The Power Of The Subconscious Mind

"...Don't joke yourself into a bad situation..."

I never actually understood this saying until I read two books﹘ "The Game of Life & How To Play It" by Florence Scovel Shinn and "Think & Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill﹘ which really crystallized its meaning and significance on me. 

As kids growing up, my grandma used to say this to myself and cousins every time we would be play-crying or pretending to be hurt﹘"...le itholela dilo tse di maswe..."﹘which can be loosely translated into "...you are wishing terrible things upon yourselves...". Of course, back then, I never got to really appreciate the depth in the meaning of her words﹘i just thought she was being a buzzkill﹘until I read those two books.

On Think & Grow Rich, Hill describes the subconscious as the connecting link between the finite mind of humans what he refers to as "infinite intelligence", the force that gives order and origin to everything in the universe. This means that the subconscious transmits whatever thoughts you let into it to the one place capable of turning those thoughts into physical world manifestations﹘infinite intelligence.

Now, this is where it gets really tricky. The subconscious mind, with all its power to transmit thoughts to the infinite intelligence, lacks direction and has no filter. Simply put, the subconscious will let in every kind of thought you throw at it, be it good or bad. If you have thoughts of hope and belief residing in your subconscious, it will pass these on to infinite intelligence where they will get manifested. If you have thoughts of fear and doubt residing in your subconscious mind, it will pass these on to infinite intelligence where they will get manifested.

Although we have no control over what thoughts cross over to infinite intelligence from our subconscious, the great news is that we do have control over what thoughts we let reside in our subconscious and this can be done through our conscious thoughts. Our conscious thoughts, mixed with emotion and feeling, are what influences and makes an impression on the subconscious mind.

This ties back to the saying of "...don't joke yourself into a bad situation..." because the mind, being a creature of habit, will transmute the bad thoughts that you let reside in your head into their physical manifestation. So when we were crying wolf as kids, we were pretty much telling our subconscious mind to pass onto infinite intelligence, painful experiences that would actually make us cry real tears, and grandma, through her own wisdom, understood that.

Nowadays, social media has made it easy for us to joke ourselves into bad situations by making it quite fashionable to do so. Every day we joke about, for example, procrastinating, not realizing that by doing so, we are manifesting even more procrastination in our lives. 

Of course, it can be argued that sometimes people are not really joking about their bad situations but simply making light of a bad situation. This is understandable but then again we should remember that, as mentioned earlier, the subconscious mind cannot differentiate between us joking about a bad situation and us actually manifesting that bad situation. It has no sense of humor, unfortunately.

If we want to manifest desirable things into our lives, it is on us to make our subconscious minds accustomed to those desirable things so it can pass them to the infinite intelligence for these to be transmuted into their physical equivalent. It is illogical and actually quite silly to harbor bad thoughts but somehow expect good things to be manifested into our lives. We can only be what we see and envision ourselves to be. If you see yourself as a procrastinator, you will manifest more procrastination in your life. If you see yourself as a success story, you will manifest success in your life.

No person gives to themselves but themselves, no person takes from themselves but themselves. As corny as it may sound, we are the architects of our own destiny through our thoughts. Think positive thoughts and feelings that will contribute towards your growth and that is exactly what will get manifested into your life.