How to Use Your UNCONSCIOUS Mind | Being Well Podcast
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- Most of what's occurring in the mind lies outside our awareness. In this episode, Dr. @RickHanson and I explore the unconscious mind and the material we might find there. We talk about what the unconscious mind is, the purpose of the unconscious, repression, and what we can do to access, use, and release that unconscious material.
Key Topics:
0:00 Introduction
2:20 What is the mind? What is the unconscious mind?
5:30 Why material gets moved to our unconscious mind
8:45 Freud, Jung, and repression
14:25 Looking at repression through a developmental model
18:55 Bias, relational ‘scripts’, and what we can do about unconscious patterning
22:10 Interpreting dreams and the limits of science
27:45 Examples of repressed material and how to uncover it
29:55 Rick’s first love story
34:15 Emotional release work you can do without a therapist
38:10 Distress tolerance
42:25 The body-based, non-cognitive nature of unconscious material
44:30 Sentence completions, automatic writing, and sand trays
47:20 Building self-worth, and creating a safe container
55:25 Teaching what you need to learn, and the importance of support
58:45 Including what’s left out
1:01:10 Recap
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Who Am I: I'm Forrest, the co-author of Resilient (amzn.to/3iXLerD) and host of the Being Well Podcast (apple.co/38ufGG0). I'm making videos focused on simplifying psychology, mental health, and personal growth.
You can follow me here:
🎤 apple.co/38ufGG0
🌍 www.forresthanson.com
📸 / f.hanson
I do not believe we can listen so comfortably to many deep topics without a thorough understanding of sensitivity, both inside and towards others. Thank you Forrest for taking advantage of this wondrous strength in addition to being able to so well communicate.
I opened up my shadow material around 21 months ago starting with my birth. I've processed and integrated emotional and physical energy related to big Ts first. Then I moved out a lot of anger in my feet. This was all in the subconscious until it was unlocked. The thing was that I had narratives about my experiences but the totality of the feeling was locked away for over 40 years because it was to painful to face. After my feet and legs emptied out of trauma energy I purged emotional energy from my chest, lower body, hips, back, shoulders, neck and head. I'm now working on my arms and hands. Each area has been a chronological letting go of strong emotions trapped in the cells. There has been different focuses in different parts. There was an emphasis on heartbreak in my chest. My chest was full of grief based on what happened to me. My hips and pelvis were full of grief about the attunement I didn't get as a child. My back was full of freeze mode energy and hypervigulance. My shoulders, neck and head contained grief around unrequited love and emotions around covid. The head was fascinating because it was associated with emotional pain I talked myself out of. Like an understanding that someone couldn't love me because I wasn't compatible with them essentially. What I have found when I've moved out this debris is that I think less. There's more of a resting of my mind. I also have a far deeper connection to others. I don't have to control things for better outcomes. I noticed that a lot of my personality was essentially a trauma response. I was a buddhist before I started somatic processing therapy. I'd been one for 20 years. Buddhism was both a help and a hindrance. The practices shifted my mind and moved things into the shadow because it acted like a form of control so I didn't have to face things. At the same time it did teach me compassion and presence which helped me move through the most intense feeling energy when it came up. The shadow was really dark when it came up. Darker than I ever imagined. I was conditioned by optimistic parents so that added to it being dark in there. I can say that having moved out this debris I no longer see the bright only. I can see that all things hold both the light and the dark. There's no words for this understanding though. It's a felt perception. Now I feel everything new. I cry easily and it's done quickly. It's quite like a child. I actually think children are hazed out of feeling by the culture but really they have great attunement before that happens. I'm an early childhood educator and it has been my mission to make sure that children retain their power of feeling. With my own work I now understand deeply, how important it is.
I wanted to add that I know my dreams are now processing emotional material that I couldn't integrate during the day. It's fascinating and I'm grateful my body is doing this work for me.
Kristen, what an amazing honest wonderful told story, thank you for sharing! I am in the Somatic field; I grew up with 'free' spiritual practices (did not need a master) and it is very interesting to hear how I also see that spiritual work by only quieting the mind practices can hold back to process. Although there are differences and fine lines, too much to go in here. But the mainstream is not deep enough. I became much more shamanic leaning (as they ARE active working with inner Self) and my education via Chinese Medicine were the Body shows the 5 Element emotions out of harmony and this is addressed. You did a hell of a great journey🧚
This was fascinating to read. I wish this kind of emotional processing was part of every school curriculum. Your students are so lucky to have you. There’s so much that kids could be learning in terms of useful life skills (in a broad range of categories and age ranges). Your experience and results sound so absolutely authentic. And you’re speaking my language: the shadow, integration, the subconscious, the cell storage of emotions, attunement, freeze mode, etc.
How did you find a good somatic trauma therapist? How did it actually feel to release emotional energy from specific parts of your body? And how do you connect what specific pain was from which part of your body?
I’ve come a long way in my healing (C-PTSD from chronic childhood stress), but I’d love to do an actual process of somatic release like you did. I do a daily stretching practice which has helped, especially by opening up my hips and hip flexors; as well as breath work and dietary changes (giving up sugar, eg). I feel I need to delve into the somatic process more deeply. I have done tons of work with words over the years - talking, listening, reading, journalling; but there comes a point where you realize words are not enough; they’ve helped me cultivate self-compassion and presence, and put me on the cusp of re-regulating my nervous system, but I intuitively feel my body begging for the somatic healing experience.
If not too personal, was and is your physical health good? In other words, did any of those trauma issues manifest into physical illness before or even during the release process? And did you notice other changes, like better creativity, overcoming procrastination, etc? Thank you so much.
