Dionne Wong - Week 13 - Being Aware of Your Awareness
I am bound in my life by a ludicrous notion: that I remember all the important parts of it. When I reflect on parts of my identity, whether it’s for filling out applications, writing a note to myself, or crafting an I Believe poem, I am always a little impressed by how much information about myself I have subconsciously gathered and expressed in the present. In this way, I feel that each small output I have created holds a piece of me, and if you added all of them up, you would get my complete self.
However, one detail I learned in my English class last year protrudes in the back of my mind at times when I become overconfident in my self-awareness of my life; apparently, your subconscious mind can control as much as ninety-five percent of your life.
I believe there is an undeniable entanglement between memories and consciousness, as a memory doesn’t really exist until you’re conscious of a moment and think back on it. A memory that holds a lot of value to you is likely one you’ve recalled many times, like reminders you talk to yourself about. But by this logic, we forget things by the second, with every blink and intake of breath, including things that might tell us a lot more about ourselves than we think.
Deep down, I don’t really believe I remember everything I need to remember today. My vocabulary quizzes reflect this fact too heavily. And while it may be scary to realize that the majority of humans virtually don’t know what they’re doing ninety percent of the time, I also think that this fact is part of what makes living your life so fulfilling. I find it really cool that despite how powerless the statistics of science portray humanity as, we’re still able to remain alive and cognizant enough to lead ourselves to the places we belong.
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Hi Dionne! I think that you explain this idea of our subconscious mind controlling our everyday actions really well, and I feel like it explains exactly what I’ve been thinking about that I wasn’t able to put into words. While reading your blog post this week, many of your descriptions were ones that I could relate to, such as being impressed about how much I remember about myself and my life when I’m forced to think back on what I’ve done. The examples you provided for this idea make it really easy for me to visualize what you’re explaining, and I can clearly understand the way that you feel that all of these memories create your identity.
ReplyDeleteI’m also able to reflect on just how much stuff I do spontaneously in my everyday life when you later bring up how most of our actions are performed subconsciously or controlled by our subconscious mind. I think it’s so interesting to think about the fact that we’re never really aware of why we act a certain way most of the time and that there’s still much about ourselves that we don’t really know, even when we feel like we remember a lot about ourselves. I also thought that the way you described this process as what makes our lives “fulfilling” was an interesting perspective, because I feel like most people would view this fact as depressing, especially since most of us like to be fully in control of our lives. Personally, I would like to know more about the way that my subconscious mind works and the reasons behind why I act irrationally sometimes. But I’m really interested in hearing more about your perspective and I think it would be great if you could expand on this idea. Thanks for sharing Dionne!
Hi Dionne! I thought your blog about memory and the subconscious was really interesting and thought-provoking. That 95% statistic, though a bit unsettling, brings up a great point about how memories only truly exist when we consciously recall them. It is as if they are dormant until we bring them back to life. You are so right that we forget so much, even with every blink, but the way you turned it into something positive was very reassuring.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea that our outputs piece together our sense of self, like a patchwork of who we are, even if we are not fully aware of all the pieces. You made me think about the balance between what we are aware of and the vast unknown within us.