I end each post that I write here at Peace with Endo with a review of “the positive side” of the situation or topic at hand. Primarily because I feel like a positive outlook has helped on my healing journey.
But lately I’ve recognized that there are limitations to this. There is more involved than just positive thinking. There is a silent factor calling a lot of the shots without you even knowing: your subconscious mind.
Subconscious Developments
The topic of the subconscious mind came up in my past couple of readings: The Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton and The Uterine Health Companion by Eve Agee.
This topic came up again in a recent conversation I had with an amazing endo sister, whose focus has been on the impacts of the subconscious mind and chronic pain.
These tugging messages have prompted me to write about the subconscious today, with acknowledgement that this could be an important overlooked piece.
Neuroscience has established that the subconscious mind shapes 95% or more of our life experiences! It’s developed early on in life and continues to play a crucial role in our health and healing.
The Divisions of Consciousness
So to break it down, there are two divisions of your mind: the conscious and subconscious. While termed “divisions” these two pieces are actually interdependent.
The conscious mind represents our personal identity and creative mind. This part sees the future, reviews the past and solves problems in our head. This part of our mind holds our desires and aspirations. It is the part of the mind that summons up “positive thoughts”.
The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is like a hard drive filled with data that coincides with stimulus-response behaviors. These behaviors are trained and ingrained from childhood.
When it comes down to sheer neurological processing abilities, the subconscious mind is more than a million times more powerful than the conscious mind.
– Dr. Bruce Lipton
So… the subconscious mind wins out. It is instinctual. It does its job without us knowing.
The problem comes into play when the learned behaviors and beliefs that we pick up as children from our parents, peers and teachers, does not support the desires of our conscious mind.
This is the biggest obstacle to experiencing our dreams. These subconscious limitations influence our behaviors and play a big role in determining our physiology and health.
You can think positive things in your conscious mind, but if your subconscious mind disagrees then you may not be able to harness control of your body and your life. You can repeat positive affirmations over and over but if you were fed with alternate messages as a child then they may not take.
Ingrained Uterine Beliefs
In her book The Uterine Health Companion, medical anthropologist, Eve Agee, goes into detail about the history of “The Stigma of the Uterus”.
At the birth of biomedicine, the uterus came to be considered a polluting factor for women’s health. The first physicians deemed the uterus unstable, citing it as the reason behind insanity or instability in their female patients. In fact, ‘hysteria’ (derived from hyster, the Greek term for uterus) was considered a condition in which a woman’s insanity was caused by her uterus.
– Eve Agee
Growing up, I developed the same belief that the uterus was naturally problematic. I watched my mother struggle with hers. Once painful menstruation arrived, my belief that the uterus was problematic was confirmed.
This was further confirmed by doctors along the way as they explained to me that cyclical pain and suffering are an innate and unavoidable part of being a woman. PMS symptoms were written off as normal and related back to the early “hysteria” references.
When things get real painful then doctors more often then not suggest hysterectomy: just cut it out. It’s problematic. Get rid of it.
Like the rest of our society, medical researchers and physicians have been indoctrinated to see uterine problems as natural or perhaps inevitable. From this view, our current uterine health crisis simply looks the way we have all been conditioned to think women’s health is meant to be – inconvenient, painful or embarrassing. We lack the passion that would spark research and technology to bring about a cure, because of our negative perspective that we in the West have of the uterus.
– Eve Agee
When I was younger I thought the same way. I can’t wait to get rid of my uterus. It’s a problem. Cut it out!
Menstruation: Celebration or Shame?
The cultures that celebrate a woman’s first period and treat the uterus with respect and acknowledgement that this organ is truly powerful, have less uterine problems… less cases of endometriosis.
I thought this was quite interesting. As I look back to my early years of menstruation I remember those feelings of shame. For years I asked my mother to buy my menstrual pads for me because I was just so embarrassed! I didn’t want anyone to know that I was on my period.
I snuck my menstrual pads into the bathroom stalls and was so careful to quietly unwrap the wrapper. Heaven forbid someone knew I was on my period!
With my growing knowledge of the power of subconscious mind, I started to wonder how these stigmas and subconscious societal beliefs have shaped the way I’ve related to my uterus and menstruation.
I asked the question on Peace with Endo’s Facebook page last week: “Do you remember when you first started your period? Was it celebrated? Or did you feel a bit of shame?”
I was not surprised to see that many endo sisters felt shame… and pain.
On the Positive Side?
The good news is there are ways to alter the subconscious mind. The first big step is with awareness of the impacts of the subconscious mind and its silent motives affecting our behaviors that were ingrained from an early age.
The conscious mind has the power to change the response, if we are paying attention. Thus, we are not victims of our early programming.
