As mentioned previously, the unconscious mind is the part that monitors and controls every aspect of you. Your thoughts, your beliefs, your actions, all the functions of your body and even what you perceive and how you perceive what happens in the world outside of you.

Under normal awake consciousness, there is a function of the mind known as the ‘critical factor’ which acts as a gatekeeper to all the information the brain receives. It works to protect us from outside influence and information that it deems unnecessary. However, in deeply relaxed states such as those achieved in Theta brainwaves, through practices like meditation and hypnosis, this gatekeeper can be shut down, allowing direct access to the unconscious mind.

This is great for creating change work within the mind for personal development. Either through your own work with yourself in meditation or by a hypnotherapist in deep hypnosis, you can change your unconscious mind by giving it suggestions in the form of commands. With the gatekeeper down, the mind can easily adopt these suggestions as a new way of thinking or being.

Not all suggestions are good suggestions, however. It is important to always give suggestions in the positive for what you do want rather than what you don’t want. For instance, if you were wanting suggestions on losing weight, stating “I don’t want to be fat” would actually have a negative response as the unconscious mind does not process negatives like ‘don’t’. A much better way to give yourself this suggestion would be to state “I’m getting thinner every day”. Notice how it’s positive and focused towards what you want rather than back towards what you don’t want.

This may seem a little deep and off the topic of relaxation meditation but It’s important for me to state this. When the gatekeeper is down, the unconscious mind can also take on negative suggestions just as easily as the positive ones. With this in mind, I always recommend, if you are going to follow guided meditations of any sort, always listen to them while fully awake first. That way you will be able to discern if they are going to have a positive or negative effect on you.

It is my hope that all the guided meditations out there are made for positive results. However, I am also aware that the internet and the world at large has some dark people in it with nefarious intentions. A simple check before committing will keep you safe.

Not only that, because anyone with a computer or smartphone can record a guided meditation, they may very well have the best of intentions at heart but lack the knowledge and understanding of how the unconscious mind really works. Even with the best of intentions, they may inadvertently be feeding the unsuspecting unconscious mind negative suggestions.

Even a great guided meditation created by someone who knows how to do it correctly may say something that your unconscious mind interprets as a negative based on your unique life experiences.

It is always best to check first.