Overcome Ingrained Responses
Understand → Effort → Courage
A video footage reveals a bear despite being released in the wild has been circling an imaginary cage for the past seven years. Many of us, like this bear, are trapped by our minds, stuck in outdated beliefs and habits.
At first the bear trapped in the cage, stops looking for a way out because the brain is amazing at conserving energy. But here’s the kicker—even when free, it continues to follow the same belief. Our brains, ever resourceful, hold on to these beliefs even when they are no longer relevant.
Overcoming Ingrained Responses: A Three-Step Process
Understand → Effort → Courage
1.) Understand: to break free, we must first understand that these responses once served a purpose. If something is costly—whether it causes anxiety, requires effort, or demands energy—our brains instinctively find ways to minimize these costs to conserve energy. Acknowledging this is crucial to initiating change.
2.) Effort: your brain resists change because it takes more energy to go against ingrained beliefs.
3.) Courage: have the courage to change. Courage like a muscle, grows stronger with practice. It means taking action regardless of how you feel or what you think.
By following these steps, we can reacclimate to our current lives and escape the invisible cages that keep us trapped in the past.
This is the heart of so much of pattered responses. It seems simple, but it’s everything. Such an excellent and beautifully written/ heartbreaking presentation of how we become trapped in our repetitions. These are meant to protect us, but ultimately can become a prison, if not seen and understood for what they are. It take a ton of bravery and willingness to tolerate discomfort to move ourselves off of our familiar positions another home run!