Pivotal Hypnotherapy Vancouver

The iceberg as a metaphor for how the human mind works

I have heard the phrase in general conversation over the years, “we really only use about 10% of our brain.” This is not actually true. If it were true, we would have evolved much smaller brains because we weren’t using them fully! What is true is that we only consciously use about 10-12% of our mind. The rest of our mind is either operating at a subconscious or unconscious level. This means that even though we are not conscious of what is happening, our subconscious and unconscious mind have much more control over what actually happens within us. Just let that sink in for a second.

Getting to the iceberg metaphor, about 90% of an iceberg is under the waterline. What you see represents the conscious. The bulk of the berg is far from visible, but represents the main event. This is your subconscious mind, the part of the mind that is your “programming” and happens automatically.

Our subconscious mind operates based on the programming that has happened to us in our lives before we reach 12 years old. All the experiences, memories and thoughts and feelings we have around these events create our worldview - the filter through which we see the world for the rest of life. Depending on how our early life goes and whether our needs were met, this worldview can trigger us when similar emotions arise throughout our lives. This can create patterns that we may or may not be aware of, but can cause us to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.