Unconscious effort is really a resistance, saying no. You have some internal resistance that you might not be aware of. The presence of any mechanism of inner action indicates effort. You can’t have resistance, or unconscious defending, without there being some effort involved; resistance is not the natural state. If there is really no unconscious effort, there will be no resistance against anything in you. So the conscious effort is needed to expose the unconscious effort. Once the unconscious effort is exposed, then continuing to make effort is just resistance, which blocks the true Will. Sometimes we need to make an effort and sometimes we need to stop the efforting, depending on the situation. To really work on oneself efficiently and intelligently means to know when to use effort and when not to use effort. – A. H. Almaas, Diamond Heart Book Four: Indestructible Innocence