Getting To Know The Other You
Dr Raven Dolick M.s.D.
Nov 16, 2015
all rights reserved
The mind generalizes and that's a helpful thing. Otherwise, you'd have to re-learn how to use a toilet every time you needed it, but only after re-learning where the bathroom was and what it was for. Generalizing can also cause problems. A small boy has a scary experience at the top of the slide, and his mind generalizes that experience across every other situation when he is on high—a fear of heights. It's not that big of a deal until he needs to fly somewhere or get up on his roof to fix a wayward shingle. He believes that heights are scary, that they are dangerous. As a result of his belief, when faced with such a situation, his stress and anxiety increase until he is nearly incapacitated by fear, and the situation can truly become dangerous. His generalizations have made him less effective.
Like I said before, the subconscious mind is taking in an incredible amount of information at one time. Literally everything the senses sense is filtered through the brain. Most of it doesn't make it to the conscious mind because of our generalizations, our belief systems. After the mind has learned enough, it begins to screen the information we receive. It accepts the familiar, whether it's healthy or harmful, and rejects the unfamiliar, whether it's beneficial or malevolent. In the world of thought, belief, and feeling, like attracts like. This is how people get into routines, into ruts. This is how we,sometimes, end up chasing our tails, wanting desperately to change, but completely ignorant of how to do it. The mind does not believe only things that are good for you. In fact, it's completely neutral, the mind will believe whatever it's exposed to—good, bad, or ugly.
Obviously, as a newborn we're incapable of deciding for ourselves what the world is like, and because of this, we're seeded with the beliefs of those around us, first and foremost, our parents, which presents a host of issues. I'm sure most of you have witnessed your parent's beliefs and ideals working inside of you. Some times they are very helpful and other times they're a real a pain in the neck. It's this looking at the beliefs we've inherited—deciding for ourselves which ones are healthy and useful, then releasing the rest—that benefits human societies. Belief change is a mechanism of cultural evolution.
Growing up is something we do to ourselves, not something that happens to us. Sure, our bodies age every day, but it's possible for a 99 year old to die with the mental and emotional development of a 12 year old. If you're reading this, then you've been gifted a set of beliefs, some of which are very valuable, that blossom and enable you to do and be many beautiful things. But others are like tenacious weeds, choking out possibility and condemning you to someone else's idea about life. The next step along the path to changing your beliefs is to take responsibility for them. Someone else may have given them to you, but they are in your head. You believe them, and no matter where you got them, they are yours, making it your responsibility to cultivate the healthy ones and pluck out the harmful ones.
In the world of belief, there are no right answers. Everything you experience is subject to your perspective, background, and personal history. Everything you experience is relative, but it's common for human beings to forget this, to 'know' their beliefs hold some divine or otherwise objective truth.
This is the cause of most wars, violence, and suffering in the world. When people believe they are 'right,' they will go to astounding lengths to persecute those who disagree, who are 'wrong.' Looking around at the current state of affairs, it's easy to see the push-and-pull mentality that collective humanity is engaged in. The Democrats are pushing against the Republicans. Religions argue with science and with each other. The poor struggle to be rich. The world is locked in this battle between opposites, all because each person engaged in the fight believes their truth to be truer than everyone else's.
No comments:
Post a Comment