Find out how you can learn to change your own experience (1 Viewer)

[jasque]

Most people don't actively and deliberately use their own brains.
Your brain is like a machine without an "off" switch.



If you don't give it something to do, it just runs on and on until it gets bored.
If you put someone in a sensory deprivation tank where there's no external experience,
he'll start generating internal experience.



If your brain is sitting around without anything to do, it's going to start doing something,
and it doesn't seem to care what it is. You may care, but it doesn't.



For example, have you ever been just sitting around minding your own business, or sound asleep,
when suddenly your brain flashes a picture that scares the pants off you?



How often do people wake up in the middle of the night because they just relived an ecstatically
pleasurable experience? If you've had a bad day, then later your brain will show you vivid reruns, over and over again.



It's not enough that you had a bad day; you can ruin the whole evening, and perhaps part of next week, too.
Most people don't stop there. How many of you think about unpleasant things that happened long ago?



It's as if your brain is saying, "Let's do it again! We've got an hour before lunch, let's think about something that's really depressing. Maybe we can get angry about it three years too late." Have you heard about "unfinished business"? It's finished; you just didn't like the way it came out.



I want you to find out how you can learn to change your own experience, and get some control over what happens in your brain.
Most people are prisoners of their own brains. It's as if they are chained to the last seat of the bus and someone else is driving.



I want you to learn how to drive your own bus. If you don't give your brain a little direction, either it will just run randomly on its own, or other people will find ways to run it for you—and they may not always have your best interests in mind. Even if they do, they may get it wrong!
Disappointment requires adequate planning. Did you ever think about how much trouble you have to go to in order to be disappointed? You really have to plan thoroughly for it. The more planning, the more disappointment.



Some people go to the movies and then say, "It's just not as good as I thought it was going to be." This makes me wonder, if they had such a good movie inside their heads, why did they go to the theater? Why go sit in a room with sticky floors and uncomfortable seats to watch a movie, and then say, "I can do better than that in my head, and I didn't even have the screen play."



This is the kind of thing that happens if you let your brain run wild.People spend more time learning how to use a food processor than they do learning how to use their brains. There isn't much emphasis placed on deliberately using your mind in ways other than you already do.
'You're supposed to "be yourself—as if you had an alternative. You're stuck with it, believe me. I suppose they could wipe out all your memories with electroshock, and then make you into someone else, but the results I've seen haven't been very enticing.



Until we find something like a mind-blanking machine, I think you're probably stuck with you. And it's not so bad, because you can learn to use your brain in more functional ways.

 

[yeji]

what a lovely and helpful thread

 

[Koala]

Wise Grass Hopper Cha Cha is best.