Mapping the Invisible – A Practical Model for Meditation and Inner Healing
Updated: Apr 13
Written by Andy Travis, Therapist
Andy Travis is a therapist specialising in addiction recovery, mental & mood health, sex/love/relationships, and men's well-being. He uses techniques like live guided meditation, simple hypnosis, and somatic enquiry, personally tailored to give his clients access to their inner resources.
I can’t tell you how many times, when I’ve told someone I do meditation, they’ve said, “Oh, I’ve tried meditation, but I just can’t stop my mind from thinking.” After 37 years of practice, I still can’t stop my mind from thinking. But I don’t even try. There’s an easier way. This article maps consciousness, breaking it down into its three components of mind, intellect, and subconscious. The Sanskrit/Hindi words are man, buddhi, and sanskaras, and each can’t be completely defined with just one English word. The subconscious can be likened to a computer’s memory, the intellect to the mouse, and the mind to the screen. Experiment with these ideas to make your meditation easier, and to help overcome past conditioning.
A one-minute thought experiment
Find a quiet place away from distractions. Sit comfortably. Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Allow the body to relax more and more with each breath. Allow your heart to feel safe. Let the awareness of your breath focus you into the present moment. Let go of the past and the future, and observe your thoughts for a little while.
The more I practice the above, the more I’m able to step back from my thoughts and witness them impartially. This is where self-sovereignty begins.
Reclaiming your throne
Most sovereigns have advisers, but if the advisers try to rule the kingdom, things don’t go well. My mind, intellect, and subconscious are there to serve me. But if I don’t know the job description of each, I can’t manage them, and they’ll do whatever they like. Imagine the very essence of your consciousness as a spark of peaceful, wise, powerful, loving awareness. The following Venn diagram represents this, showing your rightful place at the center of your three advisers.
Mind, thoughts, feelings, imagination, and desires
The mind creates thoughts and feelings constantly. There are a wide variety of methods to still the mind, but they can be as effective as telling an active and curious child to sit still and be quiet. The alternative is to play with the child, giving them attention and loving supervision. Give a child unhealthy food, and they’re more likely to behave badly. Let the mind consume junk, and it too will be hyperactive, anxious, and moody.
Intellect, discernment, wisdom, understanding, and decision-making
If my mind can be likened to a child, my intellect would ideally be its loving parent, who guides it and discerns which thoughts to focus on. I can engage my intellect to learn about consciousness and inner truth, giving the mind nutritious ‘food for thought’. I use my intellect when meditating, to let go of distracting thoughts, feelings, and imagination, and to direct thoughts, feelings, and visualization inward, to deeper levels of awareness.
Subconscious, memories, habits, personality, and impressions on the soul
In our daily life, the mind and intellect create inner dialogue, feelings, and images. They arise from what Carl Jung called “the sea of the unconscious” (Letters, vol. 2). Everything I’ve ever said, done, or experienced, whether I’ve lived one lifetime or many, is stored in the subconscious as impressions on the soul. Repeating actions creates habits of behaviors, and repeating thoughts creates habits of thinking, as the diagram below illustrates. Let’s now contemplate an idea that you may find makes your meditation much easier. The deepest, original personality trait of the soul, your essential spiritual quality, is peace.
Testing your map in meditation
Imagine yourself, the sovereign being of light, sitting on your throne, above and behind the eyes. You are the master of your kingdom, your body, communicating with it through your brain. You summon your three ministers, mind, intellect, and subconscious. “Intellect, please feed the mind the words you’re reading right now, and if it wanders off, please gently guide it back here.
Subconscious, let’s reach for the original pure gold within you, before time tarnished you. Peace, strength, joy, love, and truth. Mind, please rest in these golden feelings. Intellect, hold the star-like light of self in the mind’s eye.”
Gently offer yourself these thoughts:
I’m the living being that gives life to this body.
My original nature is peace.
Mind, you’re a beautiful, creative helper, I’m giving care and attention to you.
Intellect, you’re loving, clear, and wise, I’m enjoying how you’re focusing my mind inwards.
Subconscious, you’re a library of hidden history, I’m reading ancient codes from my unharmed self.
Take as long as you like. Be with your mind in the playpen of the above few paragraphs. Reread them if you want. When you’re ready, emerge into the outside world relaxed and refreshed.
Emotional healing
I was ‘born-again’ into a meditation lifestyle when I was 18. I meditated at 4 am, and for up to two hours a day, every day, for the next 14 years. But strong, subconsciously driven, behavioural ruts, also known as addictions, deepened to the point where I realized that meditation alone wasn’t going to change them. Twenty years after awakening to meditation, I awakened to emotional healing work using the Twelve-Step Recovery model, established by Alcoholics Anonymous. There are now over 200 Twelve-Step programs addressing a wide range of addictions and behaviours. Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families, or ACA, addresses childhood wounding through a process they call ‘becoming our own loving parent.’
According to ACA, the inner loving parent sets boundaries, listens to the inner child’s needs without judgement, and reframes distorted thinking. Similar to our map’s discerning intellect when it’s working well. The subconscious carries the conditioning we absorbed in childhood from our family systems. These records can include shame, abuse, neglect, and the three golden rules of unhealthy families, ‘Don’t talk, don’t trust, don’t feel.’ Inner child recovery work, with the help of an ACA support group, can rewrite these unconscious scripts.
To wrap up
Meditation doesn’t have to be about silencing your mind. It’s about restoring the right relationship with your three inner advisers. Reparent your mind, and it will settle down. Nourish and exercise your intellect, and it can become a compassionate guide rather than a harsh judge. Approach your subconscious with patience, support, and curiosity, and it will gradually release what it’s been holding for years.
Sit on the throne of self-awareness, not controlling every thought, but choosing which ones to pay attention to. I hope this article can help you bring meditation and emotional healing together, observing, understanding, and charting new territory in your head, heart, and life.
Read more from Andy Travis
Andy Travis, Therapist
In 1988, when Andy was 17, his mother began training to be a lifeline telephone counsellor. She would often talk to him about it. He was fascinated. The following year, Andy had a series of out-of-body experiences. They confirmed what he'd been reading about the parallels between mysticism and quantum physics. He embarked on a lifelong journey of meditation. In his early 30s, a mood disorder and sex/love addiction led him to 12-step peer-support groups, where he continues to volunteer today. He established Meeting Point Counselling in 2016.
