4 February 2021
So much of who you are is like an automatic cruise control. Many times the cruise control is “set” without you being fully aware of it. How else would you explain unwanted, destructive, or compulsive behaviors? If the conditioned mind were so easy to change, people would be able to stop addictive behaviors. The automated feature of being human most likely explains the vast majority of horrible things we do do each other. How else can you explain why someone would say, “I don’t know what came over me!”, after an angry rampage? The truth is that the lower, automated brain can hijack the aware, higher brain. Sometimes it’s absolutely necessary for the limbic brain to kick in and to make you react, like in extreme danger or when your life is threatened. But people operate daily life from that lower brain function, and cannot rise above behaviors that are destructive, nor can they recognize the negative byproduct of their fearful emotions.
The lower, automated, instinctual brain is older than the higher, attentive, focused brain. In human evolution, the transcendence above the animalistic mind is a newer development. You can help it along by becoming keenly aware of, and indubitably curious about how you act and what you are doing, in all moments. Don’t buy into the idea of multitasking. That’s already been debunked by science as one’s feeble attempt to do more than one thing at a time. Multitasking is nothing but your limited, attentive bandwidth moving frantically from one micro-task to the next. Rather, become a watchdog of your own, inner dimension as you take each and every action. Do you undertake each action peacefully and attentively, or do you rush through, and trudge along, often frantically? If you allow your attentive bandwidth to slip below your higher awareness, you’ll continue to do things you dislike or that are destructive to you. Disengage the cruise control. Slow down. Remember that the attentive mind is still evolving, so bring more awareness to it. Take greater care in all tasks and in all choices, today. You can transcend the dangers of the automatic brain, but only if you watch and observe yourself, like a hawk!