Spiritual awakening becomes more straightforward when you grasp how the mind works, and the mechanics of the psyche. Our minds operate in three modes: the conscious mind, the unconscious mind and the Higher Self. Understanding these is crucial for personal growth and effective leadership.

Humans, including leaders, are most powerful when all three minds function optimally together. You are your Infinite Higher Self, expressing through your unconscious mind, and consciously aware of yourself via your conscious mind. For leaders, this integration provides deeper insights, authentic decision-making, and an enhanced ability to inspire and guide others.

To evolve consciously and spiritually, it’s essential to understand how our minds work. Leaders, in particular, need this knowledge to harness their potential and guide others toward their best selves.

Great leaders recognise that connecting with a higher purpose is vital, not just a “nice to have”. Even without deep spiritual beliefs, aligning with something greater can lead to more authentic decisions and profoundly inspire your team. In this article, Dr Lisa Turner explores how to tap into this higher purpose, unlocking potential that goes beyond traditional leadership approaches.

The Three Minds Model

What is the mind?

Consciousness (soul, being, essence) consists of three parts: the conscious mind, the unconscious mind and the Higher Self. Although using the word ‘mind’, it does not refer to the brain in an anatomical or physiological way (even though our brain plays a central part in storing information and emotions). Nor is it suggesting that your brain has only three parts.

When using the word ‘mind’, it is the levels of awareness that make up our psyche. These are not three separate entities, but rather three distinct aspects of your whole being and awareness. Each of these minds is a mode of thinking that is crucial for leaders to understand and integrate into their leadership practice.

Conscious mind

The conscious mind experiences reality and decides what’s real. It encompasses everything we focus on and is the home of rational thought, judgements, decisions and assessments. For leaders, the conscious mind is where strategic thinking, decision-making and problem-solving occur.

However, the conscious mind isn’t fixed; our present moment of awareness can change at any moment and can move between our past (memories), our immediate present moment and our future (hopes, dreams, fears, etc). This flexibility is vital in a leadership role, allowing one to draw from past experiences, remain present in decision-making and envision future possibilities.

Unconscious mind

Our unconscious mind is everything else or everything that we are not currently conscious of. It holds our personal programming, beliefs and patterns, emotional blueprints, strategies and skills. While these things are usually completely outside of our conscious awareness, we live their effects in our choices, beliefs and behaviours. Memories and emotions reside in the unconscious mind, including unresolved emotions from the past and trauma.

For leaders, understanding the unconscious mind is crucial, because it shapes much of what we do and how we lead. Those who are unaware of their unconscious mind may find themselves repeating patterns or making decisions that are not aligned with their conscious intentions. By understanding the unconscious mind, leaders can become more self-aware, manage their emotions more effectively and lead with greater clarity and purpose.

Higher Self

Our Higher Self represents pure source/love/divine. inspiration and intuition flow from the Higher Self. Connecting with the Higher Self means leading from a place of deep authenticity, compassion and visionary insight. All three attributes are the source of true leadership, where decisions are not just strategic but aligned with a higher purpose.

Integrating the Three Minds

Integrating our three minds takes work and many of us can get stuck along the way. This happens because of the relationship between the Conscious Mind, Unconscious Mind and Higher Self. To open our conscious and unconscious minds to the beautiful, divine and blissful flow of energy from our Higher Self, we have to understand how and why those connections get blocked.

The Conscious Mind and Higher Self are separated by the barrier or buffer of the unconscious mind, which serves as a conduit or pathway for insights, wisdom and information. However, access to the unconscious mind can be limited. Some memories, thoughts and ideas are not readily accessible by the conscious mind. Techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, dreamwork, hypnosis and trance work can help increase our conscious access to the depths of the unconscious.

For leaders, these practices are not just for personal growth, but also for enhancing leadership. By engaging with the unconscious mind, leaders become more resourceful, improve memory and unlock greater creativity.

Techniques like CET (Conscious Emotional Transformation), a psycho-spiritual process can heal any past trauma, while initiations and energy activations align us with the Higher Self, fostering deeper individual and collective insights, that transcend mere spiritual phenomena.

Ultimately, a leader who integrates the conscious mind, unconscious mind and Higher Self becomes a beacon of light for others, capable of inspiring profound transformation in those they lead.

About Dr Lisa Turner

Dr Lisa Turner is a leading voice in the spiritual community, the bestselling author of CET Yourself Free and a passionate advocate for humanity’s conscious evolution.

Her academic background combined with her spiritual training has helped thousands of people around the world to connect with their higher self using a grounded, practical approach that integrates clear, actionable steps into their daily lives.

In her new book, Our Conscious Tipping Point, Lisa passionately encourages changemakers and conscious leaders to master the art of turning chaos into opportunity, not only for personal transformation but to galvanise real global change.