You might have heard of the experiments when people watch neutral images that are mixed with images with strong emotional content for a very short period of time. This is called subliminal emotional stimulus. The observer is not aware of the mixed-in picture, but they react to it subconsciously. If he afterwards tries to draw what he saw, the mood of his drawing is affected by the mixed-in picture.

You might also have seen those visual illusions where several images are hidden in a single picture. While watching them, our mind subconsciously tries to interpret and fill in what is missing and suddenly we see the image. The mind flips back and forth between possible interpretations.

In the picture to the right, even though we know that the pillars are equal in size, we strongly feel like the rightmost pillar is the longest. Our brain interprets the lines as parallel lines going away in distance from us instead of converging lines on a flat sheet of paper. This is mostly a learned and a cultural behaviour.

Our mind is creating an inner world that is a mix of what is out there and our own ideas and emotions that seem fitting. This happen more rapidly that we can consciously notice. Our mind strives to interpret what we perceive in familiar terms for us to make us feel safe. More often than we realize we see what we expect to see and the unexpected pass unnoticed.

We need to be aware of this behaviour of the mind. When we try to learn new things, this filter is active. When we try to communicate, the difference in interpretations easily leads to misunderstandings. If we are asked to describe facts about an event we often jump to interpretations quickly..

It is quite possible to learn to know your own perception and conceptualization process and recognize more of the “raw” data that comes from your senses. You can train yourself to separate observation from interpretation. You can make regular reflections a frequent habit. Probably you have to slow down your life also.

We live in an information age in which conceptualization is a prominent ingredient and it is deeply rooted. Our lives are crammed with activities and we are easily fooled by mainstream messages. We follow our common “culture” almost blindly. Let’s assume responsibility of our minds and actions.

Other posts about this sbuject you might want to read:
Humanness and conversation
Your thoughts are not you

All of us are living with mental models of the world around us. We have opinions about things, sometimes strong. We do generalizations all the time and continue to build on our model. Our own mental model can be our worst enemy in life. Like an impenetrable sarcophagus. It can hinder us from looking at things from a different perspective than our own. It hinders the westerner from seeing that his lifestyle is ruining the earth. It hinders a man from discovering the needs of his wife. He feels safe in his own world. And yet it is not the reality.

Timothy Gallwey wrote a book on how to improve in Tennis called “The Inner Game of Tennis”. In it he talks about how to be aware of your thoughts and actions, cooperating with yourself and learning how to learn. He found out that the principles could be applied to other areas and inspired Barry Green to write, “The Inner Game of Music”, a very interesting book. We have some eternal truths here, folks.

I can’t help thinking of something that in electronics is called a feedback loop. A device with a feedback loop monitors the output (result) and feeds part of it back to the input and that way improves and adjusts the result. This is a continuous process.

Yesterday I recorded my band when we played together and listened to it afterwards. I noticed some bad habits on my part. I thought I was playing in one way, but the recording revealed that it sounded otherwise. If I paid attention to it, I could hear it and if I am willing and acknowledge it, I can try to make a change.

We can shy away from feedback. We can accept and be glad for it when it comes. But we can also strive for feedback, creating opportunities for it. Let’s challenge our own mental models, our own opinion of people, our own values. Let’s look around. Let’s listen next time our child, wife, husband or neighbor talks to us. Let’s listen to the needs of our society and let it affect us.

When I had my own (small) company I got the habit of writing down business plans and goals every once in a while. Pretty soon I discovered that I could reason with myself through the process of writing and formulating my plans. The writing process did drag things out from me.

I started to do that for my personal life also and for my main interests. I tried to formulate my thoughts every month or when I felt like it. I jotted down something first and rewrote it a couple of times until I was satisfied. It may sound boring, but it was actually very exciting. My headings were something like “What has happened with that I thought and decided last time”, “What I am thinking now” and “Decisions now”. I started to monitor my reactions and evaluate the results of my decisions. Honesty is very important. I noticed that I began to understand myself and my likings better through this process. Reflection became more and more natural.

I was in a situation where I was unsure of what I really wanted to do. Instead of choosing the simplest path or what looked most attractive at first sight, I tried to walk a few steps on each of the different paths and observed the reaction of myself and others. I wanted to have feedback. I found out that I didn’t know everything about myself. You may have plans and dreams, but there are deeper levels in your being. You are more than the sum of your thoughts and plans that you know of.

So what are the main ingredients if I express it in a theoretical way; observation, feedback, evaluation and adaptation as a result.