Life as a habit

A human lifetime is really a series of events and most of them are redundant. An event is any experience that has a beginning and an end; events often nest within larger events. We eat, sleep, play and work on schedule. That is a metabolic schedule: eat when hungry; sleep when exhausted; play when you have time; and work…as needed. We are truly creatures of habit. Skill, craftsmanship, mastery and integrity are some samples of practiced habits. Most folks also bear a list of less than desirable routines. Text book definition of a habit is anything that you do two or more times, either conscious or unconscious. Sounds simple but how often did your parents in your youth “remind” you to “clean your room” or “do your homework”? Even more frustrating when you consciously decide to abandon a terrible habit. If you attend to a habitual routine you may add or abandon it but usually for only the length of your span of attention. The moment you are distracted you risk losing sight of the desired routine and you discover quickly that subconscious doesn’t subtract programming. Your only chance to overcome a dysfunctional habit is develop a new routine to overlay the undesired one.

From habits to states

I’m sure you have secured a plethora of useful habits. Unless you have a bunch of strings tied around your fingers the process you employed was to change the definition of you. The Dental Association, with the help of millions of parents, got Americans to redefine themselves as a group of folks that brush their teeth regularly. They did a great job with beautiful smiles and free toothbrushes. This is a good thing if you check the records of how many people used to die from periodontal diseases. The kids that cleaned their room without coercion defined themselves as tidy and organized. And, of course, those smart “A” students did their homework and on time. Unless you are still acting like a two year old, you have probably developed many states of being. You act different at work, at a party, at church and at mom’s house. These states are learned and triggered by an emotion when appropriate. You may not be in the mood to go to work every day but by the time you are in the office you elect the mood to work in preference to the mood to look for new work. With a task we muster enough energy to complete but with a state the energy establishes a mood or appropriate attitude to endure the experience. Going to the dentist is a task but getting worked on flows better (less resistance) if you’re in the right state or mood.

Nature of definition

The definition of you is not a statement or a thought. A story is useful if attached to a shape in space. Our minds process life and our part in it as a contour; a dimensional piece made up of “forces” in different directions. Imagine one of those squiggly balloons tied by a clown or just a key for a lock. If you speak up in a group are you not attending to how loud you are speaking, what effect your words and volume level might have on the group, how you might affect folks near but not part of your group, what repercussions you might invoke from anyone, etc.? Yes, your definition of you is the impact of your presence as a “force” and your level of social appropriateness, intellectual framing, cognitive awareness and content clarity reflect the sophistication of you as a “key.” When you read a book, take a class, go to a museum, volunteer your time in community service or just spend time socializing you are expanding the parameters of your definition. Same old routine stuff is still just a habit but exploring new terrain is what I call discovery and that is what enriches you. It is what you discover and never what you know that integrates potential into your concept of self.

Comparative intuitive ranges

I have seen some amazing roses from all around the world but I don’t think I’ve ever spied a perfect rose. Different sizes and colors but comparatively they were all roses. We say the universe conserves because it doesn’t attempt to create a perfect anything. As a design a rose is a template, a dimensional definition of a type of flower. Humans are far more complex than roses but the same rule of conservation applies. We talk about learned stimulus/responses but these are ranges and not statements. Our personal definition, like a target, is affixed to the center of each range we activate. Our automatic subconscious intuitive system marks off an area in the center of the range indicating the limits of what is acceptable by the definition of us within the context of the specific range. For example, say we decide to learn archery. Our definition defines how fast we learn something new, how committed we are, how competitive is our drive and how much effort we are willing to exert to create a fun experience. This data zooms us in on the range with beginner (person looking for fired arrows) on one end and an appropriate anticipated skill level on the other end (all arrows somewhere in the hay bale). As we participate in our “new habit” the range gradates up with skill and we generate a state of being as an archer. Not a perfect plan but a good range and over time your skill will continue to improve and validate your participation as congruent with your definition. Now imagine a change in the example to where your friends, who are very competitive, talked you into taking up archery as a social bonding. Under these different circumstances your range might be set up as “I can’t do this” on one end and beginner (person looking for fired arrows) on the other end. Bad range with you at one end hoping to fall on an arrow and the other end an un-improving beginner (by design). We refer to this as shadow element (shadow of potential) and not very likely you will develop a state of being as an archer or even continue with your friendship. These type of shadow experiences, bad ranges, lead to a person reducing the scope of their definition. A small range with reduced definition of self is depression. Psychology is the science of shadow.

