Procedure
Provide this one-sentence instruction, "Do not think of a pink elephant!"
HAHAHA, did you have a figure of a pink elephant flashing on your mind after reading the instruction above?
Your participants might have a pink elephant flashing on their mind too.
Take Away
Our actions are done based on consciousness or subconsciousness. When a pink elephant flashes on your mind, that is because the subconsciousness takes control of our mind. Subconsciousness can be a good or a bad thing depending on how we go about it.
Let me give you an example. Marcel likes to take his time in driving. As a result, he tends to drive on the right lane all the way. I, on the other hand, prefer to drive on the middle lane. It's not the fastest lane; but we don't have to keep braking or yielding to the cars entering the highway. It's such a waste of gas, I thought!
When Marcel is behind the wheel, he finds that me telling him which lane to take is very disrespectful. So I've been learning to keep my mouth shut and trying to focus on the extra quality time I have with him in the car. Unfortunately, not everyday is my good day.
One day, Marcel's driving us to Church. As always, he picked the right lane and drove 5 mph below the speed limit. The Service was starting in 5 minutes. But we're nowhere close to Church. My mind started to go crazy. I grew impatient. But I still tried to hold my mouth shut.
Then, Marcel asked, "Baby, where do you want to go to lunch today?"
I couldn't hold it anymore and said, "Babe, how can I be thinking about lunch when we're not even at the Church yet!"
Wow, what was that all about? Imagine being Marcel. He didn't know what went through my mind. With all his good intention, he's taking us to Church and planning for our lunch date. But all that he got was my disrespectful comment.
That's exactly the message I'm trying to convey to you, Friends. In that situation, my subconsciousness took control of my action. As soon as Marcel hopped behind the wheel, my subconsciousness told me, "Oh noooo, it's going to be another long ride to Church." It then resulted in me subconsciously being disrespectful towards Marcel. Little things that he did would really annoy me.
Now, looking back at that situation, I'm sure you agree with me that Marcel didn't deserve the things I said. He deserved my respect. And my action was a little way too much. Now, I'm learning to choose to be joyful for the extra time when Marcel's behind the wheel.
I hope my embarrassing story blesses you one way or the other. And you become more aware of your subconsciousness. I pray that each one of us grow healthier and more positive subconsciousness. Believe me, negative subconsciousness CAN be replaced with the positive one. It takes effort. But it is possible. God makes it possible!
May this be a blessing to you!
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