driver to an experienced one. It’s like being able to knit without having to
consciously will each of the actions into motion. It’s like the old Nike ad
slogan: you are just doing it.
If you are getting bored around this point in the exercise, take that as a
good sign. It means that your new mode of operation is beginning to
become familiar, common, and automatic. You have to get to this juncture
in order to hardwire and embody this information into long-term memory.
You must make an effort to go beyond your boredom, because each time
you engage in your new ideal, you manage to be more of the new you with
less effort. You engrave your new model of you into a memory system that
then becomes more subconscious and natural. If you keep practicing it, you
won’t have to think about being it. You will have become it. Bottom line,
practice makes perfect. You are training yourself in this process, like any
sport.
If you’re doing rehearsal correctly, then each time you practice, it should
be easier for you to accomplish. Why? Because you’re primed; you already
have those circuits firing in tandem in your brain, and it’s already warmed
up. You also manufactured the right chemistry, and it’s circulating in your
body, selecting a new genetic expression; your body is naturally in the right
state. In addition, you have restrained and “quieted down” other brain
regions connected to the old you. Consequently, the feelings that were
associated with the old you are less likely to stimulate your body in the
same inherent ways.
Bear in mind that most of the mental-rehearsal exercises that activate and
grow new circuits in the brain involve learning knowledge, getting
instruction, paying attention, and repeating the skill over and over. As you
know, learning is making new connections; instruction is teaching the body
“how to” in order to create a new experience; paying attention to what you
are doing is absolutely necessary to rewire your brain, because it involves
your being present to the stimuli ... both physical and mental; and last,
repetition fires and wires long-term relationships between nerve cells.
These are all the ingredients that it takes to grow new circuits and make a
new mind—and this is exactly what you’re doing in your meditations.
Repetition is what I want to emphasize here.
stevenselfio
(Stevenselfio)
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