Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Seeing the control panel

I was thinking about my dislike for driving on the freeway and came to a realization: both the freeway and the back roads have symbolic meaning for me and this is influencing the choices I make when I pick a route. The freeway represents, for me, conformity and doing things society's way. While the back roads are a symbol of freedom and personal discovery. The interesting thing here is that even without being consciously aware of these two symbols they were affecting my decision-making process. What other symbols do I have that I do not know about, and how do they help me to make the choices I make.

I think we all have these sorts of symbols in our lives and I have talked about it before, but they can have a profound affect on the choice we make, particularly the ones we make quickly. This happens because we associate one thing with another and then associate that with either something good or bad and that clouds our judgment. These push button symbols that control our actions can also be used to take us out of a reaction once we understand them. What happens is that we go through life as the control panel different things push different buttons and we react. Then a perfectly normal situation comes along and we act in an inappropriate way or blow it out of proportion. This is a result of having a particularly strong reaction to a symbol.

On the other hand if we are aware of what button the symbol is pushing we can take ourselves out of the situation. We can stop being the control panel and start seeing the buttons for what they are. This can, if we let it or if we want it to, take some of the power away from the reaction. It can defuse situations that we allow to get out of control.

So how do we come to understand the symbols that affect us? Self contemplation and quite thought. Looking inside and understanding why we do what we do. Looking for our motivations every day and for every action. Soon the patterns will start to emerge and we will begin to see parts of the control panel. As we do we begin to see the hooks that our attachment to ideas and concepts hang from.

Thanks for stopping by, if you don't already take a moment to fallow the feed and have a great day.