Bad habits and negative stereotypes

[Teacher]

Bad habits and negative stereotypes arise when our brains struggle to cope with stress. Neil Fiore, PhD, has developed a simple but effective program that allows you to control destructive reactions and consciously manage your life. How to reach your potential, focus on achieving your goal, and live life to the fullest by defeating stress, anxiety about the future, and a self-critical inner voice.

The zone of optimal performance is that state of calm focus in which we work outside of our normal levels of skill and self-confidence. This outstanding performance cannot be achieved with conscious effort alone.

Charles Spielberger and Richard Swinn investigated how college students and Olympic team members act in the zone of optimal performance. They argue that exam scores and athletic performance improve significantly as we learn to replace self-critical reasoning with focused attention on task completion.

Charles Spielberger and Richard Swinn explored what it takes to work in the optimal performance zone - the state of calm focus that allows us to work beyond our usual skill and confidence levels. They argue that exam scores and athletic performance improve dramatically as we learn to replace self-critical, ego-centered reasoning with focus on task completion. This research supports the methods presented in this book to help you work, play as a team, and maintain relationships with people in a state of focused calm. Professor Mihai Csikszentmihalyi of the University of Claremont found that those who do work or other activities in a friendly, fun and free manner

What you can achieve in this zone as an integrated strongest self cannot be achieved with your ego, old identity, or consciousness. Your ego's level of confidence in its capabilities is irrelevant to what you are capable of when you choose to use the resources of your integrated brain and strongest self. Performance studies in this zone (in the “flow” state) show that focusing on the task at hand generates a state of happy engagement and raises work performance to levels far beyond what is possible when your ego and consciousness are acting alone. For optimal performance in any situation, you must be aware of distractions (such as self-criticism and thoughts of the future) so that, instantly, discard them,

There is one important secret for those who work in a state of flow: even when it seems like you are losing, or when you lack confidence in your ability to achieve a goal, you can achieve results far beyond expectations if you enter the zone of optimal performance. If you are acting with only your ego (using only your consciousness and controlled muscles to solve problems), then you are working too hard. By connecting with your genius, who occupies 95% of your brain, you will find that easier, more creative and fun ways can be used to overcome life's challenges and achieve success.

How to stay in the optimal performance zone

Some people go to the monastery for meditation and spiritual awakening. However, most of us can achieve a similar state by doing ordinary tasks with greater focus and awareness with the help of our strongest self.

Ever since I first read about Zen Buddhism and Taoism, I have remained fascinated with the idea of mastering archery using the Zen technique. It expresses the essence of the concept of peak performance without worrying about performance per se. As a teenager, I thought of athletes in the Optimal Performance Zone as monks practicing the Western form of meditation. When you execute the perfect archery in such slow motion, you are completely immersed in the process, without striving for a future goal or achieving any particular sporting result.

The paradox is that professional athletes should be extremely focused on achieving their goals, but in order to reach an optimal level of play, they need to focus on the moment. Any thoughts of a future goal or the remaining time on the stopwatch will push them out of their optimal performance zone and return them to normal wrestling under the guidance of their mind.

Bill Cole, author of The Coach Guiding Mental Play Report, states that “Tiger Woods does not direct his gaze to the goal. Instead, he focuses on the gameplay. It is a myth that during competition, great athletes focus solely on the thought of winning ... What these athletes really focus on is the process. Tiger is excellent at concentrating on what is happening 'here and now'. "

As you learn to move beyond your daily identity to live with your strongest self, you increase your chances of achieving inner peace and maximizing your potential. In doing so, you enjoy being in the moment, knowing that coordinated functioning at optimal levels is not achieved through the efforts of a pretentious and constantly battling ego. It is almost a spiritual practice, like a surfer joining the wave, a lover opens his heart to his beloved, and a skydiver entrusts himself to mother nature, saying, “I don't know how to do this without your help. Show me a miracle. "If you persistently try to prove yourself in life, she, in turn, will answer you:“ Yes, I am here with you. You don't have to know how to do it alone. Just show me

