Our Brain’s Automatic Narrative
Posted on July 16th, 2011
A most important tip: hijack the brain’s automatic hijacking.
Here's a little example of how our brain can automatically hijack us:
We're walking along a pathway that runs around a beautiful lake. It's a gorgeous day, not too hot, not too cool, with a lovely breeze. We're not thinking of anything in particular when all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, we feel a little twinge of sadness.
We start wondering WHY we felt that little twinge of sadness, and we remember that we had made a comment recently to someone… and (now we're thinking) that comment could have been perceived as rude or inconsiderate… and (now we're thinking) this person is really angry with us… and is telling all of our mutual friends how rude and inconsiderate we were/are/always will be… and all of those friends will believe/agree with that person… and everyone will begin to avoid us and talk behind our back… and (we're still thinking) we will not get an invitation to any of the parties being planned for the summer and we'll have no one to be our friend…
And now we are not aware at all of the gorgeousness of the day or the lovely cool breeze or the stunningly beautiful lake. Instead, we are being pulled down this spiral of negative emotions and feeling sadder and sadder.
Now it could have been that our brain caught sight of something in the scenery or environment that triggered a sad memory. But what the brain does next – without our awareness, without our direction, without any intent on our conscious-part – is try to figure out the cause of that sad feeling.
The brain does this as a survival technique. The brain's number one goal is survival. And it is on constant alert for any thing that might threaten its survival. Whenever some emotion comes up that might threaten survival (sadness, fear, anxiety), the brain will automatically – beneath your awareness, without our conscious intent – scour its memory banks to come up with any and all possible reasons for a sad feeling.
And, the brain will always (always) find a reason. It is doubtful that there is anyone in the world who has not had some sad thing happened to them in their lifetime.
The brain will also look into the future and imagine that things that could (could) happen. Oh, it does a wonderful job of imagining things that could (could) happen.
This is what the brain will do with everything that it has dug out of our memory banks and that it has created out of our forward-thinking: it will come up with an entire narrative… a back story… a whole theatrical tragedy-play of what somebody has done to us or what life has handed us or what the gods have done to us or haven't done for us. Our mood will dictate the "flavor" of our thoughts… because that's how the brain works.
And, the brain will BELIEVE that narrative.
So much of our brain's activity happens beneath our consciousness… underneath our awareness. It's the only way we could operate, the only way we can live.
For example, the next time you walk up a flight of stairs, consciously do the movements required to walk up that flight of stairs. Normally, we do it unconsciously, and the movements are smooth and relatively effortless depending on our physical condition, of course.
[Important! Hold on to the railing when you try this.]
This time, do it consciously… directing the muscles to lift the leg and place the foot on the next step etc. Notice how physically weird it feels. You might even stumble a little bit.
Be aware of what your brain begins to tell you about your step-climbing performance. Is your brain saying that you have terrible coordination… that your mother/dance teacher/sibling was right about your not being graceful… that you never have been, never will be…
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My next blog will tell what we can do about that hijacking. It's incredibly simple and powerful.