Oh boy - I am that sick ....

Old 04-14-2011, 04:39 AM
  # 21 (permalink)  
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Cool thread.

Thanks, everybody.
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Old 04-14-2011, 08:36 AM
  # 22 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by stilllearning View Post
Traits versus behavior gives me lots to think about - maybe it's the moment between instinct kicking in and action following it where we have the room to start to heal. If I can start to take that moment to step back rather than act, I might not have to keep (and keep, and keep) repeating trait-generated behaviors that have gotten me into trouble in the past.
Yes! Below is one of the best bits of information I have found in all my recovery reading. He talks about fear specifically, but it's true in regards to any "automatic" response.

From "What Happy People Know" by Dan Baker:

The panic that is created by the amygldala feeds upon itself and obliterates reason. Negative thoughts begin to come out of nowhere and overwhelm the neocortex. Fear begins to develop a life of its own. The brain, in effect, gets hijacked by fear.

But here is the saving grace of the situation: There is a moment--lasting approximately one-quarter of a second--when this hijacking can be prevented.

This quarter-second, first reported by the influential psychotherapist amd author Tara Bennett-Goleman in Emotional Alchemy, was discovered by neurosurgeon Bejamin Libet. A number of years ago, Dr. Libet became interested in the possible existence of a lag time between when people get the urge to take action and when they actually take it. Therefore, he conducted a fascinating neurological experiment on patients undergoing certain brain surgeries, who were awake and alert. He asked them to move one of their fingers, while he electronically monitored their brain activity. That's when he found it--the life-changing quarter-second! There was a quarter-second delay, he discovered, between the urge to move the finger, and its actual movement.

This means that every urge you will ever have--including every fearful urge and every angry urge--contains a quarter-second window of opportunity in which you can disengage from that urge.

The significance of this is extraordinary.

One-quarter of a second may not sound like much time, but in the arena of thought, it's a virtual eternity. It's more than enough time for you to choose to interpret perceptions differently.

This quarter-second is your ultimate power over perception.
Oh, and I could probably compete with you in the over-analyzing olympics, but awareness is always good, even when it comes from over-analyzing.

L
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