The “mind,” what exactly is the mind?

Excerpt from UNLEARNING ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

Most would probably consider it to be an independent, standalone kind of ethereal… “thing.” What say you? Perhaps trying to pin down a static definition of the mind should be left to the philosophers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t throw our psychological two cents into the debate. Think of a stream with tributaries flowing into it creating a larger stream. From a Self-Coaching perspective, I like to think of the mind as consisting three main “tributaries” all merging into one stream that we can collectively refer to as the mind. And like a stream, the mind isn’t a static entity; it’s an ever flowing, ever changing, dynamic, unfolding process consisting of:

●Consciousness: that which we are aware of or can become aware of
● Unconsciousness: that which we can access only indirectly through dreams, reveries, and other spontaneous influences
● Reflexive habit-loops, which are stimulus-response driven thoughts and perceptions that can occur without any conscious or unconscious deliberation.

Depending on your life circumstances, each of these aspects of the mind can influence your behavior and emotions. Typically, when it comes to anxiety or depression, it’s the reflexive habit-loops in conjunction with unconscious, past associations that will dominate the picture while consciousness may impotently try to resist—I call this ‘passive-mind.’

#anxiety #depression #unlearninganxietydepression