Beat Bad Habits by Engaging "Manual Thinking" Power
“We can never see past the choices we don’t understand” -The Oracle, in The Matrix Reloaded (2003).
We are so bound by our perceptions. It is the cage and formidable construct of the human nature. And what’s the cause?
… A propensity toward false scripting…
False, errant scripts make the world run haywire. Whether they’re illustrated by wrong coding or a virus in a computer, poor learning in the human brain, or a machine with a faulty chip, drive belt or switch, they ironically wreak havoc everywhere but the place they’re designed to function for. These are no longer fit-for-purpose.
A confounding paradox has emerged.
Choices
Our choice is like this… they’re often based on false scripting. And we hardly ever realise it.
When we make choices in life, the choices we’re destined to make, we at times don’t see other options as desirable because we can’t understand them; we therefore don’t see them the way we could. They just don’t fit us. It’s the square-peg-in-the-round-hole syndrome, but in a way that’s not our perception in the sight of others i.e. the way others see us, but our own limiting perceptions of the world. In other words, we choose the square peg.
Magnets, Boredom and Order
The human brain picks up so much junk along the journey of life. We’re like magnets picking up anything with iron in it. Some of it is polished and chrome-plated but some of it is plain scrap metal and not worth much.
We run off track and the smallest things distract and deter us. We start a golden venture, and before we know it we’re stuck down some alleyway or down a narrow, shallow creek–and we find it difficult to back-out. Our conscious thinking power is limited, and somehow at the roadblock, we run for stimulation. We get bored easily and we hate that, desperate as we are to restore some level of mental utopia; order out of the chaos we can’t stand.
Yet, the chaos should be a sign to us where (and when) it all went wrong. But we evade the question. We don’t explore the ambiguity. We run from it to what we know and feel comfortable with. (Recall that last time you ‘comfort ate?’)
Scripting (Programmed Thought)
Working through and correcting false scripts is hard; it’s not natural for us. But, it is achievable.
Physiologically, (as with good scripts) false scripts–which facilitate bad habits, wrong choices, decisions and actions–use slick myelinations in the brain that enable quick, efficient synapses[1] to occur.
These myelinations are insulated and protected ‘brain-wiring’ like controlling electrical circuits; they’re finished, sealed roadways powered for, and facilitating, thought–but, in these cases, they run to a place called ‘nowhere.’ They’re like natural tributaries of a stream where water flows naturally, of its own accord. And these streams flow errantly, entirely to the wrong destinations.
We’re more adept and more naturally inclined to think along the already-myelinated neural pathways (the cage and formidable construct of the human nature). We can see here how insidious habitual thinking is.
The Answer: Manual Thinking
But, we can revert to ‘manual’ thinking at any time we choose, it just needs to be a conscious choice… otherwise our subconscious mind will take over and make the choice for us i.e. to run on autopilot, hence the return to the entrenched (false) neural pathways and the consequent false script is run again, reinforcing the bad habit toward wrong choices, decisions and likely actions.
The power of the human mind is large, and we hardly ever tap into it. This is because we’re inherently lazy thinkers; again, this is ‘the cage and formidable construct of the human nature’ we’re talking about.
We can choose to ‘step up’ mentally at any time, however.
“We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye… a [person] is only the sum of his [or her] personal power, and that sum determines how he [or she] lives and how he [or she] dies.”[2]
This personal power can be harnessed any time. It’s quite simply a matter of our choice.
Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
ENDNOTES:
[1] A ‘synapse’ is “the functional junction between two neurons… [it] may be electrical or chemical.” Every feeling, thought and action we have or make involves thousands of these neurological synapses. Source: Tortora & Grabowski, Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, 9th ed. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000), Glossary G-37.
[2] Carlos Castaneda, “The Journey to Ixtlan” in The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts about Life, Death and the Universe (Los Angeles: Eidolona Press, 1998), pp. 75, 99.
About the Author:
Tags: square peg, scrap metal, journey of life, alleyway, golden venture We are so bound by our perceptions. It is the cage and formidable construct of the human nature. And what’s the cause?
