The Reins Are in the Shadow’s Hand: When the Small Brain Guides the Big Mind
The information you now possess isn’t merely a scientific fact about brain anatomy—it activates a new way to “redefine yourself.” Our mind often assumes it is made up only of the conscious, rational, decision-making part—the part that centers in the brain and cerebral cortex. Yet, neuroanatomical reality tells a different story: the principal site for complex, rapid, and precise processing lies in a region that, until recently, was little recognized—the cerebellum.
The cerebellum, holding over 80% of the brain’s neurons, is the headquarters of nonstop processing that, without conscious intervention, guides our bodies, emotions, speech, and even complex predictions. This means:
A huge portion of your decisions, reactions, coordination, and even emotions form at a level deeper than conscious thought.
From the perspectives of cognitive psychology and neuroscience, this means a large part of our behavior and identity arises from a subconscious network of neural activities that operate silently and at enormous speed.
So, when you sometimes feel “life is running on its own,” or notice you pronounce words perfectly without thinking, or feel like “your body decided before you did,” these sensations have physiological roots—not imaginary ones.
Recognizing this pattern gives you tremendous power:
Not to eliminate awareness, but to bring it into alignment with what’s actually doing the work.
🛠️ Practical Strategies for Engagement
1. Redefine Your Relationship With the Unconscious
From now on, what you call the “unconscious” is not simply a storehouse of memories or hidden desires, but the “active and ongoing part of your brain” that is shaping your behavior in real time. With this awareness, instead of trying to micromanage everything from above, focus on optimizing your environment, rhythms, and repetitions—because these are the cerebellum’s language.
2. Move Awareness From Its Throne to the Round Table
The conscious part of your mind should be an observer, a coordinator, a reviewer—not a dictator. Sometimes the best thing you can do is listen to your internal signals—bodily sensations, gut-level reactions, or subtle mood changes—because these are messages from those 80% unseen neurons.
3. Trust Your Bodily and Emotional Memory More
Motor learning, recurring feelings, and even your “sixth sense” usually stem from experiences registered in the cerebellar layers, not the conscious intellect. So, when you sense something is right or wrong, pause before analyzing, and check what your body tells you.
4. Treat Your Environment as Part of the Processing System
The cerebellum, like a high-speed processor in a robotic system, depends on environmental input. For sharper, more coordinated decisions, it’s best to keep your surroundings simple, orderly, and predictable. This way, your unconscious has a chance to operate with speed and accuracy.
Scientific-Psychological Summary
You are as much a “processor” as a “thinker.” But most of this processing happens, quietly and quickly, in the cerebellum. Awareness, if it humbly serves this hidden engine, can regain true control—not through force, but through alignment.
Reference:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/long-fuse-big-bang/202506/the-myth-of-the-human-brain
