When I began this blog my first post was a comparison between man and an ant. I think I made it sound simple, so simple in fact that a good number of you dismissed it as too simple to be possible.
The point I made in that original post was that the ant from the moment it is born has no choice in how its life will play out. It is guided by instinct with decisions centered around the perimeters of it’s instinct (move the earth to the left or right). Man on the other hand possesses a powerful mental device: his mind and the creative imagination contained as a function of it.
I call it a device because our mind is really one of the most powerful computers you could ever imagine. Think about it. If you were to decide to stand up from the chair you are sitting in right now: first there is the desire and then millions of calculations that go into telling the appropriate muscles to move and then calculate the rate at which those muscles have to move in order for you to stand up slowly or move quickly.Our subconscious mind works pretty much in the same manner. It collects and files every bit of information we encounter in addition to our thoughts, beliefs, or interpretations. All of this is stored in the form of images or mental pictures that are later linked by our imagination. If you have ever watched any of those “Sell This House” shows where a decorator comes in and rearranges the house and then opens it up to potential buyers, you periodically see the decorator baking cookies just before the buyers arrive. The smell of fresh baked cookies brings up images of fun and happy anticipation and the buyers unconsciously pull up the mental image of expecting something good.
If we without thinking feed our device thoughts or self images of being incapable, undeserving, or just plain unworthy; this information is processed and acted upon in providing a dysfunctional “solution” to any problem we may encounter. In this same way we can decide the mental images we want to use to help us make connections that will guide us in the direction we really want to go.
In keeping with the computer analogy, this series is designed to help you rewrite the code that governs your device to help you establish a new program.
And yes, it is easy but also requires that you resolve to create new habits. And we will get into the steps as the series moves along. In the meantime, think about connects that you have made in the past. Things like where were you when you felt the most happy? What was your proudest moment and how did that feel? When did you feel safe and cared for and what was happening at the time. Just make a mental note of those moments until the next post…
And yes, it is easy but also requires that you resolve to create new habits. And we will get into the steps as the series moves along. In the meantime, think about connects that you have made in the past. Things like where were you when you felt the most happy? What was your proudest moment and how did that feel? When did you feel safe and cared for and what was happening at the time. Just make a mental note of those moments until the next post…
Actually I can see the comparison of man and ant.. I had an ant farm and watching those ants build and rebuild reminded me of man… As a kid I would add too much water to that ant farm and naturally u could tell that the water would destroy their pathways… I also noticed how they perservered and rebuilt the passageways… They would do it over and over until they either drowned in the water that I had over added or they would just choose to work another route.. What I learned about the ants was that they indeed could get to the end of their patience/rope just like us…
Chrissy,
I did not say an ant could not learn, my point is that they cannot choose because they are programmed at birth. Yes, they could rebuild a passage until they learned one direction was better than another. But, I bet you never saw an ant walk away and from digging in the dirt. And that is the point. The ant can learn based on the perimeters of his (actually her because the workers are female) instinct, but lacks the ability to choose not to do the same work over and over. Man can choose.