Figure 8A. The biological model of change involves transforming the
familiar past to a new future.Let’s look a bit more closely at a few elements of this process.
Obviously, to avoid letting any thought or feeling you don’t want to
experience get past you unchecked, you have to develop powerful skills of
observation and focus. We humans have a limited ability to focus and to
absorb input—but we can be much better at it than we normally are in our
more unconscious state.
To break the habit of being yourself, you would be wise to select one
trait, propensity, or characteristic and focus your attention on that single
aspect of your old self that you want to change. For example, you might
begin by asking yourself: When I feel angry, what are my thought patterns?
What do I say to others and myself? How do I act? What other emotions
spring forth from my being angry? What does anger feel like in my body?
How can I become conscious of what triggers my anger, and how can I
change my reaction?
The process of change requires unlearning first, then learning. The latter
is a function of firing and wiring in the brain; the former means that circuits
are trimmed. When you stop thinking the same way, when you inhibit your
habituations and interrupt those emotional addictions, the old self begins to
be neurologically pruned away.
And if every connection between nerve cells constitutes a memory, then
as those circuits are dismantled, memories of your old self will go with
them. When you think about your former life and who you used to be, it
will be like another lifetime. Where are those memories now stored? They
will be given to the soul as wisdom.
When those thoughts and feelings that used to signal the body are
stopped by your conscious efforts, the liberated energy from those limited
emotions is released into the field. You now have energy with which to
design and create a new destiny.
When we use meditation as a means to change, when we become
conscious and aware, familiar with and willing to do what is necessary to
eradicate an undesirable trait and cultivate a desired one, we’re doing what
mystics have been doing for centuries.