Psycho-Cybernetics: Part 4
For those of you who are new to my blog, I have a series called "Psycho-Cybernetics" that takes excerpts from and summarizes some of the chapters in this book. Why I started this series? 1.) the book is amazingly logical and helped me to better myself and my life // 2.) I am generally very interested in human psychology and "the self" and the power of the mind // 3.) I love sharing with others what I find useful myself and // 4.) Not everyone reads books on a regular basis, and for those who do, these articles might inspire one or the other person to get it and have it change their lives for the better.
The previous episode of my Psycho-Cybernetics blog-series was about utilizing the power of rational thought.
If you haven't read the previous episode, you can click <<here>> Now let's continue..
THE SCIENCE OF CYBERNETICS
Psycho- Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz
The science of Cybernetics does not tell us that "man" is a machine but that man has and uses a machine. Moreover, it tells us how that machine functions and how it can be used.
Even though it grew out of the work of physicists and mathematicians rather than that of psychologists, the new science of cybernetics made an important breakthrough in psychology possible.
Ep.5 - Deep Desire
Rational thought, as described in the previous episode, plays an important role. However it will only be effective in changing belief and behavior, accompanied by deep feeling and desire. We constantly use thought and feelings to trigger our actions. If we generate enough emotion, or deep feeling in the right direction, we can achieve the seemingly impossible.
Negative beliefs for example were formed by thought plus feelings.
When you believe that you can't achieve something, it requires the use of imagination and feelings. I think we all remember a situation where we even became enthusiastic about a negative belief, even try to defend it, because we always defend what we believe to be true. We often use this mechanism and create a false reality that is mainly based on imaginary thoughts + feelings, also known as:
WORRY!
Excerpt
When you worry, you first of all picture some undesirable future outcome, or goal, very vividly in your imagination. You use no effort or will power. But you keep dwelling upon the "end result." You keep thinking about it—dwelling upon it—picturing it to yourself as a "possibility." You play with the idea that it "might happen." This constant repetition, and thinking in terms of "possibilities," makes the end result appear more and more "real" to you.
After a time, appropriate emotions are automatically generated—fear, anxiety, discouragement all these are appropriate to the undesirable end result you are worrying about. Now change the "goal picture"—and you can as easily generate "good emotions." Constantly picturing to yourself, and dwelling upon a desirable end result will also make the possibility seem more real—and again appropriate emotions of enthusiasm, cheerfulness, encouragement, and happiness will automatically be generated. The only difference is that you've changed your goals from negative to positive.
"In forming 'good' emotional habits, and in breaking 'bad' ones," said Dr. Knight Dunlap, "we have to deal primarily with thought and thought habits.
As a man thinks in his heart so is he.
What Rational Thought Can and Cannot Do
Remember that your automatic mechanism does not reason about, nor question, the data you feed it. It merely processes it and reacts appropriately to it. It is very important that the automatic mechanism be given true facts concerning the environment. This is the job of conscious rational thought: to know the truth, to form correct evaluations, estimations, opinions. In this connection most of us are prone to under-estimate ourselves and over-estimate the nature of the difficulty facing us.
We humans have the tendency to exaggerate the difficulty and importance of our thoughts and fear they will make us incapable.
People who are eloquent in casual conversation become imbeciles when they mount the speaker's platform. You simply must learn that if you can interest the neighbor you can interest all the neighbors, or the world, and not be frozen by magnitudes."
- Daniel W. Josselyn
You Never Know Until You Try
It is the job of rational, conscious thought to examine and analyze incoming messages, to accept those which are true and reject those which are untrue. Many people are bowled over by the chance remark of a friend—"You do not look so well this morning." If they are rejected or snubbed by someone, they blindly "swallow" the "fact" that this means they are an inferior person. Most of us are subjected to negative suggestions every day. If our conscious mind is working and on the job, we do not have to accept them blindly.
"It ain't necessarily so," is a good motto.
It is the job of the conscious rational mind to form logical and correct conclusions. "I failed once in the past, so I will probably fail in the future," is neither logical nor rational.
To conclude "I can't" in advance, without trying, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, is not rational.
We should be more like the man who was asked if he could play the piano. "I don't know," he said. "What do you mean you don't know?" "I have never tried."
Decide What You Want—Not What You Don't Want
It is the job of conscious rational thought to decide what you want, select the goals you wish to achieve—and concentrate upon these rather than upon what you do not want. To spend time and effort concentrating upon what you do not want is not rational. When President Eisenhower was General Eisenhower in World War II he was asked what would have been the effect upon the allied cause, if the invasion troops had been thrown back into the sea from the beaches of Italy. "It would have been very bad," he said, "but I never allow my mind to think in that way."
What do you desire?
Much love,
- Mrs.Steemit