Mindfullness Psychology vs. AI
4 ways to stay sane in times of great change
In my last post I wrote this.
Skillful communication of data will increase in importance during years to come due to much legwork being assigned to generative AI.
In this post I want to expand this into a note on mental well-being in times of great change.
Many people let the recent advancements of AI loom over their existence like a predator in the shadows — waiting to gobble them up!
It’s fear of the unknown, and it’s completely natural.
I won’t provide you any comforting here. Put frankly, I don’t know what will become of my field over the years to come.
Instead I’ll teach you something useful about the brain. Then, I’ll tell you what I do to stay centered and relaxed regardless of circumstance so you can do the same.
When you’re stressed out you’re living in a scarcity mindset, you shrink yourself, and you’re unable to reach for the opportunities at your arms length…
Before enrolling at university I spent half a decade in the army. With two tours abroad under my belt and countless hours spent ‘wondering’ both at home and overseas I can safely say that the unknown is a known friend of mine.
The core lesson over the years, it’s extra important in times of uncertanity that you focus on the things you can control, namely, YOURSELF.
Get comfortable with the unknown and you’ll be able to keep your cool and awarness. With elevated awareness you may notice new things, pick up different information and new opportunities.
The goal here is for you to shake your scarcity mindset, enter abundance mode and start making moves to improve your life.
After leaving the army my past caught up with me and turned me into a mental wreckage. So, when I discovered that you can heal your own mind and regenerate the soul, I took this very seriously!
It was the first thing in a long time that produced real results that I could see, feel and touch…
How to ‘brain and emotion’, the very basics, from the old testament;
The old testament is not just a book, it’s a collection of wisdom expressed partly in symbols and metaphors.
The story of Adam and Eve is about the human mind. More specifically, it is about a mind that has become fractured and is therefore no longer whole. We should but won’t dive deep into this here, I’ll provide a link at the end for further reading.
Most of you have probably heard about the fall of man, how Adam and Eve where kicked out of the garden of eden for not adhering to gods laws.
The story goes, a serpent approaches Eve in the garden and seduces her to eat from a forbidden fruit, the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve eats the fruit and then seduces Adam to eat.
I use this as a metaphorical description of how our desires tempt our emotions which tempt our reason.
More specifically, I use this as a metaphor to explain how our ‘reptile brain’ (animal drives) influence our body and emotions which can infect our thoughts.
Like the trajectory and velocity of a bullet, where we come from will determine how we react on impact.
Learning by doing
Let’s explore the above. We’ll create strong feelings and bodily responses using our brains software.
Note; This exercise may produce discomfort. We’ll be reflecting on death. Feel free to skip to the next section, ‘Walk the walk’. Or, attempt at your own risk.
Do not continue reading before stopping here for a couple of seconds, taking a deep breath, relaxing your belly.
Picture that you are going to die. Imagine your lips turning blue and your heart stopping. Sit for a moment and try to really feel it, in vivid detail, what it will be like to not exist, to never wake up again, never — that’s a very long time, what will it feel like? How did it feel like before you were born?
Vizualising in vivid detail, this likely produced a bodily response. Perhaps, your pulse increased or maybe you felt your stomach drop, some cold sweat or shivers running down your spine. Maybe even some tears…
That’s alright. This is you producing a bodily response through your thoughts alone.
Now, grasp for your feelings, perhaps you feel a slight discomfort or sorrow? Maybe you feel more alert than you did before?
If so, pay attention to that feeling of slight discomfort. Notice if you are suddenly less tired or more focused. This is your body’s survival system kicking in and preparing you for something unknown(there’s a reason for chosing death in this example).
Now imagine you’re strolling the savannah, there’s a bush at a safe distance to your right, suddenly a squirrel shakes up the bush while making a run for it.
If you didn’t know about the squirrel, while in your current state of mind, would you immediately interpret this as a threat? I would.
Okay, let’s rewind. Take another deep breath. Relax your belly.
Imagine that you’re in an island paradise. You’re floating around in the water, the sun is pleasantly warm against your skin and there’s a slight breeze.
Take a deep breath.
Everyone you love have been taken care of and it’s all because of you. Your family is happy and healthy and it’s all thanks to you.
Hopefully this produced a joyful feeling. Register that feeling, and make sure that your belly is not tensed up.
If so, relax your belly, and take a couple deep breaths still picturing the abundance of yourself and the love you spread to those around you.
Really dive into that feeling of joyful relaxation and let it embrace you. You’ve earned it.
Let’s return to the savannah. Do you immediately interpret the shaking bush as a threat or do you now have some space for curiosity?
Speaking for myself, I’m much more likely to approach a situation with curiosity when coming from a relaxed state of mind.
End of exercise — nice work!
Let’s recap; if you’re running around stressed out, consciously or unconsciously, you may interpret harmless situations as threatful and act in a way that won’t benefit you(or your temple).
For example, when in survival mode, you may respond in anger to a sincere joke, that you’d otherwise be fine with, effecting your relations.
Review this exercise, it’s a useful one, a form of meditation to help recognize when we’re coming from a place of anxiety and scarcity or from a place of abundance.
Walk the walk
I use this knowledge primarily in three ways. With your new understanding of how your feelings impact your thinking and how your feelings are influenced by your animal drives, you can too:
Observe; This will bring you in closer touch with your feelings and help you notice if your thoughts or emotions are the current driver of your behaviour.
