Where Do Our Thoughts Come From? A Brief Glimpse Behind The Curtain

Before we dive into the topic of our inner thoughts, give this a try. Find a comfortable place with a bit of privacy. Close your eyes. Now, do nothing. Put zero effort into thinking. Simply be present. If you’re anything like me, thoughts will begin to appear in your mind without any effort on your part. Without trying to think of anything in particular, your mind will drift to your to-do list. Next, to the friend we promised we’d call. We’re hungry. We worry about reaching our life goals. We should clean the house. We think about that person who angered us five years ago. This thought “stream” is endless – it just keeps flowing through us no matter what we do. Trying to stop just makes more thoughts come. Why is this? Where do our thoughts come from? Let’s go through a brief overview of what our thoughts are, where they come from and how to handle them.

A Brief Disclaimer…

This website does not give medical or psychological advice. We write our articles based on our research and experience. Information given on this site is our opinion only, except for information cited from outside sources.

Where Do Our Thoughts Come From? A Dive Into Our Unconscious Mind

As you may already know, the vast majority of our mind exists in an unconscious state. Also referred to as the ‘subconscious mind’, the term unconscious mind has been popularized by Sigmund Freud. In a general sense, he states that the unconscious mind makes up the vast majority of our mind’s total activity – including our emotions, opinions, habits and thoughts in general – all without us being aware of it!

Using an iceberg analogy, Freud states that our conscious mind is just the tip we see above water – what we’re actively aware of – whereas our unconscious mind is like the massive submerged portion that’s below the surface (via SimplyPsychology).

Although we can’t see our unconscious mind per se, that doesn’t mean it’s not present in our daily life. Far from it!

Our unconscious mind is home to our primitive desires, innermost instincts and mechanisms that were originally meant to help us navigate the world and survive in our environment. Using Freud’s terminology, our unconscious mind contains the “Id” and portions of our “Ego”.

How The Id & Ego Influence Our Thoughts

The “Id” is a portion of our psyche that regulates many feelings and desires, but the easiest way to think of it’s function is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. This is largely primitive and completely unconscious. Think of it like the hardware in a computer – it’s built in.

The “Ego”, on the other hand, is more present in our mind in terms of being are to perceive it. Think of it as a translator between our completely primitive Id and the reality in which we actually live.

The Ego is the mechanism that’s responsible for rationalizations, defense mechanisms, ethics, social rules, principles, judgement, planning ability and many other functions.

The interesting part? All humans have these functions. While there is a huge deal of variance between individuals, these common functions play a big part in all of our lives.

The presence of these functions in all of us is like a navigation system that sends us alerts and guidance (via thoughts and feelings) about our environment, which includes maneuvering through:

• Hierarchies: Social, Economic, Intellectual & Skill
• Dangers: Potential Threats, Hazards & Loss
• Relationships: Romantic, Familial, Friends, Allies & Rivals
• Psychological Patterns: Scarcity/Abundance, Insecurities, Opportunities, Trends, Fears & Desires

These are just a few examples.

Problem is, these systems are outdated in many ways! While they certainly helped humans survive in our primitive years, they’re not needed nearly as much they used to be. While some instinctual and unconscious thought programs are useful, others are not.

For example, we can feel threatened when a person says something we find offensive. This person isn’t trying to attack us and their words cannot harm us, but our unconscious mind will spring into action with feelings of anger and thoughts of defense. Our unconscious mind leapt into action on its’ own, even with no real threat present!

If so much of our thinking and mental activity is unconscious, then…

Can You Control Your Subconscious At All?

Our brains are supercomputers. They’re designed to perform a huge amount of functions in a short amount of time. Everything from regulating the body’s functions to making major life decisions originates in the mind.

The mind largely operates by taking in data and processing it through algorithms, assumptions and conditions in order to make sense of it.

While this happens automatically based on our life experience to date, I personally feel that we can change the way our subconscious works by reprogramming it over time. However, this relies on our awareness of self.

