Changing a locked-in habit.
In the last post, I described how habits are formed. To review briefly, our minds perceive stimuli with their "Scanning Function," which works like a radar screen. It registers all of our perceptions. Our minds match these stimuli with responses by searching the memory for previous responses to those stimuli. This is our mind's "Matching Function." Once a stimulus has been matched to a response, the two are so closely associated that when the stimulus reappears, it is automatically matched to the same response. It has become locked in. This is why habits are so hard to change. Even when a better solution is available the original locked-in solution will be chosen.
How can a locked-in habit be unlocked so that a better solution can be chosen? A pause must occur, an interruption, between the stimulus and its response. The matching function then has time to choose a different solution. How might an interruption occur?
A Complex Stimulus
A complex stimulus is a stimulus that signifies two contradictory meanings. When we perceive a complex stimulus, our minds pause because it has created an interruption. There are many complex stimuli in nature. A window, on the one hand, signifies a demarcation between inside and outside, yet because it is clear it is as though there is no separation. Or if you get out your keys to unlock your door but drop them, you are simultaneously unlocking your door/not unlocking your door. Or if you start to go somewhere only to realize that you've forgotten something, you're going/you're not going. The pause, however brief, creates the interruption that is necessary to allow time for the mind to choose a better solution.
An Example
In the last post, I described the dilemma of the woman who had a locked-in habit of eating in response to her feelings of loneliness. A better solution for her would be to find someone to share her life with. In order for her habit of eating to be unlocked, a complex stimulus that is associatively related to eating must occur. Suppose that one evening as she sets the table she forgets to include a fork. When she sits down to eat she is confronted with a complex stimulus: the place setting suggests that she can eat, but the missing fork indicates that she cannot. She will momentarily be startled and immobilized, probably just for a nanosecond, and during that moment her mind can match a new solution for the loneliness: to eat a healthy diet and to take advantage of current opportunities to find a partner. These mental activities occur extremely rapidly and out of awareness.
Another Step is Needed
Does one incident of a forgotten fork lead to a changed habit? No, there is another step to be taken and this one takes longer. When a good solution to a problem is selected, the implications are so overstimulating that the mind must protect itself by initially remaining unaware of the new solution. Gradually, as the new solution is repetitively registered, the overstimulation wanes and the new solution can then enter awareness and be implemented. The woman will find herself gradually choosing healthier foods, losing weight, and looking for a partner. Changes for the better can and do occur in people because complex stimuli are abundant in nature.
An Inner Guide
But an Inner Guide, which I've previously described (a new, unique mental pathway in the mind that you can create for yourself) will create additional complex stimuli tailored to the unhealthy habits that you would like to have unlocked. It uses complex stimuli systematically and efficiently, taking advantage of the ones that occur naturally and, when necessary, creating them itself. This is why it's so important to acquire an Inner Guide. If you don't yet have one, you can acquire it here: https://emotionalcomfort.com/blog/post/you-can-acquire-an-inner-guide-part-4
