Before we begin talking about how you can break the habit of being
yourself, I want to appeal to your common sense for a few moments. How
did this habit of thinking and feeling in the same way, over and over, begin?
I can only answer that by talking about the brain—the starting point of
our thoughts and feelings. Current neuroscientific theory tells us that the
brain is organized to reflect everything we know in our environment. All the
information we have been exposed to throughout our lives, in the form of
knowledge and experiences, is stored in the brain’s synaptic connections.
The relationships with people we’ve known, the variety of things we own
and are familiar with, the places where we’ve visited and lived at different
times in our lives, and the myriad experiences we’ve embraced throughout
our years are all configured in the structures of the brain. Even the vast
array of actions and behaviors that we’ve memorized and repeatedly
performed throughout our lifetimes are imprinted in the intricate folds of
our gray matter.
Hence, all of our personal experiences with people and things at specific
times and places are literally reflected within the networks of neurons
(nerve cells) that make up our brains.
What do we collectively call all these “memories” of people and things
that we experienced at different places and times in our lives? That’s our
external environment. For the most part, our brains are equal to our
environment, a record of our personal past, a reflection of the life we’ve
lived.
During our waking hours, as we routinely interact with the diverse
stimuli in our world, our external environment activates various brain
circuits. As a consequence of that nearly automatic response, we begin to
think (and react) equal to our environment. As the environment causes us to
think, familiar networks of nerve cells fire that reflect previous experiences
already wired in the brain. Essentially, we automatically think in familiar
ways derived from past memories.
If your thoughts determine your reality, and you keep thinking the same
thoughts (which are a product and reflection of the environment), then you
will continue to produce the same reality day after day. Thus, your internal
thoughts and feelings exactly match your external life, because it is your
outer reality—with all of its problems, conditions, and circumstances—that
is influencing how you’re thinking and feeling in your inner reality.
stevenselfio
(Stevenselfio)
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