Your thoughts are you and your body and mind. Over 80-90% of your thinking is literally the same as yesterday. You worries, anxieties, and the story you tell yourself is unchanging as you listen to the ego-voice in your head. This ego-voice is just your conditioned beliefs. A belief is a thought you keep thinking that creates your self-image and self-identification. You literally create your reality through your thoughts that become your beliefs, which make you create labels for which you then produce judgments. Labels in themselves are not necessarily wrong, because this is a form of sociotyping when neutral (non-judgmental) thoughts allow us to categorize our learned knowledge for easy retrieval. It is the judgments we apply to our labels that are negative and that is stereotyping, which tends to be unconscious and derived from our conditioning. We stereotype ourselves and everything around us unconsciously. To break out of this mode of living you need to become aware that you are thinking and what you are thinking about – this is ‘metacognition.’ It is simply being aware of your thinking about what you are thinking – becoming aware and understanding your own thought processes. As mentioned in previous posts, your unconscious beliefs have great impact on your physical body. The Placebo and Nocebo are examples of this. You can recover from a terminal illness with the placebo effect and you can be completely healthy and die from the nocebo effect if you told you have a disease but don’t have actually have it! (See previous posts Health – Sickcare 2 and Reality 2 – A Spiritual perspective – How your thinking affects your reality.) Beliefs are literally that powerful, and we are unaware of most of them.
Think about the chaos of modern living – where do you feel calm and peace? Bring that to the place of chaos if you wish to be relaxed. In my dissertation I drew up a Cognitive Intergrated System Model (CISM) to show how incoming stimuli are filtered through our ego related beliefs and values into attitudes and behaviors, with symbolic beliefs running alongside but in separate belief structures. We live within an internal landscape of our own making (through conditioning) that becomes the framework and data set of which we view the whole world – it is our lens of the world in which we individually live. Two people experiencing the exact same situation will ‘react’ differently depending on this conditioning. One person may see it as a very negative experience and ask “What did I do to deserve this and why is it happening to me?” The other person may see it as a harsh experience but ask “what is this teaching me about myself and how I can I respond compassionately?” Both are experiencing the same event but one reacts ‘mindlessly’ (subconsciously) while the other responds mindfully.
We literally create our own limitations through limiting beliefs. The words ‘I can’t….” with whatever you add to that statement literally create your self-imposed limitations for that aspect. To break past the conditioning requires metacognitive effort. Recognize that you have a set of ‘preferences’ that act as your baseline of what is right and wrong. What is your favorite color? Ask your friend what their favorite color is? Likely it is different. Are they wrong? Ought they be put to death because they are different from you? While this seems silly because we are only talking about color, how many other ‘preferences’ do you have where this would be quite a logical conclusion – politics, religion, social and cultural identity, etc…? Your lifestyle signals to everyone around you what are your preferences though the behaviors you act out. It keeps you in a box with people who share a lot of your preferences.
Much as we like to talk about being intellectual, we really are an emotional species. We feel our way through life with its emotional ups and downs. If we merely move through life with our unconscious conditioning, we find ourselves ‘reacting’ without needing to think. This usually creates all manner of conflict and negative situations. Conflict is valuable because it produces contrasts. If we metacognitively observe the situations (contrasts) we encounter in our everyday lives, they show us what we prefer and what we do not prefer! When you use metacognition you consciously create a life in which you make decisions that more accurately define who you really want to be. You can then let people be whoever they are without judgment, even if they are simply reactionary – that is true empowerment. This is when transformation occurs. Being aware of how you think allows you to consciously transform your beliefs structures. When you no longer react and start to respond mindfully you start to come from a more neutral non-emotional perspective with less judgment and more enlightened behaviors.
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” Gandhi
So, what can you do to be more metacognitive? Observe your triggers and Stressors to every event in your life. When they happen, introduce an interrupter (one long breath); then observe what is confronting you. Create intention that you will not react to this event/situation. If you can, take another 3-5 long breaths and introduce a smile (this literally and positively changes your bodies chemistry over time). Observe the situation and respond mindfully with compassion and NOT reactionary thoughts from your ego conditioning; think of a new positive sustainable behavior you can easily do. This is becoming aware of your conditioning and beliefs. Making a metacognitive effort (conscious and mindful observation) to change the beliefs you want into instrumental beliefs for everyday living. The power of positive words and thinking greatly influences your future choices. Choosing Love over anger or irritation (or especially hate) by seeing others as simply trapped in their conditioning helps you become more connected to your true self.
To be continued……….
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