The concept of living an unconscious life seems preposterous… unless you’re in a coma. Yet, it comes up all the time. Most recently, for me, it was in Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth. The thing is, we talk about it with phrases like this: “Am I aware not only of what is happening at the moment, but also of the Now itself as the living timeless inner space in which everything happens?” I hope that at some point in my life, I feel that statement resonate in my soul. Today is not that day.
Here’s the thing. I believe Tolle’s quote to be true, even if it doesn’t fully resonate with me. It wasn’t until James Clear brought a little bit of science to his book Atomic Habits, that I could connect the dots. He quotes researchers who estimate that 40-50 percent of our day is spent doing unconscious habits. Our unconscious brain is making all sorts of decisions for us. We are literally living our lives in an unconscious state. Making coffee; browsing the web, shutting the browser down, immediately opening the browser back up and browsing the web again; walking outside to smoke a cigarette; watching TV; looking up the game scores for the nth time; checking the news; falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole when you decide to research Cyndi Lauper after Spotify plays Time After Time in your morning mix.
Unfortunately, just like those fancy Teslas, this kind of autonomous driving can kill you!
Why does this happen?
Clear (and Charles Duhigg before him) point out that many of these habits are unconscious fixes to get around some angsty feeling that we’re having. Maybe it is the uncomfortable void of not knowing how to approach a problem at work or home, some threat to your ego, who knows, it probably isn’t even conscious. The result is a pattern somewhat unique to you, but probably goes something like: 1. Feel uncomfortable 2. Load Instagram or a browser, 3. Scroll through your feed, 4. Be completely checked out. End result is for a time you temporarily feel better and your subconscious takes note. Next time you feel a little angsty, your subconscious makes the choice for you, has you load that browser, and enforces it with a little shot of dopamine. No joke! Our minds are literally drugging us!
Here’s the problem: our subconscious can be stupid. It can’t handle today’s world – where so much of our environment is programmed to hit those dopamine pumps head on. In a There I Fixed It sort of way, our brains just go to whatever fix is the easiest and worked last time. Got stressed at work and spent the next 20 minutes on the Facebook? Good news! Your subconscious now has a solution. It will go there next time without you needing to think about it. It may not be a great long-term solution, but your brain doesn’t care – it knows of a quick fix and it’s going to use it.
Embrace the living timeless inner space in which everything happens
So, like Tolle says, it’s time to embrace the present, the Now, this moment and become conscious. Take over those unconscious habits. It takes effort and deliberate attention to be conscious. In fact, Clear and Duhigg’s books both have all sorts of awesome hacks and approaches to use your subconscious brain for fun and profit.
Hey John, remember this:
If you stop paying attention, your brain takes over. We all know your brain can’t be trusted! So, get enough sleep and design your life to make it easier (more on that in the next post).
PS – Did you know that Cyndi Lauper is only an Oscar win away from the coveted EGOT – which is a phrase apparently first made famous by Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame – who hasn’t ever won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar or Tony – and who apparently wrote the theme song for the city of Miami – with lyrics such as “come taste this wet wonderland.” We live in a strange and very distracting world.
Photos by David Matos and the late, great cinematographer, Haskell Wexler.