Tag / habits

by Janet

Road to Happiness

The road to success [or a better life] is always under construction.

Lily Tomlin [and me]

As you probably know, I never tire of learning about the power of our minds. Sometimes I’ll read or hear something and it sends chills down my spine. Good chills. It’s like a feeling of excitement that what you just learned has helped you tap into something better, something life-changing, something miraculous.

So… this is going to be my first post for a year long series:

Miracles Every Day

I don’t know if I’ve ever shared this, but I read a book a while back called Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health, by Dr. Caroline Leaf. She has interesting thoughts not only on how our brains work, but on how bits of biblical text actually correlate with the way that they work.

It is truly fascinating, but I have to confess that I never did the worksheets. I always do that. I’ll read a great self-help book where the back half of the book has all of the questions, planners, guides, exercises, etc., and I’ll stop right there. I just wanted to hear how the damn thing works, not actually DO the work. Ha!

The bottom line: It’s about how repeating positive thoughts can build new pathways in our brains, and how cutting out negative thoughts will begin to shut down the old pathways we’ve constructed over our lifetime—with negative or unhealthy thinking, false beliefs, etc.

Talk on how repetitive thoughts (or even activities) create pathways in our brain is not new, I just had a harder time grasping it—scientifically—until I read her book.

Here’s the deal though. As passionate as I am about “the mind,” I am a terrible student when it comes to physiology. Don’t ask me why, but I can’t seem to memorize the names of human body parts and their functions!

When I read things relating to neuroscience—about specific regions of the brain, for example, or neurons, neurotransmitters, receptors, and so on—my mind begins to fog up and I begin to look like a deer in the headlights. That being said, when I try to imagine how it all works I see something like this…

But… recently, I found the best analogy ever:

*Imagine you have crash landed in the jungle. There are thick branches and vines everywhere, as far as you can see. You are thirsty, and you hear running water in the distance, to the right of your mangled plane. You search for the easiest way to get there, but all you can see is this thick vegetation and it’s the same in every direction. You stay where you are because you are afraid. But your thirst finally overcomes your fear, and you strike out for the creek.

When you do this, you make a pathway. It is not much and it will not last, but it is there. By passing through the jungle once, you have made a pathway of least resistance. As you head back, you take that pathway again because it’s now the easiest way. As you go through this repeatedly, you make more of a pathway until in time you have a nice smooth trail. Now, every time you go to the creek you take the easiest way. That is how the brain works and that is how learning takes place.*

Now, this may not explain what is inside the brain, but as far as how repetitive thoughts, habits, and pathways work… I think it’s absolutely perfect. I love the visual!

I guess the point here is that human beings are amazing and complex beings, with minds that are capable of doing things that we haven’t even dreamed of yet.

That being said, the power of the human mind is a miracle. No doubt about it.

The featured image is a fun composite piece that I made for the post. The road to happiness, for sure. After a conversation I had earlier, I’m going to “try” to work on some tips for Photoshop, so my goal is to come back another day and use this piece to show how to make a simple composite piece. I’m no expert, but I think I have some tricks up my sleeve.

That’s about all for now. Thanks for reading!

Many complain of their looks, but none of their brains.

Proverb

*Source: Robert R. Perkinson, Chemical Dependency Counseling

by Janet

Our Beautiful Mind

It’s been a long time since I shared an update on my New Lifestyle, New Me project. I’ve been quiet about my progress. Why? Well… let’s just say that I’m beginning to understand why Adam and Eve hid from God after they tasted the forbidden fruit. They failed to stick to the plan. They broke the ONLY rule. That’s embarrassing! Humiliating even.

I get it. I’ve broken MOST of my own rules already, and confession is a very hard thing. 

But today is a new day, a new beginning, with fresh thoughts. 

Beautiful thoughts.

When I reorganized my room recently, I moved my bed around. The left side of it—the side that I have been getting into for years—now runs alongside a long, narrow table that I love. There is not much room between the two, meant to give me “just enough” space to get in and do some tucking in the morning, nothing else. 

That being said, the right side—the side that used to be up against the wall—is now my new area of “approach.” There’s a small rug at the base of this “right” side, beckoning me to come in for a landing and rest my feet. There’s plenty of clearance to walk around, sit for a spell, and to launch myself into bed at night.

Here’s the thing. Every time I enter, the FIRST thing I do—without even thinking—is head to the left side and SQUEEZE myself into that tiny space between the table and my bed. I can’t help it! I’m a terrible creature of habit. I’m bound and determined to reach “the left side” of my bed, even if it means nearly knocking over a lamp and spilling paperwork to the floor every time that I do it. This pattern of behavior made me curious, and so I pondered it for a bit. Two words came to mind. 

Procedural Memory.

If I want to change that weird habit (which might seem lame, but it’s a perfect example), I can’t give up. I’ve got to force myself to veer to the right, and I’ve got to do it again and again, over and over.  

Procedural memory is a part of long-term memory that’s responsible for motor skills. It’s where information on how to perform certain procedures is stored. It’s like learning to ride a bike when you’re young. You try and you try, and you probably wobble at first (after falling several times). But you keep doing it, over and over, and then—once you’ve got it down perfectly—something miraculous happens. The task no longer involves conscious thought. You can ride a bike, and you can do it without even thinking! That’s incredible.

When I shared about the curse of the all or nothing recently, I think most of what I said was “self-talk.” I do that a lot; sharing ideas with you all as I try to teach the ideas to myself. The whole point behind my thoughts were that I should not just GIVE UP (do nothing or quit). Life is not about all of nothing. It’s about putting forth effort to do the things that you’d like to do, or to make the changes you want to make.

So, as far as my New Lifestyle, New Me goes—if I haven’t succeeded the first time around, or the second, or even the third (and so on)—it does not mean that it’s time to give up. It means that it’s time to GET UP and to try again. And again.

Because when we do something over and over, like learning to ride a bike, eventually that miracle happens. One day we wake up and we can do it without thinking. That new healthy habit has taken root, residing on its own in that place we call our procedural memory… deep inside of our beautiful mind.

God really IS great.

Thank you for reading! I hope you found something interesting or enjoyable here.

Three Things Challenge #224: Bed, Young, Curious

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay