I like birthdays, first days of the year and Mondays. Those are all beginnings full of potential, charged with a positive vibe that says everything is possible. Those days are full of plans, decisions, and changes. They have a new and fresh smell of untouched clarity. But those days always come with the question "Who am I?" which I standardly ignore pretending that I didn't hear it. In this post, I will bring you on a brain vs. brain journey or brain talking about brain if you prefer. All images that will be posted are from The awkward yeti and if you haven't seen this work from cartoonist Nick Seluk, you missed a lot. The man is a genius. This post is a sequel to my The science behind the change post so check that one too :)
HIS MAJESTY THE BRAIN
Our brain is a magnificent machine, a grey cluster of neurons in charge of every moment in our lives, from sitting down to running, blood pressure and heartbeat, gathering and processing information from our five senses, dreams, opinions and emotions. It doesn't stop working when we go to sleep and experts assume that it produces around 70 000 different thoughts during the day. From all the curious facts about our brain, I could never decide which one is my favorite. There is the one that states that the current our brain produces could power up a 10 to 20 W light bulb, or maybe that one about fantom pains in amputees. How about the fact our brain never loses its ability to learn new things?
IDENTIFYING WITH YOUR BRAIN
If our brain never loses the ability to learn new things how come people are often so stubborn in sticking to their opinions? Why do some people get their breakthroughs and some don't? The scary answer lies in the identification with our brain.
A brain is a machine, and while we could debate about our conscience being above, beyond or beside him, the fact remains it is a machine that functions following certain algorithms. At a first glance, it may seem complex but its functions are in fact fairly simple. Every new experience and every new information creates a new connection, a synapse (a gap that links the neurons). When a certain synapse is often used it strengthens while the one which isn't used breaks. So for any thought to become a part of our character it has to be repeated many times. Let us look at a simple example. The first time you heard your parent or any other authority figure say "I hate them" when they saw a stranger, your brain (simplified) created a synapse that connects stranger with hate. That tiny little synapse didn't hold much power over you back then but as you heard and seen that kind of stuff over and over it became stronger and stronger up until it became a part of you. It is a part of your character to hate strangers because you've "cemented" that synapse in your brain.
Sometimes it doesn't take years to form a strong synapse, it could happen in days or less if more of them are used. One neuron can have up to more than 10 000 synapses with other ones. The number of permutations and combinations in our brains is bigger than the number of the elemental particles in the known Universe.
Synapses are not conscious, they don't know if they are good or bad for you. Your behavior and attitude could cost you your job or a friend because what you think is right doesn't have to be right for others. That thing you think is a part of you, a starting point that defines who you are is nothing more than a repeated action. To simplify the creation of personality even more, let's look at the formula that even kindergarten kids can understand...
I DECIDE - I REPEAT - I BECOME
Every second we choose what information to accept or not, regardless of her point of origin. The first step is a decision to accept something, the second one is to consciously repeat it for a while until it goes into our subconscious. The last step is having that information as our strong opinion.
IF I AM NOT MY BRAIN, WHO OR WHAT AM I?
So here goes the subjective part of this post that can not in any way be regarded as a fact, just my way of looking at things...
I am not my brain, I am the evolution of my brain, I am the change. It doesn't really matter if the change is located in the brain or somewhere outside it. Maybe it's above my body, floating around it or in another sphere of existence, it is irrelevant for the current understanding of self. I am the one who is controlling my synapses, testing them and repeating the word WHY, the most important word for every human being. WHY do I like this and not that, WHY is this correct and that wrong, WHY does this thing make me happy and that one sad, WHY do I want...
HER MAJESTY CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking deserves a figurative pedestal in dictionaries. Only by constant questioning and curiosity that refuses to die can we achieve new breakthrus inside and outside of us. Change can sometimes be painful but I comfort myself by saying those are only synapses braking :) If it weren't for the people who didn't identify themselves with their brain we would never leave the caves and science would never evolve.
I LOVE...
I love people who dont have strong opinions, who are open to change, new ideas and discussion. I love those who think and question themselves whenever they get the chance, innovators, artists and the weird ones too. I love people who use WHY more than BECAUSE. I love philosophers and reformers, shapers of new worlds.
The worst thing a person could have is blind fate and the worst thing he could ask from others is to have blind fate in him. Blind fate kills the human spirit, its spark and evolution. Improvement can only be achieved by erasing the dots and using question marks instead.
WHY opens the door, BECAUSE closes them.
If you would like to learn more about the brain and how it functions please follow these links:
Innerbody.com
science.howstuffworks.com
And again, be sure to visit The awkward yeti