Hi Kristen! This such a fascinating experience worded so beautifully! Thank you for sharing ❤ I wish I could find SE that can release all the painful recorded info in my body and heart.
@@kathyannk my shadow came up because I was triggered under covid. I started seeing an AEDP therapist immediately. I processed a lot of emotional debris with her that were attached to the trauma narratives I remembered. I did that for 8 months and then my body opened itself up. My central nervous system started doing its own work of healing. Each part of my body gave up old emotional energy as a sort of central nervous system reset. In this process I have completed the cycles of all the emotions that I repressed. It was a lot.
I had a very difficult birth and acquired a habit of disassociating from then. I honestly didn't know that I had this until my material opened up. Later I experienced a 4 hospitalizations as a child up to 18. These further added to my trauma. At 18 I was diagnosed with Addisons Disease because my adrenal glands stopped functioning. I am sure this happened due to the stress on my body from my early trauma. My disease is managed well by medication but I knew that I'd I didn't engage in healing work and recalibrate my central nervous system then I would get sicker as I age. Intuitively I understand this.
Thank you, gentle informed souls. You have a beautiful way of presenting this material. Your voices hum with peace and health.
Just to snag a really great line, said by Rick quoting his therapist
"When the unconsciousness starts to detect that someone is listening, it starts communicating. Including through dreams."
Love it.
And from Forrest, which is similar but different at the same time:
"When your thinking brain gets quiet, something tries to fill in."
This is the first time I checked to see if you have video pods, and you guys look exactly as I pictured.
You guys have said a looooooot of valuable stuff over the years, but this episode might be the one. And with that, I’m headed to Patreon.
Thank you man! Means a lot from you.
And the notes for this one will be up a little later this week 😅, they've been a bear to write.
This is beside the point but I love when Rick affirms Forest. Just hearing it heals something in me. I grew up with mostly criticism and it’s so beautiful to see a loving affirming parent/child relationship.
It's such a great conversation! I think it's one of my favourites of the entire podcast, I like how the conversation covered different aspects in such a unique way, I had to pause several times to observe some points and connect with my knowledge.
Also, I would like it if you recommend books to dig deeper it would be so appreciated
Thank you one more time
If you want to go all the way back in the Western Psych library, I'd recommend Freud's "On the Interpretation of Dreams" and Jung's "On the Nature of the Psyche." They're both pretty technical and very of that era, but I found Jung's writing manageable.
You guys seem to have a genuinely, beautiful, healthy, relationship. It's cool to watch.
Drawing/ writing w/ one's nondominant hand, doing "automatic writing" (called "loop writing" by my fav high school English teacher;-) and completing sentence stems with the first thing that pops into your head: these weren't in the summary but were mentioned in the video as ways to tap into the subconscious too. Thanks for the video!
Rick's book is on my bedside table right now where it has lived for years so I can refer to it repeatedly! I am completely enamored with your podcast because it blends my love of inner work and psychology with my theravada mindfulness practice. A perfect combination! This episode was so delightful, maybe because as an artist I've been delving into art as therapy, automatic writing, tarot and dream work right alongside my meditation practice. As a result, I've come to see the truth in the wisdom from my unconscious mind: life happens FOR me, not TO me.
HI, thank you for the great content♥ . I was looking for this exact knowledge. I am so happy that among vast materials on how to control or program your own subconsciousness I picked up this video where two amazing people talk about how to actually listen to this hidden part of ourself.
Minute 28!!! We cut the leaf with avoidance behaviors I think. Or those who lash out at others cut the leaf with attempts to control others from anything they do that acknowledges or points at THEIR OWN leaf.
lots of useful information, thank you for sharing. What would be crucially important to hear as well is how belief in unconscious mind can be used against the believer, like taking sense of agency away from the person, projecting some ideas on them, etc. I think this happens a lot in our lives, but not many people are willing to talk about it. 😮
I am deeply grateful for this content. Thank you! @Forest ditto to tarot cards! 😉🤩🙏
Found your podcast just last month, and have been binging it ever since!
You two, (along with Elizabeth and your other guest experts) are SUCH gentle loving guides to have alongside, when navigating some of the 'rough stuff' that comes up as we listeners/viewers work through our healing process.
For that, I sincerely thank you. ❤
I relate so much to your lightheartedness, open-heartedness, and the times you each 'geek out' as well, lol. Your humanity and humility are so refreshing in this sphere.
Back on topic; I'm curious as to why hypnotherapy wasn't mentioned in this exploration of the unconscious mind. I really know little about it, but seem to recall that it has been used (supposedly) with some success to help truama survivors recall their traumatic/repressed memories. Just wondering if in actual practice, that research has offered little promise?
One thing I struggle to come to terms with is where mind resides.
Most folks of science and now in other realms have landed on mind being a result of the brains workings. Mind is a culmination of processes, as you said here in the beginning.
But if mind is a product of the brain's activity, when that organ is acutely damaged, how is it that mind can continue?
We have evidence of this repeatedly with people showing no signs of brain activity and yet eventually we find they have continued to experience.
Maybe we still need more time to fill the gaps and assumptions?
Thank you so much for this great information and your honesty and helpful practical examples!!!
I recently found your channel and must say that I find this episode really interesting! I would love to hear much more about the same subjects. I also wish to hear more about those psycadelics; from your fathers perspective. I'm really curious because some are used by shamans. I also saw research where they found some helpful for post traumatic stress disorder. I would love to hear what he has to say about it, and his experiences. Did it change his perception of life and the world? Did he feel anything spiritual, or what happened? Did it change his perspective of the world, and did he get any insights? Did he feel like it made some kind of impact of his life?
Thank you!
This is very interesting and stirring
I love the avatar movies!
56:35
The subconscious mind operates below the level of conscious awareness. - AnimEthics