DO YOU DRIVE WITH YOUR HANDS?

Most of you know that we have two distinct areas of our mind. Both the conscious and subconscious mind. The conscious mind is the one that we believe we use most often. It is the part of our mind that decides whether we should flip off the driver that just cut us off in traffic or treat him with compassion and imagine he only did so because he really has to poop. It is the one that picks the restaurant we go for dinner or what groceries we are going to pick up to make dinner. Here is the truth that may be shocking to some, the subconscious mind, the one we are not aware of, represents around 90% of our brains function.

“How can that be?” you may wonder. It would seem every time you seem to be using your brain, you seem to be consciously doing so, are you not? The answer, in short, is ‘no’. Your subconscious mind does some pretty amazing things such as keeping you breathing, your heart breathing, regulating body temperature through different means as well as digesting your last meal, and letting you know when it is time to get rid of that meal. It is far more than just these ‘behind the scenes’ functions that this portion of our brain controls. Has this ever happened to you? You are driving to work and a song you like comes on the radio. Lost in all of the memories and emotions that song brings back you suddenly find yourself over halfway to your journey. Let me ask the question, who was driving while you were reliving your senior prom? Your subconscious mind took over. Let us look at driving itself. Do you remember when you first learned to drive? There were a million things to remember. Check the mirror, which pedal does what. Remembering to use your turn signal. (a personal pet peeve of mine) It seemed there was a million things to do and remember. Your mind was on high alert. Fast forward to now. You hold your coffee with one hand, while holding your breakfast sandwich in the other watching the dog sticking its head out the window in the car next to you as you steer with your knees. Now driving has just become…well…driving. The only time this changes is when you have to turn down the music as you look to find an address. Something I still don’t understand. How does sound affect vision? I digress.