One thing Dr. Lipton recommends is hypnosis. There are self-hypnosis apps/CDs for chronic pain that you can download and listen to while you sleep. Another thing he brings up is the power of habit. When we repeat behaviors or ideas over and over then eventually it becomes “programmed”.
I find the workings of the mind to be so fascinating. If you do too, then I suggest checking out Dr. Lipton’s interview where he shares ways to reprogram your subconscious mind.
Have you looked deeper into the role of your subconscious mind? I’d love to hear from you…
I love Bruce Lipton. Really interesting and thought provoking article. I’ve tried Tapping/Emotional Freedom Technique/EFT a few times with limited results. I did a hypnotherapy session last week but didn’t get much out of it. Must check out the CDs. For the past 3 weeks I’ve been doing daily affirmations and it’s had a really positive effect on my mood and outlook.
When I was growing up I picked up on the notion that pregnancy was difficult and virtually an illness. Your baby bump was something to be covered up and hidden as much as possible and life as you knew it would stop. Is it any surprise that I never had children?
When my Mum and my sister both heard of my endo issues they immediately told me to have a hysterectomy. It felt so wrong and I now know this is not an appropriate solution. I’ve found a surgeon who will preserve my uterus and ovaries. My previous surgeon also recommended a hysterectomy on the basis I was not going to have children so why on earth would I need it? People only focus on the functional aspect of the uterus but to me it represents a creative force and should only be removed if absolutely necessary.
I feel that one way of resetting our subconscious mind with regard to the uterus is to become more creative: draw, paint, write, make clothes, cook etc. You have touched on this before. I am a very creative person (I think we all are) but let this aspect of myself diminish. I think this is part of the reason I became ill. I went against myself so to speak.
Hi Claire – Funny you brought up the pregnancy thing because I’ve thought about my influences on this as well. I grew up in a religious family environment where it was a sin to have sex before marriage. Well, I did it anyway 🙂 But I was scared that I would get pregnant out of wed lock. I think I carried that subconscious fear of getting pregnant and now that I want it to happen I struggle to get pregnant!
In the book, Eve writes about the importance of the uterus for many things including its role in regulating blood pressure. It is the main organ in your pelvic core and helps keep your bladder and bowel in position. Without that structural support bowel and urinary functions become an issue. I feel so saddened that the doctors move to just cut it out! Then ladies continue to have issues.
I very much agree with the creative aspects 🙂
Also found this article on introvert/extrovert and neuroplasticity http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/05/27/introverts-extroverts-have-different-brains-which-one-are-you/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Collective-evolution+%28Collective+Evolution%29
Interesting. I’m an introvert through and through 🙂
Fascinating article Aubree! This makes total sense! Oddly enough, when I started menstruating it was met with celebratory congratulations by both my parents. Not in a creepy way. My mom was a labor and delivery nurse so womanhood was valued and a beautiful thing in my upbringing but for sure there were other stigmas that came from others around me especially my peers and doctors. I think this topic of the subconscious mind is fascinating and I’ve often felt defeated in my positive thing by emotions of fear and failure.
Hi Jenny – That’s great that it was celebrated! Hopefully that has had a positive subconscious impact 🙂
I can definitely relate to feelings of being defeated and related emotions of fear and failure. Another great read that opened my eyes to these patterns is the book “The Big Leap,” by Gay Hendricks. He writes about the “upper limit” problem, which are patterns that are picked up from childhood conditioning.
Hi Aubree what a wonderful article and one that is dear to my heart. I shall certainly be ordering the book about Uterine Health; sounds very interesting. My first monthly cycle was horrendous; on a Greek Island with nothing but a hole in the ground to go to the loo and being made to feel shameful after strapping what felt like a big nappy on beneath a white pair of trousers! I was mortified… I think what I have learned in my healing journey is we are more that what goes on in our front chirpy chimpy minds. I used to ‘live’ only in my head and looking back it was no surprise my body went on strike and literally said ‘NO’. Our subconscious mind is like the deep dark expansive area of an iceberg under the water and to be able to hear it, above the conscious mind, I find I need to remember to be a human ‘being’ not a human ‘doing’. Creativity is one way, listening to classical music, mindful meditations are wonderful (if not a bit uncomfortable at first) and hand writing 3 pages of a journal every day. A pivotal life changing book for me was The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. Opened me up to the more vulnerable, delicate and creative parts. Wonderful article xx
Thank you Wendy! Our conversation is what got me thinking about the role of the subconscious. Love the human ‘being’ not ‘doing’ reference. And LOVE Julia Cameron’s book. Morning pages are a great way to tap into the messages of the subconscious mind and dig deeper into our true selves.
I believe in the connection between creativity and spirituality. Liz Gilbert did a great TED talk about her take on it: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius?language=en