Day 7,
Disrupting Automatic Response.
Welcome back.
In the last session,
We focused on extending unconditional love to others,
Exploring how it not only benefits our relationships,
But also ensures our happiness and peace are not contingent on others' behaviors.
Today's objective is to explore disrupting automatic response,
A concept rooted in Toltec wisdom.
We will examine how breaking free of automatic decisions and behaviors,
Influenced by our domestication and attachments,
Can lead to a more conscious and fulfilling life.
The theory for this section states that many of our responses and behaviors are automatic,
Shaped by past conditioning,
And by disrupting these automatic responses,
We can regain control and make more conscious choices.
When Europeans first encountered the Native American tribes of the North American Plains,
They were baffled.
They were baffled by a small number of tribe members who acted opposite of the rest of the tribe.
These tribe members would ride into battle backward,
Say goodbye when someone said hello,
And constantly do or say things that were the reverse of the normal customs.
Unable to see through the fog,
These Europeans found these warriors amusing,
And labeled them clown soldiers.
But what these Europeans failed to realize is that these warriors weren't undertaking these actions to entertain anyone.
Instead,
They served a very specific,
Even shamanic role.
In the tribe,
Most modern scholars appropriately refer to them as contrary warriors,
Rather than clowns.
And as I look back on the role of these warriors,
I can see that as well.
Because these warriors made it a practice to respond to situations in an opposite manner.
They constantly challenged the conventional thinking of the tribe,
Provoking them to examine their behavior and look at all options and all possibilities.
And this is what I want for you.
If you notice yourself and people around you,
You'll find that you and most others make multiple decisions every day without giving consideration to all of the available options.
And this practice seems normal to most everyone.
For example,
The route that you take to work every day,
Or the hand you hold your toothbrush,
Are all automatic decisions.
They are routine.
The outcome is presumed to be known,
And if you're like most people,
You make these decisions without giving them much thought.
Consequently,
It is easy to go through your day without considering the possibilities,
Or even aware that there are other possibilities,
Until there's a detour.
Maybe because you sprain your wrist and have to brush your teeth with the other hand.
While making decisions automatically may seem acceptable for the little things,
If you aren't careful,
You could slowly begin to live your life on autopilot.
And this will begin to spill over into other more significant areas.
In other words,
When you have developed the habit of making automatic decisions with all the little choices,
It can become more difficult to stop and reflect on the larger choices when they are presented to you,
Especially when your domestication and attachments are trying to control you.
In the Toltec tradition,
We call this living in the cycle of the automatic.
To be sure,
There is a place for automatic decisions,
Like those that help the body in times of physical duress.
For instance,
Let's say you're hiking on a mountain cliff and your foot slips.
Your body and mind instinctively come together to help you grab the ledge prior to plunging.
Let's say.
We can all agree that this is a very helpful automatic decision.
It's a natural physical response.
But compare that scenario to these.
Let's say an attractive person walks into the room and your first thought is,
They would never be interested in someone like me.
I won't even try to talk to them.
Or when you see a job opening and you say to yourself,
I won't apply for that position because they wouldn't hire someone like me anyway.
So why even try?
In these situations,
You can see where your domestication and your attachments may have limited your actions in a way that is inconsistent with what you really want.
Not approaching someone you would like to meet or not applying for a position you aspire to have is not the same as when your body acts instinctually,
Let's say for self-preservation.
As the former are learned behaviors rooted in the past domestication of not being good enough.
With left unchecked,
Attachment to this idea will take over and control more aspects of your behavior in similar instances and beyond.
So here's the practice.
Try mixing up your daily routines.
In the next few days,
Challenge yourself.
This is a test.
Shake things up a bit with the little things that you do.
For example,
If you're a lefty,
When it comes to brushing your teeth,
Give it a go with your right hand.
Start with the other shoe when getting dressed.
Take a different route to work or grab a new spot on your daily commute on the train or the bus.
It might sound too simple,
And maybe it is,
But this little tweak in your routine is quite powerful.
It makes you more aware of the small choices that you make every day,
And nudging you to stay present and awake and aware,
Rather than just going through the motions unconsciously.
Plus,
It's a fun way to discover what you actually prefer when the usual options are flipped.
And who knows,
Stepping into these small new experiences might just be the key to bigger changes and exciting discoveries in your life.
The only way to find out is to try.
So let's sum this up plainly.
Disrupting automatic responses is about breaking the cycle of living on autopilot.
It makes life a little more interesting.
By challenging our routines and our routine decisions and routine behaviors,
We open ourselves up to new possibilities and prevent our domestication and attachments from controlling our larger life choices.
What do you think?
Can you identify any automatic responses or decisions in your life that might be holding you back right now?
What steps can you take to ensure that your significant life choices are made consciously and not out of habit or past conditioning?
How to self-baseline to measure for success?
Create a log of instances where you consciously disrupted an automatic response or automatic habit.
This could include trying new activities or responding differently in habitual situations.
Review this log weekly to observe any increase in such conscious decisions reflecting progress in breaking automatic patterns.
Congratulations.
We've reached the end of this session,
And in the next session we will explore the idea that we adopt different masks in day-to-day life and how it is a mistake to confuse ourselves with these masks.
Remember,
The more you practice these techniques,
The faster and easier they will work for you.
Thanks again for allowing me to serve you,
And as always,
Please remember,
It's a great day to be alive.
And I'll see you in the next session.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.
