Conditioning of human mind

Conditioning of human mind

We often do not have any clue to the answers for the things we do and the behaviors we show. Why is it so? Today many things are  programmed to operate in “autopilot”. The same thing validates to human mind as well. We simply not think while doing things and the stretched practice of this has led to autopilot conditioning of the brain. Human mind is a funny little place. It does what you assume it to do. It can be the master of your actions or on the other hand it can be a slave to the external cues .

Think mind is like a software. The programs in it determine its features. If there are anomalies in the software again you have to rewrite the programs to eliminate the anomalies. The same goes true for human brains as well. Like the programming is done to make a software, our mind also gets conditioned accordingly to illicit a behavior. Conditioning is the effortless tasks of the mind that just makes neural pathways and associations so that we show the similar behavior in the similar situations.

Conditioning is necessary to perform several biological and survival functions be it eating, sleeping or running seeing a snake. Several things are innate . We don’t have to learn it. Then in such conditions conditioning plays no role but to initiate such innate functions, it plays an essential role. For eg, eating  doesn’t necessary have to be learned. It’s innate. But to initiate a hunger drive conditioning can assist in several ways. An afternoon lunch bell in the school/college kick in the hunger drive.

Our cognitive functions and thus the behavior we show have a root in conditioning. Specially the learned behaviors come through conditioning. Conditioning is an essential function in the process of learning. Even the way we think and perceive are strongly affected by conditioning. Humans tend to follow a distinctive pattern of their own in thinking such as in problem solving and forming a concept. The pattern of thinking as such is the result of conditioning.  When a person’s intelligence, abilities and aptitude get infused with conditioning then his/her behavior is formed.

Therefore it is imperative to have right conditioning if we want our lives to be  more productive  and less irksome ( devoid of bad habits). The schemas  (mental framework ) and prototypes (qualities assigned to some group or category) are important tools in our conditioning as they help to determine what sort of mental conditioning we are going to have. Hence we can conclude that conditioning is essentially and largely shaped up by external cues in the environment . But it doesn’t mean that the people living in the same environment will have same behavior and pattern of thinking. It depends upon how much a person is affected by external cues present in the environment and also how those information are processed in the mind.  But once a conditioning is formed and it’s left with its own device then its very hard to alter the conditioning. Each reinforcement will further strengthen it .

Because of this unseen and quiet phenomenon we find ourselves doing things that can hardly be explained with reasons or we show a behavior which howmuchever we may not like , it will be repeated time and again. Habit is not simply formed. It should make a neural pathway of its own then once it is made then reversing back is like trying to move a huge boulder with your hand.

The advantage and disadvantage of conditioning is that it makes us zombie. Under certain conditions and situations its all right  to be a zombie but then some situations demand more time and collaborative thinking then it becomes a hack. 

Our mind doesn’t have that much freedom and liberty to work independently in each and every tasks. Even our emotions and feelings are coded with some conditioning . Hence we know when to fear , what to love, what to hate. Talking about our fantasy and imaginations, have we noticed that they are moreover similar and have the same pattern of loop even though we  day dream and fantasize everytime.  You can say that even our imaginations are not our real imaginations. We are conditioned to imagine certain things in a peculiar way.

With such a limited freedom and liberty of our mind we are operating our daily lives  like a programmed engine. We can’t avoid conditioning but only the advantage our brain has over conditioning is we can choose among them to incorporate within us. After that the mind’s sovereignty is shifted to the conditioning we chose over.  The conditions of conditioning are not absolute so we can alter and change our conditioning if we wanted to . And many new conditionings get formed over a course of time. There’s no such thing as fixes set of conditioning. And many conditioning come together to perform a task as well. Hence the amount of conditionings we can have is limitless.

So may be if we can find the exact conditioning for the cause of our actions and behaviors we may not be so clueless about our actions and behaviors and scratch our heads wondering them stupidly. But it’s easier said than done. 

Old habit dies hardly

Old habit dies hardly…

I have been trying hardly to change, but,
As I say this, my inner voice confounds it
And tells me that it is the supreme idea
Of trying hardly not trying hardly as it is

The want and idea to change indeed is
The sweetest of the sweet fantasies
But such ideas amount to nil when
In your dream you try to wake up
From the cuddly, cozy deep sleep

As the sun never fails to rise
Even when the days are cloudy
The humans never fail to hope
Even if old habit dies hardly

So I hope in the full earnest
That I will change and be a change
That I desire
I know, it’s hard to change
As old habit dies hardly but
Hard it is not impossible………….

Hey my friend .. Procrastination

Hey my friend .. Procrastination

I set alarm for 5 O clock in the morning but as far as I can remember I hardly could resist to hit the snooze button. So it always happens that I wake up not before 6. Procrastination calls me early in the morning and never wants to leave my side all the day. It’s a mysterious thing, procrastination is. Sometimes I seriously think this is innate character in every human being , the only difference being the varying amounts or the intensity of it in individuals.

Psychology defines procrastination as the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority , or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time. The momentum of non activity and pleasure creates a reluctance to make me stir up. Though procrastination has always been with me from the beginning as far as I can recollect, I have tried to treat as a foe, but I always end up making compromise with it. So it seems we are inseparable. I have made many strategies, routines and everything to tackle it, but it springs up the moment it finds vacant space in my mind.

Procrastination is a sticking gum that is very dear to my mind and soul. It’s doing a great favor to me saving my energy getting exploded into calorie consuming activities and deferring me from getting shameful bodily size of further leanness . The prospect of putting off your responsibility for a brief time and drowsing yourself in the comfort mode to become a carefree even for a brief period is a very tempting offer . I happen to give in to this moment most of the time.

Procrastination creates a void in the time. To fulfill the void, normally a person does the activity from which he derives the maximum pleasure. For eg, gaming, net surfing. Or else if there’s nothing else to do, simply laying down and daydreaming can serve the purpose. In my case my hand automatically reaches to my phone and without a notice my fingers swiftly works on the keypad and buttons to twitter and facebook. And in other instance, I can’t stop turning the pages to know the ending of some mysterious novel or get glued to good movies.

I don’t grunt much if I follow the hobbies I have developed over time due to the great compliment and great camaraderie of my dear friend procrastination. If not my immediate priorities, at least procrastination allows me to swim in my own oasis I have created. For this I owe a big time to procrastination. I have gathered a wide range of information and knowledge due to my fruitful time passing triggered by procrastination which I am sure couldn’t have been possible devouring all my school and college books. I can clearly demarcate whatever the things I like with the things I don’t like. Only it’s one hunchback is that I have to rush at the end to finish off my commitments. The last hour sitting gives me a little sour feeling which I forget instantaneously after I see the work through the end.

The void stage of procrastination is devilry in itself. So it doesn’t necessarily makes us over engage with our hobbies. My biggest resentment is the continuum of the void stage which has the tendency to keep us in the endless loop of boredom and laziness leading to all byproducts of mindless thinking, daydreaming and negativity. This has happened to me many a times. The consequence of this is the deep guilt I feel afterwards for indulging into such satanic acts. But human mind is human mind. It is imbed and blended with both positivity and negativity at the same time. I just feel bad about myself when the negativity has an upper hand.

Procrastination, although I can keep it at bay , I never can be separated from it. We have a history together long down the road and I am beginning to take it as my entity than my enemy. Now with much tussle and hassle we are slowly coming into an understanding. The process may take time but in the meantime I have an urgent calling from procrastination. Ciao!!