Most of us experience this fun spirit of the game while on vacation. When we are far from our everyday worries, we want to forget about urgent matters and say to ourselves: “I will not be alarmed for two weeks. Whatever happens, I'm going to have fun! I intend to enjoy life. "And we really embark on various adventures, not knowing what lies ahead. We cannot make a mistake because we don't know which rules to break. We learn everything for the first time and re-master the new world lying in front of us - much like a toddler taking the first steps. And again we are experiencing a childhood romance with life and the delight of our ability to easily and completely merge with this world.

How to focus on a task

Remember, you don't have to wait for your ego to feel confident, motivated, and all-knowing. The first step to releasing a limited identity and expanding to the size of the strongest self is to simply identify your initial reactions and internal dialogue. By using your self's perspective and roles, you can act optimally by focusing on the task at hand rather than fears and distractions. To achieve optimal personal performance, do the following:

Notice when the language and feelings of your ego-centered mind are focused on the past, future, or self-criticism.

Just observe and identify the feelings (usually anxiety and worries) that arise from ego-oriented thoughts. This is not the time to be distracted by arguing with them.

Shift your focus to what you can do now. Reaffirm your willingness to deal with any fear and take on any challenge.

Replace initial automatic responses with directives and task-oriented reflections, such as, “Focus on this. What part of the answer do I really know? What can I do now? I intend to show them what I can do. I will continue this game until the last second, regardless of the score. "

It is important that you do not waste time arguing with an insecure, self-critical part of yourself or comforting yourself with reassurances that you are okay. Just say, “Yes, I know your fears. Concentrate here in the present moment. I'm going to emerge to see what we can do. "

Identify your automatic responses: do they facilitate or hinder your case?

When I was prescribed 9 months of weekly chemotherapy, I immediately said to myself: “Cancer has not only affected my lungs, it is retained in the body thanks to the ability of my lungs to filter out the debris carried by the bloodstream. My body is my active ally, not a passive victim. "I began to notice that some of my thoughts and actions certainly helped me feel awake, while other thoughts distracted me from completing my task - to live the fullest life as possible as I could. My life has become very simple. When deciding what I should do, I constantly asked myself: “To be or not to be? Does this thought or action help or diminish my health, well-being, and vitality?"

Because my main priorities, mission and role as a protector of my time, body and life were so clear, it took me only a few seconds to decide how to proceed. With such a clear - laser-like - focusing, I instantly got rid of negative thoughts and focused on my path, tasks and higher goals. Being devoted to myself, I sometimes replied to the requests of friends like this: “No, thanks. It will take too much work from me. "To commercial agents who approached by phone with offers, I said,“ No, thank you. I have no time ". After all, when you were given such a terrible diagnosis, you can quite sincerely say: "I have no time."

Clarity of purpose helps you stay on course and minimize the impact of factors that make you waste valuable time and energy.

Define Your Purpose: Focus on the passionate desire to live

Remember that self-doubt is the default position of your ego. Let go of this insecurity and act to move forward with a renewed passion for living.

You can use your task-oriented mindset for optimal behavior in the exam, on the sports field, in business, and in human relationships. But more importantly, focusing on the task at hand in day-to-day projects is a practical way of letting go of your ego's fears, doubts, and bad habits through being your strongest self. This is a way to firmly learn that you should not be dominated by your old habits or distracted thoughts and feelings. For example, I still have the urge to smoke a cigarette, even though I quit smoking thirty years ago.

But thoughts and even cravings - no matter how strong - cannot control my choices when I firmly strive to protect my body from tobacco and other bad habits. After ten months of chemotherapy and a ten-year period of smoking that preceded it, I simply could not afford to smoke a cigarette, no matter how much I wanted to do it. Now I can “observe” thoughts of cigarettes and even urges to smoke with curiosity and empathy. These thoughts are simply obsolete reactions that remind my strongest self of the need to protect my body and life.

