The subconscious mind:

Think of the subconscious mind as the storage room of everything that is currently not in your conscious mind; it stores all your previous life experiences, your belief system, your memories, you skills, all situations you've been through, and all images you've ever seen. The best way to understand the subconscious mind is through the example of someone who's just started to learn how to drive. At the beginning, he wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with anyone while driving as he would be focusing on the different moves involved; that's because he's still using his conscious mind to drive.
The subconscious mind; your Autopilot!
The prefix 'sub' simply means beneath or hidden below and when it is combined with the word conscious, it literally means beneath consciousness. It is a state where you do not have immediate access to under a normal circumstances. The subconscious mind was actually a 'term' in the studies of psychology which first theorized by the famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud. He strongly believed that there was a part of mind below our conscious threshold (as explained just now). The subconscious mind controls every aspect of our lives; belief system, personality and behavior. Through extensive of studies, Freud found out that most of our natural thought processes were deeply rooted there. For that, how you think and act is predetermined 'there'.

The subconscious mind which is also known as the secondary mind absorbs everything that we encounter and stores them in its own system. Indeed it is a memory storehouse that never (ever) forget anything. If there is any, it is our fault of managing our memory. Back to the point, the subconscious takes in information from the world and communicates it to the conscious mind (which mean the YOU right now) through intuitions, impressions or gut feeling - that kind or weird feeling you have inside your stomach or any part of your body.

For example, have you been in the place where you knew that the person that you met will somehow became your friend or even business partner. Your subconscious mind is actually absorbing the subtle things about them; voice inflection, body movements, deep feelings and metaphorical communication that the conscious might fail to pick up. Some people call that 'Attraction' and I totally agree with that because the mind is always attracted to the 'same-minded mind'

A few weeks later, the driving process comes to him automatically, without having to do any thinking; he'd even start using his cell phone or talk to his friends as he drives. This on account of the fact that the driving information or process has been transferred to his subconscious mind and so the conscious mind is free to function on something else, like talking or using his cell phone.

The subconscious mind is responsible for the automatically triggered feelings and emotions that you suddenly experience upon facing a new situation. Let's consider the example of you giving a presentation all fear and anxiety feelings are then launched and controlled by the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is, on the other hand, responsible for logic, thought and calculations (all actions that are performed under your complete contro
l); the subconscious mind also controls other functions in your body like breathing and heart beats.

Another good example that can help you better understand the subconscious mind is the process of breathing. Before you started reading the previous line, your breathing was controlled by your subconscious. I want you now to try and control your breathing for one minute. You will, of course, be able to do so. This time, it was the conscious mind controlling your breathing, but when you let go of your focus, you are said to be handing the task over to your subconscious mind.


Rules of the subconscious mind:

In order to best use the power of your subconscious mind, you must first know how the subconscious mind works. The subconscious mind is governed by many rules; learning about those rules will allow you to make the best use out of your subconscious mind with the least effort. Below is a link that contains all the information you need to know about the rules of the subconscious mind.
Ego defense mechanisms:

Just like your body has got its defenses against physical wounds and injuries, your subconscious mind has got its defenses against emotional shocks and wounds. These are called ego defense mechanisms or unconscious defense mechanisms. The ego defense mechanisms' main function is to protect your well-being and to help you overcome emotional shocks.

The subconscious mind and forgetting about someone

The main reason people stay broken after breakups is that they have false ideas stored in their subconscious minds about relationships. In my book, how to get over anyone in few days, i described how can getting rid of beliefs like "the one" or "the soul mate" help you forget about anybody in few days.

As soon as someone gets rid of these beliefs he starts to realize that he can one day find another person who replaces the one who left him, and so recovery happens.