Being Human

This is the first in a three-part series on Unconscious Mental Processes.

Our inner worlds are active all the time, even when we are asleep.  We process the world continuously… and have reactions we don’t know about.  Neuroscientists estimate that ninety-five per cent of what we do and experience goes on without our awareness.   This is an astounding and humbling fact, but critical to know.  If we don’t know how much we are missing, we won't think to look for what is hiding in plain sight.

Our ongoing reactions affect us deeply, whether or not we are aware of them.   They shape our minds and behaviors, impacting our future.  Knowing about these inner reactions is incredibly useful.

We now have enough information about human nature to make a tentative map of our inner world.   Acquiring  knowledge about this map, and understanding its nature, is very useful.

Emotions are signals, sent without awareness, from our inner world.  Feelings are our mental experience of these signals.  Thinking about our emotions and feelings reveals critical information about aspects of ourselves that operate beneath the surface –  almost guaranteed to bring personal rewards.  People feel better, live longer, and achieve more of their goals when they understand themselves.  They have better, richer lives, and enjoy more of life.  It is much easier to navigate life’s difficulties when you understand the vessel with which you are maneuvering – by that I mean yourself.  Understanding more aspects of yourself makes it easier to avoid obstacles and to manage those pitfalls that are inevitable.  All of this can be understood by paying more attention to your emotions, and reflecting on them patiently without judgment.

The map of human nature and method for self-reflection that I am going to share with you throughout this column has been developed over centuries.  Over the past twenty years it has been refined thanks to exciting new research and techniques for neuro-imaging.

Follow the trail of emotional clues, discover their deeper meanings, and learn as much as you can about the one person you can never get away from – yourself.

 1) It is critical to have good information and having patience.  Thinking about emotions dispassionately, with the detachment and open mind of a detective, lets us learn more about ourselves.  This approach can help you uncover new aspects of yourself -- aspects that are operating beneath the surface whether you like it or not!

2) Expressing feelings and emotions under safe circumstances helps us feel more calm, vital, and enhances creativity.

3) This approach to investigating one’s inner world can be done while showering, driving, or taking a walk.  Anytime you are alone and free to think, you can ponder your own emotions.   It can help to talk to people whom you love and trust.  Their input offers new information  that we cannot see due to blind-spots.  Obtaining multiple perspectives is always useful when pursuing truths – that’s why detectives track down as many witnesses as they can.

Ignorance may be bliss in the short run, but it is dangerous in the long run.

Comments

[Features]

This article is full of some well-researched information. You have made valid points in a unique way. Since this has made me think, I will have to review some aspects.

[pb]

ah! but so many catches... ha. for me, personally.
trust. patience. judgement. all that fear! perspective.
how can we trust others' perspective when it's so surely muddled by their own emotions? how can we acquire patience enough to practice with ourselves, typically our harshest critic? not judge myself? sure, intellectually, i get that awareness may be as much about just paying attention and acceptance, even of myself... but i want to be some idea i have of myself, right?

my most recent assignment has been to avoid asking "why?"... i'm total access for the hows, etc... curious... i'm working on being curious as opposed to analytical.
this detective stuff is good.

[Elsita]

I totally agree. The more we know and understand ourselves the better we feel. I have been in that journey for many years now. The journey of being aware of my own emotions and where they come from. For example, up to last year I had been negative about driving on the freeway. I couldn't even know why, until I did my emotional research and found out what the fear came from. It was a "click" moment in my mind. Ever since that realization I was able to go drive on the freeway different times. I still need to master it, it's still an issue, but at least I know that it's not because I can't do it but because I need to do some emotional work to convince myself that everything will be OK any time I do it.