Last time we talked about how our daily lives get put on auto-pilot and many of our regular activities and thought patterns are controlled subconsciously. This subconscious control is put into place by your brain delegating tasks to, what I call, your “middle management filter”. This filter has been developed over time and was completely created by your brain and it’s interpretation of your environment. Your brain is constantly developing and changing and a decision it may have made previously might not be the same it would make now. Basically, if that same filter was put into place today it may (or may not) be very different based on your experiences since it was initially created.
If you are 35 years old and a coworker is rude to you, your filter takes over and reacts the way it was programmed to react when it was first created. This particular filter (you have created many, for all sorts of situations you’ve encountered) may have been created when you were only 10 years old and a fellow fifth grader told you that your shoes were ugly. From that point on any time a similar situation, or emotion, arises your brain activates that filter it developed previously and reacts accordingly. Your immediate reaction may be anger, or withdrawn, or maybe you force a smile and pretend it doesn’t bother you, whatever reaction that was put into place will come out. I don’t know about you, but my 10 year old brain was very different from my brain now. I’ve matured (a little) and now have experience handling these situations. However, the initial filter reaction is still in our brain and still responds the way it was developed decades earlier. The event timeline is; event occurs, emotion is created, it is processed by the filter and a reaction is initiated…all at a subconscious level without any additional brain processing being involved. The main difference is that now we have the maturity to know that lashing out, or crumbling into a crying heap on the floor, is not very effective or socially acceptable. Yet, because of the filter that the 10 year old brain put into place, these situations still have an undesired, automatic emotional reaction, which is almost instant.
At the most basic level, your day is being operationally controlled by your series of middle management filters. In other words; you’re not even there, you aren’t even really present in the moment. SO where are you?
An answer to this question can be simple, or complex. Pondered literally, I am sitting at my computer working. Or figuratively, I am drowning in a sea of grief after being launched from the roller coaster ride of life. Or, answered in the abstract; I am a pizza. Regardless of how you choose to consider your answer, the question needs to be contemplated.
When you think a thought, where are you, and where is your thought? These are deep things to consider when thinking about your headspace, mindset, etc. I’ve spent more than a decade studying meditation and mindset. One key to the puzzle that I read/watched/listen to early on in my journey was that…well two actually:
1- You are not the narrator’s voice inside your head, you are the one listening. The thoughts you ‘hear’ come from your previous experiences and the interpretation/filtering of your current situation based on those experiences.
2- You are not your body; you do have a body, but you are not your body. When we consider ourselves as only our body, and not our mind too, it makes meditation difficult. If we consider ourselves as only our body we have nowhere to get lost in thought.
Life is a series of moments. It’s a choice to live in these moments. Otherwise your brain will put your day on auto-pilot and just take you along for the ride. Be present. Be yourself. Be well!
