CAPTAIN OF YOUR SHIP
You, are the Captain of your ship (vessel, body, Mind). Before we look at these responsibilities, lets briefly look at the duties of an actual ship's Captain. You'll better understand the importance of your personal position physically, mentally, and spiritually, by using this analogy.
The Captain of a ship holds the ultimate authority and responsibility for the vessel and all those on board. Although crew members may have specific duties, such as navigation, maintenance or staff management, the ultimate responsibility for all activities on board begins and ends with the Captain.
Concerning navigation, the Captain is responsible for getting the ship to where it is supposed to be, and when it is supposed to be there. They study maps and charts to determine the most convenient and least dangerous route to a destination.
The ship's Captain is in charge of operating or piloting the ship. The Captain is an expert on the specific motions and speeds required to maneuver the ship safely. Once at sea, the complete responsibility for every movement that the ship makes lies with the Captain.
The Captain also inspects the ship inside and out to ensure that it's completely seaworthy and safe for passengers and crew. The Captain must be intimately familiar with all regulations and is responsible for ensuring that the ship adheres to every one of them.
"You are like a captain navigating a ship... You must give the right orders, thoughts and images to your subconscious which controls and governs all your experiences."
~Joseph Murphy
Now that we have a brief overview of the responsibilities and duties of an actual ship's Captain, its time to apply these properties to our own Self. Specifically, our Mind ... both conscious and subconscious. We have the capacity and ability to navigate our experiences through the use of our Mind ... both aspects, conscious and subconscious.
For starters, consider the functions of this one principle, yet two aspects of Mind. The objective and subjective, the dominant and subservient.
Your conscious Mind is your active Mind. You use it to judge your environment and to make choices and decisions based on these judgments. It continually identifies, compares, and analyzes all of the information you perceive so that it can make decisions about what is relevant to you.
Your subconscious mind is your passive mind. It’s always awake because it regulates all of your bodily functions, and it records and stores your every experience, even when you’re not consciously paying attention. Neuroscientists have confirmed that 95% of your brain activity takes place beyond your conscious awareness, in your subconscious Mind. Further, research reveals that your subconscious Mind makes decisions about how you choose to feel or act before your conscious mind even perceives the need to make a decision.
Your subconscious Mind is impersonal because it passively accepts your habitual conscious thoughts without question ... be they true or not. In other words, it doesn’t judge any of your conscious thoughts, in the same way that your computer doesn’t judge the documents you save onto your hard drive. All of the thoughts you think in your conscious Mind filter down into your subconscious Mind and leave an impression. The more often you think certain thoughts, the heavier the impression you leave on your subconscious Mind.
The way your conscious thoughts imprint upon and mold your subconscious Mind determines your personality traits and how you respond to your Life experiences. This is because your habitual thoughts train your subconscious Mind to create associations and shortcuts between all of the thoughts, feelings, and experiences it has stored. You’re able to perform tasks without having to apply conscious thought, such as riding a bike or getting dressed, because the impressions your habitual conscious thoughts make, condition your subconscious Mind to act automatically. It learns how to perform the task and takes control so that you can perform it automatically.
Your habitual conscious thoughts condition your subconscious Mind to identify and classify everything it perceives in a specific way. It learns your patterns and listens to you. For example: if you habitually think about how uncomfortable you feel around strangers and imprint this into your subconscious Mind, these thoughts turn into a belief. And since belief is critical, your subconscious Mind concludes that every new person threatens your sense of safety and comfort: “Strangers make me uncomfortable, this is a new person, therefore I should feel uncomfortable.”
“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
~Lao Tzu
Now, back to being the Captain of your ship. The conscious part of your Mind is the Captain. The subconscious part of the Mind is the crew. Whenever you make a conscious decision, you are commanding your crew, ordering them what to do. The crew members do not argue or reason with what you tell them; they just carry out the orders. Even if they cant see the conditions, they take you at your word. That is the beauty of the subconscious Mind, that it just follows orders and carries them out. However, it will only work if the Captain believes in what he or she is saying.
If the Captain is saying one thing and thinking another, the subconscious Mind can discern this and will get a mixed signal or a command that is ambiguous. Therefore, there will be no action until clarity is reached. Belief and feeling is what it is tuned to. Remember, the crew just follow orders, and if they have an indecisive leader, they will give indecisive results and the ship will get stuck.
Anywhere you are, you will be the one who is in control the destiny of the ship. If you think positive thoughts, your subconscious Mind will start to give you positive results. If you think negative thoughts, your subconscious Mind will start to give you negative results. If you don’t think at all, then your subconscious Mind will start to generate random thoughts which will lead you to nowhere.
A Captain must be firm in what they believe, or else the crew - and the direction of the ship - will be in trouble. If the Captain has a certain belief, then the crew members will follow the belief of the Captain, whether it is good or bad, moral or immoral, positive or negative, proactive or reactive, and so on. The Subconscious does not judge, and it accepts everything coming from the conscious Mind whether it be true or not. As long as your conscious Mind beliefs it to be true, the Subconscious will accept it, and begin to manifest results.
No matter what, the subconscious will always carry out the orders of the conscious Mind, along with all of its other responsibilities, such as keeping you alive and healing your body. You are the Captain of your ship. The direction and destiny of where the ship goes, will depend on how well you can command the crew members of the ship. Feeling is key. Belief is key. Vibrational energy (thought) is key. "As a man thinks, it is done unto him."
Just a thought ...
Justin Taylor, ORDM.
