For A Change....

When are we going to realize the fact that small things make up the big things?!? We are all complaining about the global crisis currently impacting our lives in a negative way. Everyone has an answer and most commonly it has to do with someone else doing something wrong. Or, people blame the system itself for being corrupt or dysfunctional. Political figures can blame big business. Big business blames the irresponsible consumer, or the government intrusion. Why don’t we all just admit to ourselves that we Americans want our way of life and desire the faceless unknown to pay for it regardless of any suffering as the cost?

I personally know of no one who lives completely responsibly. That admission shames me. Not I, my family or friends, or anyone with whom I associate can be a role model. We are all taking advantage of another or something somehow. Most of my family members are Christians, yet, sad to say, none of us could be a model citizen or even human being for that matter. I’m unaware of anyone in my family or friends who contributes directly to the poor, shut-ins, homeless, or otherwise less fortunate. Few of us recycle as much as possible or live in a way that doesn’t harm our environment. We don’t really give much thought to our daily actions. I have a friend who complains about the way of the world as he throws a cigarette butt on the ground!

More often than not, I suspect there is a lack of complete disclosure and transparency when necessary, specifically in financial matters. Most of us always try to get something for nothing, or less than the value of it. All of us have bad relationships in more than one instance: either with other people, food, possessions, substance abuse of some kind, and with some of us, we just can’t allow another person to have an opinion and admit we could be, or are wrong.

How can we say a word about Wall Street bailouts, a war we may not agree with, political/government regulations which seem or appear to not be in line with our world view, when we do not think one moment, ourselves, about taking that plastic bag at the market to haul all the glutinous junk food we just bought at the local market? Do we think our bodies are designed to function optimally from consuming Sierra Mist, 16 oz rib-eyes, mac-n-cheese and powdered donuts? Then we take our diabetes medicine to offset the impact of such a meal, or years down the road pay a heart surgeon $100k to perform bypass surgery to clean all the plaque from our arteries! We all want a bailout!

If all of us should focus on the “mote” in our own eyes! Government cannot fix our problems. Let’s take responsibility for ourselves. Live consciously. Let’s stop simply existing from emotion-to-emotion and take control of our lives! Let’s stop making excuses for ourselves! Why not set a higher standard than merely what the law allows or demands? The law should cover the least common denominator for setting the standard. Surely we are capable creatures….or are we? 

Dealing With Certain Emotions

How human are our emotions and feelings? Are people who experience less emotion less human? Are emotions a human strength, or a weakness? Are we being controlled by our emotions or can we better manage our emotions and take control to better benefit our life experience? What are emotions? What happens in our body physiologically when an emotional state becomes noticeable to us?

 

Many people will be familiar with the following mindsets or levels of awareness. The thing is, everyone is experiencing all of these levels according to the topic or subject. A ditch-digger will have particular knowledge and awareness that an astrophysicist doesn't. What is the biggest difference between knowing something, and doing something?

 

1.       Unconscious Incompetence - You don’t even know that you don't know it.

2.       Conscious Incompetence - You start to become painfully aware that you really don't know how to do a certain thing.

3.       Conscious Competence - You’re competent, but you still need to think about it.

4.       Unconscious Competence - You're so good at what you do, you don't need to think about it. You just do it.

 

An example of something, I think, unfamiliar to most is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment currently undergoing in Europe. This could be the single greatest scientific experiment ever. It certainly is the most expensive and most elaborate.  Yet, I suspect most people remain unaware of this experiment (fit the category of Unconscious Incompetence). Once this new experiment is introduced to a person, they begin to filter this new information through their own belief system and world-view and that elicits an emotional and visceral response. We start to feel a particular emotion or tension and can become overwhelmed. The new information impacts our status, or how we view ourselves in relation to others. Many times our status is weakened by new information and a defense mechanism (hormone cortisol) is triggered within us. We start to ask questions and make comments which supports our position prior to the new information being received. Most people can consider a day either good or bad relative to our status being threatened or emboldened.

 

Anytime we feel the slightest bit threatened, especially socially, but physically too, and anytime we feel that our status may change, like someone else might win an argument or someone might think poorly of us, or any way our status may change, our brain gets overwhelmed with electrical activity and bursts of the hormone cortisol is released, which is a stress response in the brain. It causes us to become tense and make sudden unexpected brain connections. We are very focused on status and on potential threats. The electrical activity involved in noticing these threats very easily overwhelms the steady and easy function of the brain.

 

I view and compare this hard-wired brain function to a PC that has anti-virus software installed. It’s always running in the background even though you don’t need to be aware of it. It also consumes some of your computers resources to function. When it detects a potential threat, it requires all your computers resources to operate. You have to shut down all other programs to run the program.

 

Since we filter any new information or stimulation through our belief systems, world view, and life experience stored in our brains, the older we become, the more hard-wired functions we’ve created. With more life experiences comes more threats. Perhaps this is why older people are more generally more fearful.

 

Some people may say, what is this airy-fairy California stuff? For some people, better understanding one’s own human experience may explain or define a belief structure or world-view.  Some religious belief structures renounce this type of thinking. For some, this new personal understanding can embolden one’s own faith. Regardless of a person’s particular belief system, understanding how your body functions is our own responsibility. Denying ourselves continued understanding is accepting our current position in life and a depiction of an idle mindset. 21st century technology has offered each of us incredible insights into how our body functions. Previous generations could not understand and thus either believed it to be supernatural involvement, or chalked it up as impossible to understand. I've learned that in most everything I do, to ask the question: “Why?”

I challenge myself

Most good things in life for me have come without much focused effort.  As a result, I readily admit these good accomplished things are mediocre in grandeur. A person can reach an age to be able to start to reflect. Notice trends and tendancies in life. Begin to realize similar decisions are made consistently. Also, see specific periods of life. Remember that angry stage? Or, the period when you felt love? Then, there was the time you were most interested in personal style and kept up with top 40. Worst of all was that lonely phase. 

The subject matter that always interested me has been science and business. Over the past 10 years, my science interest has moderately and steadily increased til about two years ago when I discovered what has been going on the field of neuroscience. In the past two years, my interest level has now peaked to where I am constantly in a state of wanting to know more about the study of this science. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience 

Since this particular science study is only 40 years old, many people remain unfamiliar with the significant benefits it provides. The science allows for insight into the functionality of our brain, how we process information and how the environment impacts us. I started examining my life through the filter of neuroscience. So many consistent behaviours become apparent. Much of the way we function in life is a result of our unique world view or our belief structure. 

I have written very few things in my life, and this is a daunting undertaking for me. Or, at least I view this writing as daunting. If you become a follower of this blog, you will come to understand how "attention" is so important and how it actually changes the physical structure of your brian. So, this blog will not only allow for me to write about things I've learned, but it will further "hard-wire" the concepts into my brain.