Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Emotional Patterns: Comfortable and Deadly

So, let's say that we respond in a patterned way to emotional stimuli, such that every time we receive enough input to deduce a particular arrangement of a certain emotion or circumstance coming at us, we have a very specific response, and see that incoming information in a dark or skewed way.  Let's say that the incoming information is in the form of a verbal statement along the lines of "did you wash the dishes like i asked?" and that task has been an issue in the past.

What's funny, partially because of arbitrary coherence, and partially because of like our internal mechanisms that i can't really get in to explaining, is that we'll respond in a habitual and patterned way in response, one that is not exactly rational, or one that isn't, perhaps, even related to the person speaking.  which means that, when we react to certain input, we do so in a way that ranges from mildly to severely disengaged from the input itself, or, in other words, the intent of the speaker, for example, the actual words and tone, etc.

At a basic level, we adapt to our own patterns and expectations and get further away from objective understanding to base any subjective response on, and instead have not just reactions, but kind of like shell reactions to things, interacting with them less and less and spending less and less brain power trying to understand and resolve, and more and more fuming.  But who remembers emotions after they are gone?  We don't.  Instead, we remember situational factors.

The point: our own laziness is natural, and it is uncomfortable to push against it BUT and AND pushing against it will make us happier and feel like we're living more meaningful engaging lives.

And we all still have to remember, once we've made that struggle to the speck of sunlight, that it is not okay to have a drink as a reward.  No matter how easy or close it might be.

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