When we hear the term "mind" we often think of the brain, but the mind is much more than the brain. The brain is the hardware while the mind is the software it runs. When you are dead, your brain will still be there (for a while), but your mind will not.So just what is the mind? If we are going to get any use out of the mind, we need a definition that is useful. Although the word "mind" leads us to believe the mind is a thing, it is not. The mind is label we have given to an active and dynamic process of thinking, perceiving and experiencing. The term "mind" refers to a never-ending flow of information processing. The mind is never static. It is a constant stream of sensory input, thoughts, ideas and perceptions. It's a continuous dance of information, a ceaseless stream of awareness in which almost anything can be swept up.
What exactly goes on in this stream of awareness? From moment to moment you receive vast amounts of information from the outside world through your senses. Your awareness jumps from point to point in your external experience, sorting for what is important to you as your minds engages in the process of interpreting and evaluating the incoming data. External information is filtered through beliefs, attitudes and memories and associations are activated. Emotions arise and generate responses; speech, actions and behavior.On the screen of your mind you flash images, snapshots and run movies. You hear sounds and voices and often narrate the film with your own voice. The pictures and sounds of your mind occur all in sequence, one after the other, which results in an ever changing flux of experience which changes from moment to moment.
It is a well-known fact that if we ask twenty persons to describe an incident that just happened, we'll get twenty different versions of the same incidence. The reason for that is that our reality is highly skewed by our internal bank of references.
That personal bank of references is composed of an amalgamate of all the experiences that we've had in the past. It's a composite of the deductions that we unconsciously reached following every new experience that we've had.Some of these deductions may be quite accurate while others might be so fanciful as to make the angels cry. Yet, it is from that bank of reference and all those past conclusions that we view our world and everything in it.
We've all heard about limited attention span, and in marketing that sometimes seems to be the norm for customers. What this means is that only part of your memory can be activated at any one time and it will be a single area located in the most easily activated part of the memory. This will also be the most familiar one, the one used most often. The more often it is used it becomes even more familiar. Think repetitive marketing campaign, top of the mind awareness, copy crafted to appeal to certain senses that becomes familiar to your customer over time. People need to be told about a product or service at least SEVEN times before they buy it/try it. Think repeat customers here.
Throughout our lives we have fought with our emotions and struggled to change habits and behaviours with little or no success. We have been attempting to change the symptom of some cause without getting to the source. Trying to change with willpower alone is like trying to weed a garden without getting at the roots and wondering why the weeds keep growing back. We wonder why change is so difficult, but it's not that change is difficult, it's that we've been going about it the wrong way. Trying to shovel the snow of your driveway with a rake isn't going to work very well, so why not trying something else? To change emotions and behaviours we need to step behind the scenes and peek into our internal experience to see what is going on behind our emotions and behaviours. We need to look beyond the surface and find the source.
Emotions and behaviours don't come out of nowhere. They result naturally from our internal programming. For whatever emotions you feel and whatever behaviours you produce, your programming must be perfectly optimized to produce that result. If you are depressed, your mind has been programmed to produce depression. If anxiety is your constant companion, your mind has been programmed to produce anxiety. If you find yourself lacking confidence, or giving into to self-sabotage, it's because your mental software permits it. And if you live a life of joy and success, it's because your internal programming has been optimized to generate that result. Problems are learned, and if they can be learned, they can be unlearned. Change your programming and you change the result.
Although you never go anywhere without your mind, most of what goes on in the mind remains a mystery to you. Why? Because much of what occurs in your mind is out of awareness. Our mental programs operate behind the scenes, out of consciousness, and it is those aspects of our functioning that operate out of awareness that lead to emotions and behaviours. To put on a great show and produce the results we need to navigate in the world, there is a whole crew of things going on backstage. All we see is the final performance.