… A propensity toward false scripting…
False, errant scripts make the world run haywire. Whether they’re illustrated by wrong coding or a virus in a computer, poor learning in the human brain, or a machine with a faulty chip, drive belt or switch, they ironically wreak havoc everywhere but the place they’re designed to function for. These are no longer fit-for-purpose.
A confounding paradox has emerged.
Choices
Our choice is like this… they’re often based on false scripting. And we hardly ever realise it.
When we make choices in life, the choices we’re destined to make, we at times don’t see other options as desirable because we can’t understand them; we therefore don’t see them the way we could. They just don’t fit us. It’s the square-peg-in-the-round-hole syndrome, but in a way that’s not our perception in the sight of others i.e. the way others see us, but our own limiting perceptions of the world. In other words, we choose the square peg.
Magnets, Boredom and Order
The human brain picks up so much junk along the journey of life. We’re like magnets picking up anything with iron in it. Some of it is polished and chrome-plated but some of it is plain scrap metal and not worth much.
We run off track and the smallest things distract and deter us. We start a golden venture, and before we know it we’re stuck down some alleyway or down a narrow, shallow creek–and we find it difficult to back-out. Our conscious thinking power is limited, and somehow at the roadblock, we run for stimulation. We get bored easily and we hate that, desperate as we are to restore some level of mental utopia; order out of the chaos we can’t stand.
Yet, the chaos should be a sign to us where (and when) it all went wrong. But we evade the question. We don’t explore the ambiguity. We run from it to what we know and feel comfortable with. (Recall that last time you ‘comfort ate?’)
Scripting (Programmed Thought)
Working through and correcting false scripts is hard; it’s not natural for us. But, it is achievable.
Physiologically, (as with good scripts) false scripts–which facilitate bad habits, wrong choices, decisions and actions–use slick myelinations in the brain that enable quick, efficient synapses[1] to occur.
These myelinations are insulated and protected ‘brain-wiring’ like controlling electrical circuits; they’re finished, sealed roadways powered for, and facilitating, thought–but, in these cases, they run to a place called ‘nowhere.’ They’re like natural tributaries of a stream where water flows naturally, of its own accord. And these streams flow errantly, entirely to the wrong destinations.
We’re more adept and more naturally inclined to think along the already-myelinated neural pathways (the cage and formidable construct of the human nature). We can see here how insidious habitual thinking is.
The Answer: Manual Thinking
But, we can revert to ‘manual’ thinking at any time we choose, it just needs to be a conscious choice… otherwise our subconscious mind will take over and make the choice for us i.e. to run on autopilot, hence the return to the entrenched (false) neural pathways and the consequent false script is run again, reinforcing the bad habit toward wrong choices, decisions and likely actions.
The power of the human mind is large, and we hardly ever tap into it. This is because we’re inherently lazy thinkers; again, this is ‘the cage and formidable construct of the human nature’ we’re talking about.
We can choose to ‘step up’ mentally at any time, however.
“We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye… a [person] is only the sum of his [or her] personal power, and that sum determines how he [or she] lives and how he [or she] dies.”[2]
This personal power can be harnessed any time. It’s quite simply a matter of our choice.
Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
ENDNOTES:
[1] A ‘synapse’ is “the functional junction between two neurons… [it] may be electrical or chemical.” Every feeling, thought and action we have or make involves thousands of these neurological synapses. Source: Tortora & Grabowski, Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, 9th ed. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000), Glossary G-37.
[2] Carlos Castaneda, “The Journey to Ixtlan” in The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts about Life, Death and the Universe (Los Angeles: Eidolona Press, 1998), pp. 75, 99.
About the Author:
Steve Wickham is a safety and health professional (BSc, MSIA, RSP) and a qualified, unordained Christian minister (GradDipDiv). He also has training and leadership Diplomas. His passion in vocation is facilitation and coaching; encouraging people to soar to a higher value of their potential. Steve’s key passion is work / life balance and re-creating value for living, and an exploration of the person within us.
