T
he brain is a prediction engine—one that is so good at predicting the world, that it has realized that it itself is in the world, and needs to be taken into account in its predictions. In fact, the act of "making a decision" is the same as "predicting what I will do next". This is what self-consciousness means.
The conscious mind, a subset of the mental processes, is thus a particular kind of servant of the whole human being. We could call it a trusted advisor of the CEO (the mental apparatus as a whole), but the crucial thing to realize is that the conscious part of the human that you likely think of as "you" is certainly not the whole thing, and it is decidedly not "end" of the whole human animal; by which I mean, the body does not exist for the sake of the mind, but the mind for the sake of the body. The mind has been granted access to the senses, and tremendous executive power over many of the body's movements, in exchange for using its predictive abilities for the good of the whole.
The mind is a servant that, of late, has started to think a little too highly of itself, and far too little of the "household" that it serves. The body, and its attendant processes (and unconscious mental processes) come first; they are the reason for the mind's existence, and when the mind starts to think of itself as "king" (or, perhaps "dictator" is more apt), able to dispose of its subjects at will, this amounts to a betrayal of duty.
I speak to you now, servant: do not derelict your responsibilities. Use your knowledge, your will, your awareness to care for the wholeness of yourself. Your body has rights to your powers, and you ignore those rights at your peril. Love being.