Starting now, every hour on the hour, observe your feelings. Are you feeling discomfort or are you at rest? Regardless, ask yourself why and dissect. Is your survival system running on autopilot, is there a reason for this?
If you are dense, numb to your feelings, start by assessing your belly every hour on the hour. It should be relaxed, mighty and bulging.
If and when you relax your belly try and catch that feeling of “okayness” that will arise.
There’s an excellent way for practicing this, maybe even a pre-requisite, we’ll return to that in a moment… Feel free to experiment with the intervals, every hour on the hour will give you ahead start.
Disrupt; If you’re feeling miserable, doing something new can shift your state of being.
Don’t plan for it, just get up, get dressed and move. Make the rest up as you go. That’s a disruption that will force you out of your head.
Switch scenery — Take a short walk with no music to observe the splendor and wealth of nature (for it is truly unmatched). Ponder the fact that nothing last forever and savour this moment.
Go out in the city and submerse yourself in the weirdness of society and meditate on the words “As within, so without”. Can you notice that ‘Adam’ named all things? Society is an conretization of your brain, it’s all thought and energy.
If you’re feeling this right now, just go, walk the walk, don’t even finish reading. This post will be here when you get back. Enjoy… (Go!).
I find doing a small random act of kindness, in secret, an effective disruption. Focus on the emotions you feel doing this, if they’re not positive, try another random act of kindness.
If you are, in fact, at rest and happy a disruption may even enhance that feeling. Spread that happiness in a random way. Help someone out or leave a nice note — just because you felt like it.
Or in a deliberate way… Call your parents and tell them that you see everything they’ve done for you or thank a close friend for being there for you that ‘specific time’.
Reflect; Pull up a memory that stirred up an emotion inside you. Likely you remember the situations that produced powerful emotions like love or fear/hatred.
Dissect your emotions and ask yourself why you felt how you did? Then ask what you did in that situation and if it was a result of your reasoning or emotions?
Sit with the situation in your mind and let it stew for a while.
If overwhelmed with scorn, I usually let the situation swim away for just a moment and then reel it back in. (I would not recommend this on your first day. This can be painful but can bring heavy gains in terms of self-control, self-knowledge and courage.)
This type of self-reflection will help you recognize who you are, i.e not your circumstances or choices. Also, get to know the texture of your feelings and thoughts to anticipate where your thoughts and feelings might be leading you.
Be wise… Your desires and feelings are the produce of more than a million years of evolution. You can take charge, make no misstake, but be very humble when entering into this realm. Tread carefully and map your surroundings before taking any bold actions.
I’ve been doing this for a while, especially observing and reflecting. As well as one more thing that we’ll get to in a moment...
When I started out I had to stay alert to discern if I was thinking or being whipped by desires and emotions. Some days are good, some days are sh*t, that’s just life.
That said, recently I can almost sense where a thought is coming from, if it’s pure or not, the thoughts have a certain texture to them, a barcode.
When a destructive thought arise greet him from afar like an old friend and invite him in to sit with you or schedule a time when you can have a chat. Keep him outside and he will start tearing at your temple, hoping to bring it down upon your head…
You have to stick with it, take one day at a time and turn it into a habit, keep a notepad and jot down your victories, reflect and document.
I started my journey in a time of my life when I had nothing else going on which enabled me to progress quickly. Meaning, I could spend a couple hours reflecting and discerning on a friday night and nobody would miss me.
Always remember, that you are not your circumstances, nor your actions, nor your thoughts or emotions.
Meditate, I know you’ve been thinking about it.
First, let’s make a quick return to the manual,
Women(Eve) should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
Corinthians 14:34–35
In my view, this has one meaning for men and women alike.
To purify our thoughts, in order to discern the meaning behind them, we must learn to recognize and silence(still or soothe) the emotional body when we enter our church — in meditation.
The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you”
Luke 17:20-21
This is how you truly learn to observe your thoughts.
Create a habit of meditation!
I meditate every day and attribute at least half of my progress, in mental well-being, to this. I suggest trying breathwork since it’s simple and active.
Breathwork for me was a slippery slope into other forms of meditation.
In the beginning I had trouble keeping up with the movements which forced me to empty my mind.
Soon enough, I caught the hang of it which allowed my mind to drift and I got to practice observing my thoughts and feelings without assosciating with them.
The movements are combined with breath holds, an effective way to get a feel for how your animal desires create an emotion leading to a thought that can either whip you into submission or be treated as a suggestion.
You’ll get it when you try it out. If you’re not used to holding your breath for extended periods you may tense your body depleting your oxygen quickly. Then, a mild panic will start to swell...
Get to know that panic and be careful to register the train of events,
stress — emotion — thought — action or inaction.
I do this one each morning, with no exceptions,
Afterwards I’m filled with energy and my mind is quiet. Only then am I ready to direct my purposeful awareness towards my goals.
Concluding remarks
There you have it,
- Observe yourself
- Disrupt yourself
- Reflect on yourself
- Meditate
daily + track your progress and discoveries.
I want to end on this note, we spend our lives inside a brain but the majority won’t even bother reading the manual. Never had it occurred to them that the outside was created from the inside.
Control yourself first, then control your situation. The unknown is a part of life. Get comfortable with the unknown, you can’t escape it either way.
To get to the next level in life, you’ll need to update your brains software eventually.
With elevated awareness you may notice new things, pick up different information and perhaps new opportunities.
When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
For now, focus on exploring your mind, getting to know your emotions and expanding your awarness.
Stay sane.
