There is so much going on around us, each second of every day we are processing the information surrounding us; reacting to these events and making decisions, observing people, our environment and nature without, sometimes, even being wholly aware that we are.
Even when we are asleep, our subconscious mind is busy processing the days events and creating dreams for us to escape into. I began to wonder how do we process all the information that we are presented with? Where exactly do the ideas for stories that seemingly appear come from?
These thoughts and more, have been with me this past week; when a friend shared with me, her thoughts on the power of the human mind and I wanted to find out more:
Research has found that we are assaulted “with over 2 million bits of data every second,” but only 7 chunks of information are processed.
30 Mysterious Facts About the Subconscious Mind
If we are consciously and subconsciously absorbing so much information – Where do these thoughts go? Brian Tracy compares the mind to a “huge memory bank… it permanently stores everything that ever happens to you.”
Of all that date we receive: “we only use 5% of the brain’s capacity for memory, which means the subconscious mind controls the remaining 95%”
30 Mysterious Facts About the Subconscious Mind
What happens to that data we store in the subconscious?
According to the article 30 Mysterious Facts About the Subconcious Mind these pieces of data are “then communicated … through images, feelings, sensations, dreams and reflexes.” Immpling that the subconscious is where your emotions responses and creative mind resides.
Therefore, when we write creatively, we have direct access to our subconscious, because we are tuning into our emotions and our creative mind which pulls out all these images, dreams, feelings etc and makes the magic happens.
But how do those ideas and thoughts appear? How exactly do they manifest? Is it a different process for an author who writes verses an artist who draws? Apparently not, it is an individual method to something we all have access to if we switch off and let our minds roam; like in those moments before sleep, in the shower, watching TV – it just manifests itself in different ways.
How the subconscious mind shapescreative writing – Charlotte Seager
“Sometimes when you’re mining for ideas you realise you’ve been thinking about a particular story for a while. And then you start writing sections that you’re not sure why are in the text – but later on in the writing the subplot reveals itself.” John Boyne, author.
John seems to imply that you should let your subconscious mind take the lead in the beginning, then let your conscious takes over later.
But why do certain ideas come out of the subconscious rather than others?
Even now as I type this blog post, my subconscious mind is at work far faster than my conscious mind can keep up, typing out words before they have even left my mind, running ahead with ideas, ready with the next sentence, before I have even put my thoughts into any order or structure. But I know, if I lose the flow of what I am writing, perhaps stumble over words or something interrupts me, I must focus hard, to pick up the stands that earlier were spilling from my mind.
I like those moments, I get a feeling inside me that is hard to explain, it’s like a rush, a high. I know that what I am writing is inspired, it is from something far bigger than me, but still me. At those moments I decide to release control and try not to focus or think too hard about what I am writing. I let the subconscious mind roll with it.
Conscious vs. Subconscious Creativity: Which Is More Important to an Author? K.M. Weiland
“Most artist would be the first to admit that their genius is beyond even them. It comes from someplace outside the conscious realm… it comes from where we dream.” Author, K.M. Weiland.
Even this blog post is shaped by the subconscious; from the articles I have read, from conversations with friends, from podcasts I have listened to, my past, experiences and conditioning that have shaped my thoughts and opinions. It is all pulled together in a beautiful tapestry of words. I wonder if this ‘writing’ has always been there inside me or did it grow and if so from what? If our subconscious mind stores all that amount of information, how did it hand pick these thoughts? Where did these words come from, when I had no real cohesion of this blog post until I started?
Conscious vs. Subconscious Creativity: Which Is More Important to an Author K.M Weiland
Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize- winning author, states: “Art does not come from ideas. Art does not come from the mind. Art comes from the place where you dream. Art comes from your unconscious; it comes from the white-hot center of you.”
hMy advice: Just let the words flow and try not to take too much control. Don’t think too much, just do. Let the subconscious mind roll with your thoughts and see where they take you!