As I flipped through the teley last night I fell upon one of my favourite scenes from one of my even more favourite movies, Mary Poppins. (go back and re-read that with a British accent, just for fun)
I love the astonishment on Jane and Michael’s faces as they watch their mysterious new nanny reveal what’s in her carpet bag. A coat tree? A mirror? A lamp? Shoes? I may occasionally have a pair of shoes in my bag, but never a potted plant.
This sweet little scene made me realize that Ms. Poppins’ unassuming carpet bag is a lot like my brain.
The mind is a tricky little bugger, especially when it’s filled with outdated or misguided thoughts. Most days my mind parades around town looking as functional and organized as Mary’s bag, but when I take time to reach deep into my subconscious there’s some surprising shit sitting around. How did a floor lamp get in there?
Recently I was frustrated with some of the relationships in my life. Nobody around me seemed interested in the type of deep conversation I craved. Lucky for me I knew this wasn’t coincidence. I was attracting the situation with my subconscious energy. At some point earlier in my life, being around people who weren’t interested in deep conversation served me. It served me quite well. But as life went on my circumstances changed, and so did my needs, wants and desires.
We all know our computers can’t operate on outdated software and neither can your mind.
12% of the activity in our mind is conscious. 88% of the activity is subconscious. Thats the stuff in our mind we don’t even know we think because we’ve thought it for so long.
The subconscious mind controls feelings, emotions, beliefs, creativity, habits, values...pretty much every main ingredient one needs to cook up a full rich life.
Planning, analyzing, and thinking about things is certainly helpful. So is short term memory and will power. But to ask 12% of our mind to lead 100% of our life is seriously off balance.
You can’t think yourself out of a box. Sooner or later you need to look at why you got in the box to begin with.
It struck me how on the surface this looks like an unassuming cute little story about a nanny touching the lives of two young children. Which is great in and of itself. But oh cheerio there’s many layers to that lovely lady and the lessons she imparts on her favorite small people. As with most things in life, when you dig a little deeper the value becomes even more rich.