Thankfully, man is the most adaptable of all creatures. It can compose with what is not so and it can create a reality that is not real. We can live and function in a world of our own creation. We can see light where there is darkness and see truth where falsehood reigns. We are indeed a most amazing breed.Taking a glimpse at the way our mind function will not change anything much. But, it might explain our inconsistencies and the paradoxes that we see all around us. It can also explain why some of our actions and behavior don't always get the expected results. At any rate, knowledge is always superior to crass ignorance.
[How The Mind Works]
What exactly goes on in this stream of awareness? From moment to moment you receive vast amounts of information from the outside world through your senses. Your awareness jumps from point to point in your external experience, sorting for what is important to you as your minds engages in the process of interpreting and evaluating the incoming data. External information is filtered through beliefs, attitudes and memories and associations are activated. Emotions arise and generate responses; speech, actions and behavior.On the screen of your mind you flash images, snapshots and run movies. You hear sounds and voices and often narrate the film with your own voice. The pictures and sounds of your mind occur all in sequence, one after the other, which results in an ever changing flux of experience which changes from moment to moment.
It is a well-known fact that if we ask twenty persons to describe an incident that just happened, we'll get twenty different versions of the same incidence. The reason for that is that our reality is highly skewed by our internal bank of references.
That personal bank of references is composed of an amalgamate of all the experiences that we've had in the past. It's a composite of the deductions that we unconsciously reached following every new experience that we've had.Some of these deductions may be quite accurate while others might be so fanciful as to make the angels cry. Yet, it is from that bank of reference and all those past conclusions that we view our world and everything in it.
We've all heard about limited attention span, and in marketing that sometimes seems to be the norm for customers. What this means is that only part of your memory can be activated at any one time and it will be a single area located in the most easily activated part of the memory. This will also be the most familiar one, the one used most often. The more often it is used it becomes even more familiar. Think repetitive marketing campaign, top of the mind awareness, copy crafted to appeal to certain senses that becomes familiar to your customer over time. People need to be told about a product or service at least SEVEN times before they buy it/try it. Think repeat customers here.
Throughout our lives we have fought with our emotions and struggled to change habits and behaviours with little or no success. We have been attempting to change the symptom of some cause without getting to the source. Trying to change with willpower alone is like trying to weed a garden without getting at the roots and wondering why the weeds keep growing back. We wonder why change is so difficult, but it's not that change is difficult, it's that we've been going about it the wrong way. Trying to shovel the snow of your driveway with a rake isn't going to work very well, so why not trying something else? To change emotions and behaviours we need to step behind the scenes and peek into our internal experience to see what is going on behind our emotions and behaviours. We need to look beyond the surface and find the source.
Emotions and behaviours don't come out of nowhere. They result naturally from our internal programming. For whatever emotions you feel and whatever behaviours you produce, your programming must be perfectly optimized to produce that result. If you are depressed, your mind has been programmed to produce depression. If anxiety is your constant companion, your mind has been programmed to produce anxiety. If you find yourself lacking confidence, or giving into to self-sabotage, it's because your mental software permits it. And if you live a life of joy and success, it's because your internal programming has been optimized to generate that result. Problems are learned, and if they can be learned, they can be unlearned. Change your programming and you change the result.
Although you never go anywhere without your mind, most of what goes on in the mind remains a mystery to you. Why? Because much of what occurs in your mind is out of awareness. Our mental programs operate behind the scenes, out of consciousness, and it is those aspects of our functioning that operate out of awareness that lead to emotions and behaviours. To put on a great show and produce the results we need to navigate in the world, there is a whole crew of things going on backstage. All we see is the final performance.
Thankfully, man is the most adaptable of all creatures. It can compose with what is not so and it can create a reality that is not real. We can live and function in a world of our own creation. We can see light where there is darkness and see truth where falsehood reigns. We are indeed a most amazing breed.Taking a glimpse at the way our mind function will not change anything much. But, it might explain our inconsistencies and the paradoxes that we see all around us. It can also explain why some of our actions and behavior don't always get the expected results. At any rate, knowledge is always superior to crass ignorance.
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