Why Do We Live So Unconsciously?

When we were very young, our need for survival, acceptance, and love caused us to ignore many of our needs and to replace our own inner guiding intelligence with the rules and requirements of others (for example, our parents). Some of this was useful and, perhaps, even a necessary part of our learning how to be in the world.

However, having learned to repress our own inner voice as a child, we now find ourselves cut off from the awareness of our deeper needs, inner resources, and intuitive guidance.

As a young child, we became even more unconscious when we attempted to protect ourselves from experiences that were beyond our capacity to fully feel, process, or integrate (for example, a frightening event or an angry parent). We emotionally and psychologically distanced ourselves from the situation by shifting the way we perceived it or repressing the situation and our reactions altogether.

In this way, we learned to move into an unconscious state that took the threatening experience out of our conscious awareness.

This was a trance state that helped us become less conscious of the situation and buffered us from the discomfort and from our own frightening and uncomfortable emotions. As we grew, we learned to react in this way to other uncomfortable experiences and gradually became less and less conscious. The storage of repressed thoughts and emotions eventually grew and became the source of much of our anxiety, depressed feelings, and addictions.

In addition, when we reduce our awareness of threatening or uncomfortable situations we also become less conscious of the very inner resources and guidance that can help us experience these challenges successfully.

Therefore, by continuing to act and react to life in unconscious ways we create and sustain problematic patterns of behavior, unwanted habits, and limiting beliefs and we blind ourselves to our own inner strengths and resources.

Becoming conscious is a powerful and first step toward healing and releasing unmet negative emotions, thoughts, and physical stress.