Friday, September 2, 2011

Proactive interference/ inhibition - Your little gremlin





Our minds are not so unlike this response a computer gives when you try to replace data with similar data. Interestingly, unless we are aware of this, our minds will click "no" by default. This is called proactive interference, or proactive inhibition. This imprinting within our minds is our way of protecting data that we have already stored. It all gets very interesting though, when you look closely at the data - for its a lot more complex than just stored words and knowledge. You've heard of that little "gremlin" that sits on your shoulder and tells you how foolish you are for daring to begin a new healthy habit such as going to the gym or reading every day. Your proactive inhibition has built a force field around the dialogues inside your head that transpire in day to day life. You have comfortable patterns, built in responses to all the stimuli in your life, of course your mind wants to protect that! The alternative is to build new neural pathways, condition your mind to adapt to manually chosen responses - that's too much work! Lets just exist within the deeply entrenched pathways that auto responses have labored for years to construct. In understanding this, it becomes clearer why its so frigging hard to build a habit - for its not just the new file we are trying to bring in, its the old file we must be sure to delete. That window in the illustration sits in our mind the moment we begin a similar transaction - the moment where we say "hey, you know what? Its high time I chose a healthier habit, a happier life, dedicated more time to my kids, to learning, to reading" because this is not what you have done for the years prior.

Our subconscious is incredibly powerful, and left to its own devices - it will do what it must with the knowledge and sensory perception that it is given to keep you alive, to avoid the chemicals associated with stress from being produced. After long years of conditioning - it can perceive "quitting cholesterol" or "reading more" as stressful - even though the new file your trying to replace the old file with has clear and powerful proof of the opposite! You understand the data as you stand there choosing it and feeling it, yet days later its as if you don't care! That's the subconscious clicking "no" by virtue of proactive interference, its just doing its job after all - keeping things familiar and known.

Don't feel so bad when you get to day three of your diet and have setbacks, or give up on the gym, or realize that you have let yet another week go by without working on your hobby. This is what we are designed to do, but that doesn't mean quit! You can click "yes" if you choose to and although the process is ongoing and challenging, its really all about becoming "aware" of when your mind is in the exact instant of choosing an aged, conditioned response that puts you in the mindframe of the old habits. For example - Imagine you set a goal to go to the gym after work Monday through Friday. You're psyched, your living the future experience and can't wait to get started. You are inspired and motivated to do this. Monday rolls around... you come home from work and a series of entrenched stimulus / responses begin, they are as simple as flicking the light on, putting your keys on the counter, opening the fridge, getting a beer or bottle of water and as this motor begins whirring - you suddenly find you have plopped yourself on the couch just like every day after work prior. You have completed the after work ritual and your mind has now begun its dialogue "man I'm tired" "what a long day" - and as I'm sure you are aware - for every thought you have - your body physiologically responds. You suddenly FEEL more tired, you FEEL like a break is owed, well shit now we got the whole orchestra of habitual behavior going! Wait.... didn't you say you were going to the gym after work? Well good luck telling your body that! It has now entered a state of "no thank you, I'm way too tired for that! Me and this body here aren't going anywhere! And so.... "no" is clicked again, and you will have to pull that file back out again another day and psyche yourself up to hope you can convince your future self to click "yes"


Lets rewind this situation and see if we can curb the proactive inhibition, the series of programmed, conditioned responses... flicking a light on and putting your keys on the counter could be a good place to start - but if you want the powerful moment its probably that damn couch. Its comfy and its a place you have sat hundreds of times, relying on its powerful ability to make you feel relaxed. You need to look at that couch and recognize its power of changing your state - in doing so you are saying "I am in control" ... eff you couch! I will relax when I have scheduled some relaxation - not when you tell me to! In that MOMENT... of standing up and not sitting down you have a chance to have MANUAL internal dialogue because you have broken the ritual. You can now take some control back and switch the ritual motor OFF and go change and get ready for the gym. NOW A NEW ritual begins.. you are in manual mode... each sock you put on and each article of clothing you put in your gym bag is a new response, and its building this positive charge in you with each step - because hey - happiness is all about control - and even the little moments count.

So find those stimuli, those environments that pull your subconscious into a ritual of habit, this small thought/ step will be crucial as you replace data. The old routes / pathways will take some time to fill back up and create new ones that stick - but it will happen. Anticipate setbacks - your mind is just WAITING for an excuse to unleash the proactive interference gremlin and shout " I told you so! Now can we get back home and put the TV on for the love of Pete?"

Click "yes"...
start today.

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