the sub conscious is a terrible place. we have a terrible understanding of the conscious part of ourselves, sub conscious is a whole different league. it has in it deeply seated thoroughly processed ideas, highly opinionated answers which, on the face of it, a person would deny any bias whatsoever.
the outcome or behavior of the sub conscious ,when manifested, can be termed as highly irrational, mainly because it contradicts the rational lie that the conscious self is purporting. we all have a mad man inside of us. a state when he is sedated and when he is active. more specifically we function in 2 states:
1. an irrational state - here the mind primarily becomes reptilian and seeks out to protect itself through whatever means necessary.
2. not so irrational but not completely rational state - no man can be completely rational. there are a few strands of irrationality found.
state #2 is where the person usually stays when he is not in stress. when a man is left to fend for himself is when he is more often in state #1 than in state #2.
we are in stress as a result of fear. fear is one strong emotion that evokes the darkest of behavior in us. and in hindsight one often wonders about the course of actions that he had undertaken. what had seemingly made sense then,now in hindsight, makes him question his decisions.
today, we live in a world with high stress levels. and people constantly try to address this issue through a variety of means. not being aware of any and also of their efficacy, i think the solution resides in addressing something more innate. one of the primary feeling / emotion / idea that needs bolstering up is confidence.
for any situation resulting in stress, we can perform a simple cost benefit analysis. check if there can be anything that can be done about it. if not, then accept it and move ahead and work on the losses. it ,however, is not an easy thing to do. the hardest part is the first sentence. followed by the third part. and i say this because they address the emotional part of the brain - which is prone to irrationality.
in the first point, i suggest performing a cost benefit analysis. a cost benefit analysis can be performed 1. subjectively and 2. objectively. objectively is more difficult and not possible every time but with training we can get better if not by a good margin. similarly in the third point consoling ourselves / the conscious self is more like suppressing the sub conscious ( which is stronger as we are in stress).
this makes me wonder though if we were like spock ( the star trek character who is completely rational), we would be stress free and not have a sub conscious at all, atleast have it on mute. what would it be like to be completely rational? one thing for sure is that it would be less fun.
that said, i am not sure if i would want to know the make up of my sub conscious. i think it is too scary for me to come to terms with.
notes:
i mainly speak about sub conscious promoting dark thoughts which certainly is not the case. the sub conscious is responsible for all emotions that are primitive. i just chose to highlight the ones relevant to the topic.