Everyone has heard of this term, the ‘subconscious’. What do we actually mean by that? The subconscious is the part of the brain that we are not consciously aware of. When we are doing a challenging task in our daily lives, we focus our attention on it. In the background of our mind, however, many different processes are taking place. 

What is the Subcinscious?

The term ‘subconscious’ was coined in 1889 by French psychologist Pierre Janet. The term was later popularized by famous psycho-analyst Sigmund Freud. Freud was ridiculed when he first endorsed the term, but later on it was widely recognized as one of the most groundbreaking discoveries within neuroscience. 

So what does our subconscious mind do? What kind of things happen there that we are not aware of? It is estimated that the unconscious mind accounts for 95% of our brain processes. That’s a lot more than you might’ve expected. First and foremost, the subconscious collects and saves memories and data. Fun fact: a 21-year old brain has already stored more than 100 times the information present in the Encyclopedia Britannica! Another crucial part of the subconscious is to incorporate habits.

The subconscious in action

Think about the first time you drove a car. It required an enormous amount of conscious attention to drive it, yet once you have driven one for some years, you don’t even think about most of your actions during driving. This is the subconscious at work. We should be glad it exists, otherwise every time you stepped in your car you would have the same amount of difficulty as you did your first time!

When we are doing Brain Training tasks at Braingymmer.com, a similar process is taking place. The subconscious mind is learning and integrating everything you do. If you train your memory for an hour a day, slowly but surely the subconscious mind will improve its memory capacity. The great thing about it, is that you don’t even have to be aware of it! It is happening in the back of your mind, and it is having all kinds of positive effects on your brain health.  

The reason why we call this phenomenon ‘Brain Training’, is because the subconscious functions a lot like a muscle does. You can train certain parts to become stronger. If you train your memory every day, then eventually it will become easier for you to dig into your subconscious and retrieve a memory from there. It is amazing how much we can achieve if we make sure to consistently train our brain. As we get older, our brain functions start to decrease, much like the rest of our muscles do. The amazing thing, however, is that it is never too late to get yourself into shape. This is true for both your body and your brain. 

Test this theory yourself! Once a day, play one of the many memory games available at Braingymmer.com. Then, after about a month or two, compare your scores to when you started. If your score is increasing, it means your memory is getting better. It is never too late to do this, so start today and get your brain back into shape!