Thought Groove Traps

in #psychology6 years ago

As we live our lives, we progressively develop deep thought grooves within our mind

image.png


Right now, there are an innumerable amount of thought grooves running through your head. It may have been placed there by your parents, your siblings, your teachers, a pastor, the television, or any other influential source in your life.

If you're lucky, these grooves are positive in nature, reinforcing your character and constantly building you up, serving as a reminder of your worthiness. More often than not, the thought grooves that become the deepest and most ingrained are negative and self-critical in nature.

Our interactions with the external world can be seen purely through the lens of these patterns. If our thought grooves are primarily based on self-doubt and fear, chances are high that we will respond to the world with anxiety and trepidation.

Escaping the grooves and stopping the internal monologue is a difficult and relentless process

image.png


Many people live their entire lives primarily according to what their thought grooves dictate. It can be terrifying to examine how similar humans can be to the robots/cyborgs/replicants seen in movies and television.

If you've watched Westworld, you'll understand that free will is mostly illusory for the vast majority of the population. We live according to our internal scripts much more than we care to acknowledge.

The unexamined mind will lead us down the path it has already defined for us. The most well-worn, deep grooves are the most difficult to get out of. If we've practiced these thoughts thousands of times over, it's not easy to escape from them.

Awareness is a small but essential first step

image.png


If you've become aware of your thought grooves, congratulations, you're already ahead of most people. Modern life doesn't leave much room for slowing down and examining our thoughts. Meditation, yoga, and other mindfulness practices are growing in popularity because there is a growing awareness of our...lack of awareness.

Recognizing our incessant stream of thoughts is an important step towards shifting the pattern. But it is important to be aware that massive change won't occur in an instant. It may take months or even years of intense practice to shift our mental habits.

As someone who has spent the last decade or so delving into my mental processes with the goal of altering some and totally eliminating others, I must admit that I still regularly struggle with the same patterns that have been with me for most of my life.

A lifelong process of retraining and shifting our focus

image.png


You might expect that this is the part of my article where I give you a magic bullet, the one thing that will completely eliminate the grooves and allow you to start fresh. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the solution to these issues isn't simple or easy.

Feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and existential guilt still pervade my thought process. Regardless of the progress I've made within myself and the verifiable successes I've had, the grooves remain.

I fall into them less intensely and am able to catch myself sooner than before, but they haven't fully left my life for good. Like the weeds in a garden, we must tend to our minds consistently otherwise they'll become overgrown with the shit we were trying to avoid.

Prior to writing this post, I did something I know I need more of: I sat on a pillow and meditated to this guided meditation by Sam Harris. It calmed my nerves and helped pull me out of a particularly intense day of mental gymnastics.

I'm fairly convinced my thought grooves will always be present in my life, but how I relate to them will continue to evolve over time with practice and persistence. We may not have chosen our mental scripts, but we do have the power to stop listening.


All uncredited pictures from pixabay.com or my personal account

If you received value from this post, I would gratefully appreciate your upvote


My Latest Posts

Classic Hits

Sort:  

Great post! There's an awesome analogy on a recent Sam Harris podcast with Michael Pollan about how we have grooves in our minds like the paths on a ski-hill. Then things like meditation retreats or psychedelic experiences can be thought of as "snowfalls" that help reset our pathways.

Nice! I heard him say that on Joe Rogan's podcast as well and I found the metaphor really resonated with me. Thanks for referencing that.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 71539.00
ETH 3603.23
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.75