The more clearly you identify your automatic responses to life's problems, the faster you can delay them and set all parts of you on the path that leads to inner peace and success. Recognizing old habits and maintaining a clear understanding of your goals together accelerates your ability to correct yourself and refocus on productive actions. By linking your awareness of automatic responses to corrective action, you are extremely effective in limiting destructive manifestations of the five main areas of problems: stress, inner conflict, depression, self-criticism, and struggle. You will be able to react to these problems almost instantly, replacing them with the qualities of your "strongest self".

 

[Brother]

Stereotypes​

Hello people! This is Stalilingus! As usual, the best guy on my part at the weekend! Let's talk today about stereotypes.
“Thinks in stereotypes” - it seems that this is how they say about a person with a limited set of concepts about what is good and bad and how a “real kid” should look like, usually these guys are the easiest to manipulate. And this set is a ready-to-use product that does not need to be thought about, that is not criticized. Why do we need such food for the mind and is it not harmful to our mental health?
By filtering reality through stereotypes, we perform mental and emotional work - we confirm our knowledge about a certain object and at the same time give it our assessment.
One of the earliest researchers of stereotypes, Walter Lippmann, described four properties of these phenomena:
1. Stereotypes are always simpler than reality - they describe the most complex phenomena in two or three phrases (for example, the concept of "male polygamy, developed in the process of evolution for the widest possible distribution of genes" is reduced to "all men walk to the left");
2. Stereotypes come to our heads from the outside (in childhood - from adults, then - from the media and from the immediate environment), and are not developed on the basis of our own life experience; absorbing cultural stereotypes, we accept them as immutable truths, without subjecting them to criticism and comprehension;
3. All stereotypes are false, since a specific person is assigned traits that he must possess due to his belonging to a group (“speaking of love, Hindus switch to the language of music and dance”, “Americans eat only hamburgers”, “Old Believers wear beards up to the waist");
4. By their persuasiveness, stereotypes are stronger than the reality unfolding before our eyes: when we meet a serious and business-like Hindu, we shake our heads and decide that he was the only Hindu in the world who does not dance or sing.
As you already understood, stereotypes always concern a group of phenomena, and not a specific single phenomenon. The classical formula of the stereotype can be formulated as follows: “
All X have the property Y "-" all Chinese are short "(despite the fact that the tallest NBA player Yao Ming, 2 m 29 cm tall is Chinese)," rap is music for African Americans "(Marshall Bruce Mathers III, better known as Eminem, could not agree with this), “golf is a game for rich men” (32 golfer and 16 golfer were admitted to the XIX Russian golf championship, two of whom play professionally abroad), etc.
The basis for constructing a stereotype can be nationality ("Italians cannot be faithful"), race ("Asians will never be sincere with you"), gender ("women are fools"), age ("young people are sitting on their parents 'necks "), religion (" Islam = terror "), profession (" all politicians are liars "), etc.

HOW IT WORKS?​

A stereotype is an absolutely necessary tool for our consciousness. It helps conserve energy by transforming complex reality into a set of clear, concise judgments. Perceiving the surrounding reality through the filters of stereotypes, we find ourselves in a simple and understandable world, where each phenomenon has a label.

As Igor Kon, Doctor of Sociology, writes, “stereotypes are an integral part of everyday consciousness. Not a single person is able to independently, creatively respond to all situations he encounters in life. A stereotype that accumulates a certain standardized collective experience and is instilled in an individual in the process of learning and communicating with others, helps him navigate in life and directs his behavior in a certain way. "

In addition to the global simplification of the world around us, stereotypes help us find a common language with those around us. Representatives of one culture form something like a club of interests, whose members share common beliefs. Thanks to stereotypes, two groups appear: “we” and “they”, where “we” are carriers of all that is good and eternal, and “they” are carriers of opposite traits.

On the one hand, this property of the human psyche helps us to feel protected among our own people, on the other hand, it creates a rich breeding ground for hatred and fear.