Perceived Pain vs Actual Pain :
Lets understand what our brain is.
Our brain is the most sophisticated computer that is known to us.It processes information , stores information and also controls standard bodily functions required for a human to stay alive. Its also has the task that make sure survival of the body at any cost. Its also one of the computer unlike any one which we have ever invented which adds new memory and processing capability as needed and if not needed or it slowly sheds any additional capability or memory which it has at its disposal. So its a adaptable computer to the environment and utilization. Just like any other computer it has a temporary memory like RAM which stores information that is very relevant very recently need and another memory that may be needed but has not been used recently but may be needed in future and on top of it it can create additional capacity. This temporary memory which is similar to RAM in computer is the subconscious mind that controls something which does not need to be processed differently every time as the end results and the factors that drive the end results have a very similar pattern. In fact the inputs and outputs are so similar the process that goes in to affect the desired outcome does not even get registered in the memory for a long time. For example when you are learning to drive a car you have to always look for each of the functions like accelerator and break and the road among other things . But think if you have been driving the same road for more than 10 year ; you can literally do not have to think at all while driving in that road. Similarly someone who is typing for the first time will have to look for the letters but for a expert in typing will not even have to look towards the keyboard at all. So if you like to mastery anything you would have to practice so long that you create a new neural pathway which will make the whole affair effortless.
Its so hard to start a new thing and practice over a period of time as you do not have a dedicated neural pathway for that action but once its created you do not have to do a thing. Humans and for that matter all the living creatures are organic beings and the most important distinction of something organic is the ability to change both internally and externally based on the need to cater to a different situation. So the most important thing that someone can learn to master in anything is learn to practice until a neural pathway is build. The practice can be a actual practice but as all the calculation that is done in the brain itself a mental practice has been experimentally show to be as effective. There is experiment with the group of basketball players who are asked to practice and another group asked to not practice physically but only practice mentally making the throw and its observed that the group that just did the throw mentally also improved as much as the group which practiced. So this confirms the notion that making the new neural pathways are the most vital part in making an habit real.
But have you ever thought how a pain is actually created ; its nothing but a response of your brain which interpret something or some stimulus is harmful for you as a whole. So that means that its not something which is rather it is something that is interpreted as. This is the key. As we know interpretation of something can be wrong in many ways ; and this is true in our perception of pain as well. This is usually something that is correct in terms of physical pain or discomfort. If you cut yourself bad in a knife as a child you would automatically try to avoid touching a knief. This is the type which is helpful and protects us and can be treated as positive pain interpretation.Even though this can sometimes lead to limitation when you grow up as you would have something associated in your brain and you no longer need to be associated any longer as you have grown enough to handle the knife. But the other type of pain that we will focused on here is the mental pain which cripples a person much more than a physical pain can ever be. Think of a situation in your childhood where you needed to speak on a podium in front of a group of other students in your school and you fumbled and stumbled and you gasped for breath and after you are done your fellow students ridiculed you about it for few days. Now you talked to yourself public speaking is stupid and you are not going to do it ever again. This is something which exactly happened with me in a very early age in kindergarten school when I was supposed to speak on a podium on the occasion of teachers day and I fumbled and wrongly told that today is children's day and all the kids laughed aloud. That made me more nervous and made me gasping for breadth and I could not really finish my whole speech well which I had prepared for many days earlier. That made me tell myself that public speaking is bad and I tried to avoid public speaking for many year to come until just a few years back when I started slowly to realize my limiting belief and started working on it. Its not easy to create a new belief but it is possible with diligent efforts and unyielding practice. All you would need to do is to go back to the earlier experience which it all started and replace the negative outcome to a much more positive outcome, and then practice the same thoughts over and over until you firmly believe in the thought you want to instill in yourself. This is the reason why there is no medicine that is effective for psychological conditions like Post Traumatic stress Disorder(PTSD) or anxiety or depression. As brain is mostly a pattern matching instrument which work through images not words or language some images or stimuli can cause excruciating pain as brain will associate the images to an memory or an event that is extremely painful. There is no easy way out of this as this is basically an association mechanism that is your brain is very adopted to. To avoid to be in this trap is to get yourself practice over and over again to visualize and stimulate the same images but now associate an different feeling to it. At first the brain will resist , react , revolt but eventually after too many repetitions it will eventually succumb to the new conditioning. The key here is repetition. But another key is emotion.
