Built to Learn and to Unlearn

THE HUMAN MIND: BUILT TO LEARN AND TO UNLEARN

We human beings invest enormous energy in learning.   Sensing, thinking, feeling, and responding are used to explore, discover, distinguish, define, understand, interact with, and manipulate each environment. The "wiring" of the mind develops and is molded in concert with one's present and prior observations, experiences and interactions with the outer world, especially other people. We even create out of this a sense of personal identity, a "character within a story" that becomes who we believe ourselves to be.  This innate tendency of the mind to build upon what it "knows to be true and real" makes it a construct based largely in the past, meaning that any significant "changing of one's mind" requires investing considerable energy over an extended period of time to rewire the brain.

Unlearning is not a simple process of deleting or forgetting, however, but is more like rewriting or overwriting.  This is why learning any new skill or way of behaving requires dedicated practice, not simply will. One way to develop a new mindset based more on what is real and true in present time is a regular daily practice of "being present with what is" while noticing, acknowledging, and accepting any thoughts and feelings that surface during the process. To attend each thought and feeling, albeit present or past-based, with curiosity and compassion is an exercise of loving presence and can open doorways to deep healing and profound personal transformation.

Find out more by viewing my ePublications in the Books/Resources section of this website.