Unconscious Influence on Behavior
During my journey of helping others, I took a course about neuroscience and learning how the brain works, consciously and unconsciously to influence our behavior. As a therapist, a lot of the information was not exactly new, but understanding how to influence the brain through scientific and evidenced based methods added to my toolbox of interventions for myself and my clients.
In John Bargh’s book, “Before You Know It”, professor Bargh talks about decades of research on the unconscious and it’s influence on human behavior. In the lectures during my NeuroChange training, John pointed out that 80% of our behavior is unconscious, and he also talks about that in his book. In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about how things become habit through repetition, and not just any repetition, successful repetition of the newly desired skill or habit While it seems obvious, applying these things in our daily life isn’t as easy. At any given time there are multiple forces influencing our behavior - our mood, how we are feeling physically, our beliefs, habits, our environment, who we are with, what we are watching, what we have been reading/seeing or doing.
This is what we know about the unconscious - it works to save us time and energy. We automate tasks to save energy and resources for more challenging things as they present themselves. Our goals often drive our choices - sometimes without us realizing it. Our goals and values do not always align, this can cause problems in goal attainment. Hidden and unconscious beliefs often drive behavior - without us knowing it.
Here are some of the points made in the book:
Decision making often happens on an unconscious level, without much conscious thought. We often base decisions based on beliefs, past experiences or even reflective actions that are influenced by the unconscious. These decisions occur the areas of how they vote, what they buy, where they go on vacation, or how they negotiate, just to name a few.
Unconscious processes are the basis as to how we architect our lives. And they also keep us safe - these automated processes help us dodge dangers, like oncoming cars or trains.
Unconscious behaviors go well beyond safety. Embedded unconscious attitudes that exist below the surface shape our attitudes towards others. We really do respond to friendly faces, or attractive faces differently than others. Beliefs and attitudes towards “otherness” is rooted in unconscious beliefs stemming from our ancestral behaviors.
We are easily primed by our environment.
Once we are aware of how we are influenced by our environment and the unconscious, we can use it to architect our own lives and behaviors.
In my 8- week program, you will learn ways to harness the power of your unconcious mind to make changes, reach your goals and stop cycles of sabotage and procrastination.