Hacking your own brain

[Synarch]

There are three components to experience: the events themselves, the impressions of the events, and the conclusions we draw from our impressions.

event -> impressions -> conclusions

We cannot control events or impressions, but we can control our own conclusions through the application of judgment.

In the end, by judging experience objectively and consciously deciding how to weigh events we can defang negative experiences and use them as fuel for our own growth.

In other words, if something bad happens to you, you have a choice on how to absorb it. Any negative experience has the potential to be either a gaping wound or a scratch. You have the choice to suffer with it or overcome it.

In life you should prepare yourself for pain. This will strengthen you and free you from lesser pains while providing you with the power to burrow through larger suffering, which you will experience.

This does not mean we should seek to desensitize ourselves, but it does mean that we should develop the ability to endure and to detach and to be more circumspect.

 

[ladypinkington]

It always fascinates me how one can know something intellectually but yet not know it emotionally if that makes sense.

I intellectually agree with what you wrote but emotionally it comes out 2 plus 2 equals chair,lol.

I wish that things wouldn't get to me so much- I seem to be helpless when it comes to controlling how much things influence and effect my judgment. Bad things that happen that effect me most are those of negative social interactions. Intellectually I know that other people are not responsible for my feelings and that I am in turn not responsible for their feelings-that my feelings are mine and I am only in control of me, knowing that emotionally though is something of a different animal.

I find that the more I develop my thinking the better I can be in reducing my impressionability and suggestibility.

The more objective I become, the more temperate I can be, the less negatively impacted I can become. The more I develop my thinking, the more I realize what choices are out there, the more I can do the things that you are talking about.

I have a long ways to go since my thinking is way under-developed. Not only am I a strong F but I was rasied by a single parent- a mother who is all F herself. Add on to the fact that I moved 28 times and only have an eigth grade education and you can see I got really screwed in T development,lol.

My husband is an ENTP and has helped me grow my thinking tremendously. He is a good influence on me and lifts me up by trying to help me empower myself. He often says the things that you are talking about in this blog.

Why is it that such simple and effective principles can be so hard so implement?

 

[littledarling]

I also think that through pain/emotional turmoil you can find meaning. A lot of times when you go through something particularly painful it can give you a sense of empathy for others in similar situations, or perhaps it can give you a sense of acomplishment when you've come through it. In any sense, I think that there is definitely value in experiencing hardships, and like you said, depending on how you choose to experience it, suffering can create great purpose.

 

[Halla74]

What you said is very true.

From the perspective of a counselor I spoke with at one time, they said that our emotional reality consists of:

(1) Real Feelings/Real Events of the PAST
(2) Real Feelings/Real Events of the PRESENT
(3) Biochemically Related (e.g. Imbalance)

The way that this particular counselor claimed it was possible to diffuse (1) or (2) is to talk about it, to have your feelings about the event recognized by whom you feel needs to hear it.

The result of this process is that you can essentially "release the charge" of the negative event. It will still be there, but when you ponder over it in the future, the severity of thinking of it will have lessened, as it will be resolved and a significantly lesser source of negative energy.

Cheers,

-Alex

 

[Fidelia]

There's good stuff to chew on there. I have an idea that pain needs to create both a mental/reasoned response to make the most of it and to not let it cripple us for life, but that it needs to be felt at our very core for us to learn from it and develop empathy and because our phyical and emotional responses are deeply entwined and either prevent or encourage logical action to be taken. I haven't thought about it enough yet to discuss it properly, but thanks for creating the stimulus...