Monday, July 10, 2017

Why don’t we Change… for Long?


“A man lost in the desert can trudge along for hours through the sands until he sees ahead of him an unmistakable line of foot prints leading to the horizon. But his joy on finding the trail turns to despair when he realizes the tracks are his own. Without a path or a landmark to guide him, he traced a vast circle while convinced he was walking in a straight line”  -Stephen Batchelor

“Why don’t we change for long” is a complex question.

It could be knowledge; our thoughts are flawed or we’ve been misinformed.

It could be time or effort; we’re too busy with other things and don’t want to commit.

It could be money; we’re not aware of the financial commitment.

Or…perhaps it’s just You?

I’m not really talking about “you” as in the conscious you. I’m not talking about the voice of awareness that says, “I’m going on this _________diet”

I am talking about “you” from the perspective of the unconscious you. This is the movement that occurs prior to the voice of awareness.

In the relatively new study of neuroscience, most scientists agree that 80% to 90% of what we do every day feels like a decision, a choice, but it’s actually subconscious movement.

Now don’t get me wrong, we did make a choice at some point that hardwired the subconscious movement; however, the choice becomes less discerned over time; automatic if you will.

(Remember when you had to have complete focus to learn how to ride your bike? Now you ride the bike with no conscious thought. The brain seeks efficiency)

At the neurological level the brain, there is a 3 step process for thoughts to occur. When these thoughts occur, we act. When these acts are repeated, they become a subconscious habit.

-Perception (our view based on past experience)

-Emotion (positive or negative)

-Behavior (action)

These three things make up who you are, and may answer why you do what you do.

And this is why we don’t change for long.

The reason we don’t change for long is because we have a system of thinking (perception-emotion-behavior) that keeps us who we are, not who we want to be.

How does change occur?

First examine the thoughts that create our perception. (Clarify and evaluate)
Our perception is based on our input. If our input is flawed, our emotions will be irrational.
If our emotions are irrational, our behavior that follows will be counterproductive for change to occur. In other words, you will end up right where you first began.

“Like someone lost in a desert, we feel compelled to struggle ahead, unaware that a circle will only bring us back to where we first began”. –Stephen Batchelor

Let’s say you’re attempting a new diet. If you have tried a diet before, and it didn’t work; the likelihood of the next one working is minimal.

Why?

Because there’s a flaw in the 3 step process: your perceptions, the emotions elicited, and the behavior that follows. We end up focusing on the failed diet…not the failed neurology of our thought process.
This is the missing link in the proverbially chain of success. The diet may be different, but you bring a flawed system of thinking (You) to attempt change.

Einstein once said,

“The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them."

In other words…nothing changes unless our thoughts change.  So the next time you’re attempting change, don’t necessarily look for “external solutions.”

This time look for “internal clarifications.”

When you address the flawed manifestations of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, lifelong change is one choice away.

Change your mind and everything changes…and everything changes when you change your mind.


“We are masters of self-delusion. Our desires are fruitful sources of every kind of error and misjudgment, and because we have these yearnings in us, our intellects…present to us everything distorted and accommodated to the norms of our desire.” –Merton






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