I don’t claim to be an expert on psychology or NLP. I can however provide insights into using the subconscious based on my own experience which should be of assistance to those who are a little sceptical of such things.

Firstly we must acknowledge the existence of the part of our mind which lurks in the background. It is the part of our mind which takes a high level command such as ‘walk over there’ and co-ordinates the complex actions of individual muscles to allow us to perform the task. It is also the part of our mind which records all sensory inputs passes a tiny subset up to our consciousness and interprets the majority as a ‘gut feeling’ or hunch.

In the end, our conscious mind only receives a tiny subset of our sensory input and summarises it for us. It allows us to make logical associations between different objects, describe things in words and thoughts, and highlight the major points of interest in our surroundings. Imagine if we were to consciously process every single input we see or feel! Our mind would be totally overloaded and we would be afflicted with a severe case of ADD. Despite only seeing a small portion of the entire picture, our consciousness is the part of our mind which makes the most sense to us and that which we generally trust.

As with all things, our conscious mind doesn’t always work in our favour. It makes decisions based on this somewhat tunnelled view and will often kick in to try and ‘protect’ us. When I say ‘protect’, I mean save us from failure, injury, embarrassment etc. It often takes a pretty conservative view of our abilities and throws strange feelings and thoughts in our way to keep us from even trying something which could end up a sticky situation. Irrational fears, feelings of apathy and boredom and even in some cases pain are all a part of our mind’s arsenal in keeping us safe.

The first step in tapping into our subconscious is to remove these shackles our mind tries to place on us. For me, meditation is the most effective path however switching off the mind can also be rationalised. Realise that all emotions and feelings are just chemicals and signals in our body no matter how ‘real’ they may feel. Dismiss the crazy thoughts and fears which pop-up as they are often based on things which have not yet happened. Also research some of the scientifically proven phenomenon the mind plays on us… it really is quite fascinating. Keep at it and your conscious mind will suddenly give-up once it realises that you just aren’t going to listen to it. It will astonish you how a pain may suddenly vanish or thoughts just dissolve!

Trusting the subconscious can be confusing and scary, as the answers seem to come from nowhere and with no apparent rational foundations behind them. You may even have trouble identifying these answers at first, so it’s best to start with something simple such as a game of snooker, darts or bowling. Allow your gut-instinct guide you from somewhere at the back of your mind, while disregarding the rational thoughts which begin to arise from dwelling on task at hand. Through repeated trial and error, you will have most success when you simply calm yourself and then act on your first impulse. In fact, the longer you dwell on aiming the more your conscious mind will hijack your arm and throw your aim off.

You may have already experienced this phenomenon with ‘beginners’ luck where you consciously don’t know enough to get in the way of your subconscious. As you gain in skill your abilities drop off, until you once again can master the mind and tap into your subconscious. Continued practice will lead you eventually to the magical place of action with no-mind, where it feels as though God is working through you.