ScandalousSocialist

ScandalousSocialist t1_j4vwbpa wrote

Think of it like "instinct" vs "thoughtful action"

The very first thing you decide is often an unconscious reaction. Someone jumps at you to scare you and you throw your arms up for example, then you settle down and realize it was just your friend. That's the unconscious making a decision and then your conscious mind taking over. To make conscious decisions you have to evaluate, to make unconscious decisions you just have to react to the immediate stimuli and requires no thinking or evaluation so it comes first and must be corrected.

Continuing the example, if your conscious mind never took back over you would either run or fight your friend but you don't because your conscious mind takes back over as soon as it has made all the evaluations.

Ordering a pizza then regretting it as soon as you think for 5 seconds, mindlessly eating a bag of Oreos, all of these are unconscious actions people take every day (or at least I did and still do to a lesser extent). We can train our unconscious to an extent though, the reason it orders the pizza or keeps eating the Oreos is because that's what we have previously trained it to do. The reason monks can meditate through any sort of scare/pain is they have trained it to not react (though that's an extreme example of course)

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ScandalousSocialist t1_j4vumy5 wrote

You have free will. You also have a heavily programmed unconscious mind which attempts to do things whether you really want to or not.

Catch yourself eating a bag of Oreos without realizing? Taking a nap when you know you should be doing something else? You've trained your unconscious mind to desire those things and it WILL take work to rewire it and you will make "mistakes" along your journey as you try and change it.

Think of it like, in the case of this meme, your conscious mind trying to calm the mean unconscious in control, she might be mad and not listen now, over time she will come around and you can tell her to turn right instead of left, sometimes she might not listen, try again.

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ScandalousSocialist t1_j4vtmw1 wrote

Isn't this like proven fact? Why are you downvoted lol.

We have 2 parts of our brain, the conscious and unconscious, the unconscious controls most things instantaneously meanwhile the conscious takes time to decide.

The people screaming about "no agency" don't realize that the unconscious is just a reflection of what you've trained yourself to do.

You catch yourself eating Oreos for example, you've trained your unconscious self to desire Oreos, you CAN train it to stop as well. That's where the whole concept of self control comes in, your unconscious mind wants to do something but you overpower it with your conscious efforts.

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