I am not an expert, but I do have my own experiences with this topic. While our instincts tell us to try and control our thoughts, I recommend working on becoming completely aware of them instead. This awareness of our inner thoughts is as close to separating completely from them as we can get.

A huge portion of personal growth in my life has occurred once I became aware of my own subconscious programming, including where my thoughts come from, what my beliefs are, why I feel what I feel in any given moment, etc.

Once you become aware of your thoughts, you can begin to function independently of them and gradually influence the unconscious parts of our mind that these thoughts originate from.

We plan to cover this a lot more in future articles, but here are some simple, fun exercises you can try to become more aware of your thoughts. Give these techniques a try!

1. Every Thought You Have Exists Only Inside Of You

This is a great way to practice having awareness of our own thoughts.

Simply ponder this: every thought and feeling you’ve ever had exists solely inside of you.

Where else could they exist? They’re not a person. They aren’t a threat or physical danger. No one else knows what our thoughts are.

When you’re out and about, take a look around at the people near you. Do you know their thoughts? Can you see inside their mind? It’s impossible. The same can be said about our own thoughts.

Inside our mind, our thoughts are real. Anywhere else, they don’t exist at all.

2. Watch Your Thoughts The Way You’d Watch Another Person

The power of observation cannot be underestimated – particularly when we observe ourselves during meditation.

Meditation is an amazing way to hone our awareness of our inner thoughts. Continuing from where we began this article, meditation requires you to do nothing except breathe and observe your thoughts as they come.

As you continue to observe your thoughts, you’ll start to notice patterns. A worry about the future is followed by remembering a past event. Then, we jump to something else from our past. Next, a ‘reminder thought’ appears about the errands we need to do later.

At this stage, you can watch all of these thoughts as if they’re being acted out or spoken by someone else. The more you do this, the less your thoughts will dominate your every moment in the future.

You’ll also hone your ability to think and act independently of what your thoughts and emotions suggest, no matter how strong.

This process takes time, so be patient with yourself. Practice makes perfect!

Practicing mindfulness is very similar to meditation, except that it can be done anytime, anywhere – both in meditative and conscious states. We’ll touch upon mindfulness in the next section.

3. Ask Yourself Questions…Then Ask More

As stated above, mindfulness represents a mental state in which we are aware of our inner thoughts and feelings in the present moment.

When describing meditation, we mentioned that zero action is required on your part – simply watch and observe whatever enters your mind.

In this version of mindfulness, we’re actually participating in a Q&A…with ourself.

The idea is to ask ourselves questions about what we think and feel. As we express an opinion or make a judgement, ask yourself where this thought came from? What is this information based on?

At this stage, go even deeper. Ask about the origins of those thoughts and feelings, too.

This process essentially pulls unconscious beliefs into our awareness, one step at a time.

Example: You’re walking down the street and you notice another person coming towards you.

Your mind will automatically take note the information you receive, including this person’s clothing, physique, body language, mood and a variety of other characteristics. Assumptions and judgements happen automatically – some positive, others negative.

This is where we can ask ourselves questions.

Why do I assume this person is mean because of how they look? What is my opinion based on?

Why do I make assumptions based on their jacket or glasses? Where do these originate? What else am I assuming?

You can use this mindfulness exercise as often as you’d like in your day to day life. The more you practice, the more your unconscious thinking is revealed. It’s amazing what you’ll find!

Read Next:

• Why Do I Feel Bad Saying No? Examining Your Guilt & Self-Worth
• Wonder Why You Can’t Look People In The Eye? Consider These Factors

In Closing

As you can see, the vast majority of your thoughts come from unconscious mind programs. Whether they be for pleasure, analysis or survival, many of our thoughts come from parts of the mind we cannot see. Luckily, we can still access these inner thoughts via awareness and mindfulness. Over enough time and practice, we can live independently of our unconscious thoughts and even change them for the better if needed. Thanks for reading!