Lets understand what our brain is.
Our brain is the most sophisticated computer that is known to us.It processes information , stores information and also controls standard bodily functions required for a human to stay alive. Its also has the task that make sure survival of the body at any cost. Its also one of the computer unlike any one which we have ever invented which adds new memory and processing capability as needed and if not needed or it slowly sheds any additional capability or memory which it has at its disposal. So its a adaptable computer to the environment and utilization. Just like any other computer it has a temporary memory like RAM which stores information that is very relevant very recently need and another memory that may be needed but has not been used recently but may be needed in future and on top of it it can create additional capacity. This temporary memory which is similar to RAM in computer is the subconscious mind that controls something which does not need to be processed differently every time as the end results and the factors that drive the end results have a very similar pattern. In fact the inputs and outputs are so similar the process that goes in to affect the desired outcome does not even get registered in the memory for a long time. For example when you are learning to drive a car you have to always look for each of the functions like accelerator and break and the road among other things . But think if you have been driving the same road for more than 10 year ; you can literally do not have to think at all while driving in that road. Similarly someone who is typing for the first time will have to look for the letters but for a expert in typing will not even have to look towards the keyboard at all. So if you like to mastery anything you would have to practice so long that you create a new neural pathway which will make the whole affair effortless.
Its so hard to start a new thing and practice over a period of time as you do not have a dedicated neural pathway for that action but once its created you do not have to do a thing. Humans and for that matter all the living creatures are organic beings and the most important distinction of something organic is the ability to change both internally and externally based on the need to cater to a different situation. So the most important thing that someone can learn to master in anything is learn to practice until a neural pathway is build. The practice can be a actual practice but as all the calculation that is done in the brain itself a mental practice has been experimentally show to be as effective. There is experiment with the group of basketball players who are asked to practice and another group asked to not practice physically but only practice mentally making the throw and its observed that the group that just did the throw mentally also improved as much as the group which practiced. So this confirms the notion that making the new neural pathways are the most vital part in making an habit real.
But have you ever thought how a pain is actually created ; its nothing but a response of your brain which interpret something or some stimulus is harmful for you as a whole. So that means that its not something which is rather it is something that is interpreted as. This is the key. As we know interpretation of something can be wrong in many ways ; and this is true in our perception of pain as well. This is usually something that is correct in terms of physical pain or discomfort. If you cut yourself bad in a knife as a child you would automatically try to avoid touching a knief. This is the type which is helpful and protects us and can be treated as positive pain interpretation.Even though this can sometimes lead to limitation when you grow up as you would have something associated in your brain and you no longer need to be associated any longer as you have grown enough to handle the knife. But the other type of pain that we will focused on here is the mental pain which cripples a person much more than a physical pain can ever be. Think of a situation in your childhood where you needed to speak on a podium in front of a group of other students in your school and you fumbled and stumbled and you gasped for breath and after you are done your fellow students ridiculed you about it for few days. Now you talked to yourself public speaking is stupid and you are not going to do it ever again. This is something which exactly happened with me in a very early age in kindergarten school when I was supposed to speak on a podium on the occasion of teachers day and I fumbled and wrongly told that today is children's day and all the kids laughed aloud. That made me more nervous and made me gasping for breadth and I could not really finish my whole speech well which I had prepared for many days earlier. That made me tell myself that public speaking is bad and I tried to avoid public speaking for many year to come until just a few years back when I started slowly to realize my limiting belief and started working on it. Its not easy to create a new belief but it is possible with diligent efforts and unyielding practice. All you would need to do is to go back to the earlier experience which it all started and replace the negative outcome to a much more positive outcome, and then practice the same thoughts over and over until you firmly believe in the thought you want to instill in yourself. This is the reason why there is no medicine that is effective for psychological conditions like Post Traumatic stress Disorder(PTSD) or anxiety or depression. As brain is mostly a pattern matching instrument which work through images not words or language some images or stimuli can cause excruciating pain as brain will associate the images to an memory or an event that is extremely painful. There is no easy way out of this as this is basically an association mechanism that is your brain is very adopted to. To avoid to be in this trap is to get yourself practice over and over again to visualize and stimulate the same images but now associate an different feeling to it. At first the brain will resist , react , revolt but eventually after too many repetitions it will eventually succumb to the new conditioning. The key here is repetition. But another key is emotion.