Finding the culprit

So we do habits but states are better. Working on your potential is increasing the defined package or self image. You perceive potential for you by research and/or observation and then discover how to apply the results to the concept of you. Discovery is not a task or a plan but the insight that surfaces from your prolonged attention to the potential (prayer, practice, training). This is usually best orchestrated by observing the potential in another person. You know how to do this and with a little attention all these steps integrate into the state of discovery. Range has a small speed bump because it operates in the subconscious and will not allow you to delete a bad range. In fact this automatic intuitive system prioritizes comparative selections on familiar. Yes, this system will continue to select what never worked for you in the past because it is familiar. You will need to override the system and create a demonstration of employing new potential and new range parameters. Not a problem if you start now by being present (conscious attention) on whatever level you are making choices and adjust your range finder for success. Create the habit of noticing both end points and if there is nothing for you (no you) at one of these points don’t participate. Drop down a level and adjust the range in the subset. A choice got you to another choice, etc.; remember you do habits. Take a moment and build a better path to a more positive range. Logical but not easy because today’s new idea is not part of yesterday’s intuitive range. Also, thinking, logic or analysis is a task. The good news is when you start to analyze all the pieces (the whole) to make a choose your brain produces gamma waves that shut out the intuitive “voice.” A win but still a task ahead of you and you need to research all those pieces before you choose an improvement to the range. Automatic systems are great if the data is current and correct.

Styling with states

Don’t get in a rush, adjusting ranges (disassociating learned stimulus/response) is a lifetime project. Don’t treat this as a task or even one event. Triggers can produce very emotional reactions and wise to get help with “hot buttons.” The goal is gentle growth work securing one range at a time and address the ones that naturally emerge. Use your spare time to explore different types or levels of states. The emotional drive for a state change is also very powerful. Remember falling in love or getting angry? Not much linguistical support for all the variation in states or cognitive agreement between the experts. Simply, a state is similar to a computer software program with a reminder to activate. Writers often disengage auto correct because it is very zealous and frequently misleading. Have you ever spent time with an unsecure friend in crisis? They get their feelings hurt and you compensate with “auto correct” on but at times it is not helpful to “co-sign their BS” and then you may step out of state and speak direct. You can feel the emotion pushing you but you override the system. More difficult to step out of state in an accident or a threatening situation but possible with practice and experience. Firefighters and police manage. State structure may be stored external like a computer program in an external drive or on cloud. Less emotion and more awareness of choice to activate but not as sincere naturally. You have interacted with salesmen with “rehearsed lines” but teachers and politicians use this system with great success. The secret is “energy in is the same as energy out”; in a state of being that means if you want more from the interface you will need to allow more emotional energy to flow into your state of being; your state of you being you now. The next state and where the reference for the Wellness Code resides is called higher state (higher brain state) but before we explore this potential we need to look at threshold.

Getting past threshold

Do you remember when you had to work math problems on a school test and you were always looking for extra paper for the computations? We wanted the work sheet separate from the answer sheet. We are not comfortable allowing something to take 100% of our attention. I’m sure you have experience being speechless at an amazing sunset or sunrise and thought that was cool. Not so cool when stopped for questioning by police and you find yourself “tongue tied.” “The deer in the headlights” experience is a limitation of attention because we know deer can move very fast. Neither animal or human feel comfortable attending to the unknown but true potential is unknown. For your speechless moment above at that amazing view both right and left sides of your brain are active and attending 100% to all stimulus in the scene. You are at potential but can you trust it? Higher states are external, update potential and require 100% attention. Imagine again a math problem in that school test without any worksheets this time. You know the math and you are competent that you could work out the solution if you had a sheet for computation. You relax and take a breath. Your “mind” finds an external point and you attend to it. In a few seconds the correct answer is revealed and, because you know the math, you know it is valid and insert it in the test. This is not intuition because that is comparative and I’m not sure your dead grandmother could do the math and send you the answer. Not a lucky guess, not supernatural and probably not wise to tell the teacher this story but cool if correct. Higher states deal with higher development issues for humans that require full attention to operate. A few examples: abundance (resource and gratitude), wellness (healthy and balanced) and genius (visionary and committed).

The Wellness Code

This is not some new age “magic” but observed phenomena from neuroscience. Not normal everyday operation for a human and there are a few steps but otherwise just a new habit to practice and learn. You build a reference internal with enough aspects to log in your metabolic rate (what happens in your body when you need to wait even as a pause), establish a “logo”, add a system for communications. All this you will do in the Wellness Code Training and activate the new system. Tuning the communication part does have a learning curve but it is fast and you will adapt with fast response. Remember states are a mood and being in the mood to be healthy all the time takes all the effort out of being well. You may not know now what to do but you will discover what you need on every step along your journey to wellness. Imagine a range with healthy on one end and vitality on the other end. A win-win for you and the secret to all programming is in the code.