Which Part of the Brain is Driving the Bus: Being Mindful

We believe we are all “good” people, but we are still capable of causing harm, probably unknowingly and unintentionally. Humans in the world sometimes ignore all indications that harm is being caused by their actions or support and approval of those actions when it’s someone else doing it. When have we been the bully or one of the crowd cheering when the bully beats up, physically, verbally, psychologically one they view as vulnerable? Don’t think we aren’t capable of it because we are human. Of course we are. I’m not a brain or behavioral psychology expert but based on what I do understand, it seems in a bullying situation, it’s possibly a subconscious need to feel powerful or increase our sense of self-worth that drives the behavior. It’s not like we wake up and say, “Gee, I need to feel better about myself so I’m going to go out and find someone I can hurt. Make them feel worthless. Yeah, that’s my plan for the day.”  Well, maybe we do wake up with a desire or intention of hurting someone but it’s doubtful the first part crosses our mind.

We are not as good at seeing harmful, hurtful actions in ourselves but we can totally see it when others do it. It defies logic and reason. You wonder if they realize what they are doing. You might even try to let them know. If they practice any sort of mindfulness or self-reflection they might even hear what you are saying and really think about it, work on it. Mindfulness is powerful like that but the brain doesn’t go there instinctively. You have to use the conscious parts of the brain to bring about behaviors that are healthy, beneficial, constructive for our own lives, relationships and participation in community and society.

Being aware and working through what my brain was doing subconsciously was a big part of my post-concussion neurological vision therapy. I appreciate the insights into unconscious brain activity my unfortunate experience brought, unfortunately fortunate. I sometimes recognized there was something not working right or noticed symptoms but I usually had no idea what the deal was. There were many times my therapist would ask if I was aware of something she observed. I was surprised how often I totally had no clue. For instance, I had no idea that I turned my head slightly to the right when I was looking at something. Even if I had known I’d probably think nothing of it. So what? You might be thinking that right now. As a trained vision therapist who had a lot of insight into the inner workings of vision neurology, she knew I was doing that because my eyes were not converging in the center as they should. They converged to the right. I got used to checking in on what my eyes were doing as part of the process, reteaching the brain how to do the stuff it used to do correctly without thinking about it.  I still use mindfulness every day to check on what’s unconsciously happening visually. I also found mindfulness pretty handy in lots of other situations in day to day life.

Here's a mind blowing statistic. Ninety-five percent of “thinking” happens at the unconscious level. Yes, 95%. That means it’s happening without our awareness. This is why a person’s intentions end up being such a small piece of results and consequences. Your conscious brain might “intend” for a certain result, but honey, that was only 5% of your brain at work. What was the other 95% going for? Satisfying an unmet need? Making up for an insecurity? Maybe seeking a sense of power or greater self-worth?

How might we become more mindful of what our unconscious mind is looking to gain, interrupt our less than positive actions/reactions and go for better choices?

Source: Lifting the lid on the unconscious | New Scientist

Mindfulness | Psychology Today