit of slipping into the unconscious, the habit of suppression or avoidance of unpleasant sensations.

We are forced by life to switch back to the conscious mode, which is painful, but when the old habit had gotten the better of us, there is no way out than to become conscious — if we have to get out of the mess. Being conscious and learning to break the cycle of unconscious suffering can lead to healing and stabilization within.

To be conscious of the fact that thinking is a way of avoidance, by itself opens up a possibility to undo the old habit. There are no stubborn rules on how to consciously heal the body-mind with the release of suppressed energies. Sitting with thoughts and feelings without doing anything about it (as in some meditation) or purposefully engaging in any sort of creative work or a conscious walk, engaging in daily life situations risking consciously, active imagination method (Carl Jung), etc can serve the healing process.

Often we turn away from immersing in any creative works because our thoughts need assurance that it will feel better before we even start. It is perhaps a trick of thoughts to keep clinging onto the habit of remaining unconscious. It even comes with fear of missing out as an excuse for preventing a wholehearted immersion — allowing all the tensions to arise and get released along with the creative process.

The habitual mind — as soon as a difficult feeling/thought arises, if let alone — gets preoccupied with how to avoid or become unconscious of the difficult thoughts or feelings; it seems the mind is quite satisfied with anything but not being conscious of the experience; it is a trick, in the sense, we do not really get to escape the reality, the most it can do is to be unconscious or not see ‘what-is’ — running in circles for the hope of avoidance. Though the way in is the only way out.

Being conscious of how we prolong our suffering, opens up the possibility for us to be willing to face the threatening sensations in a kind manner as we become able to unhook from the pull of old habits.