Mindfulness by Mark Williams
Author:Mark Williams [Williams, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780748131419
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2011-05-04T23:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER EIGHT
Mindfulness Week Four:
Moving Beyond the
Rumour Mill
John was on his way to school.
He was worried about the maths lesson.
He was not sure he could control the class again today.
It was not part of a janitorâs duty.1
What did you notice when you read these sentences? Most people find that they repeatedly update their view of the scene in their mindâs eye. First of all, they see a little boy winding his way to school and worrying about his maths lesson. Then theyâre forced to update the scene as the little boy changes into a teacher, before finally morphing into a janitor.
This example illustrates how the mind is continuously working âbehind the scenesâ to build a picture of the world as best it can. We never see a scene in photographic detail, but instead make inferences based on the âfactsâ that we are given. The mind elaborates on the details, judging them, fitting them with past experience, anticipating how theyâll be in the future and attaching meaning to them. Itâs a fantastically elaborate mental juggling act. And this whole process is run and rerun every time we read a magazine, recall a memory, engage in conversation or anticipate the future. As a result, events seen in the mindâs eye can end up differing wildly from person to person and from any objective ârealityâ: we donât see the world as it is, but as we are.
We are constantly making guesses about the world â and weâre barely conscious of it. We only notice it when someone comes along and plays a trick on us, as in the John scenario. Then our running commentary on life is laid bare and evaporates â before reformulating itself seamlessly into a new one. Often weâre not even aware of the shift. Or, if we are, it gives us a little shiver of vertigo, as if the world imperceptibly shifted beneath our feet. And, if youâre lucky, it will make you laugh out loud â this sudden shifting of perspective is how many jokes work.
The way we interpret the world makes a huge difference to how we react. This is sometimes called the ABC model of emotions. The âAâ represents the situation itself â what a video camera would record. The âBâ is the interpretation given to the scene; the running story we create out of the situation, which often flows just beneath the surface of awareness but is taken as fact. The âCâ is our reactions: our emotions, body sensations and our impulses to act in various ways.
Often, we see the âAâ and âCâ quite clearly, but we are not aware of the âBâ. We think that the situation itself aroused our feelings and emotions when, in fact, it was our interpretation of the scene that did this. Itâs as if the world were a silent film on which we write our own commentary. But the commentary, with its explanations of what is going on, happens so fast that we take it to be part of the film.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli(8810)
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker(7800)
Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams(6622)
Nudge - Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Thaler Sunstein(6613)
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova(6197)
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle(4730)
Men In Love by Nancy Friday(4292)
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling(3996)
The Confidence Code by Katty Kay(3544)
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke(3512)
Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung(3293)
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo(2905)
The Worm at the Core by Sheldon Solomon(2901)
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright(2805)
Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis(2793)
The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben(2756)
Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio(2718)
The Power of Mindful Learning by Ellen J. Langer(2699)
The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter, and Live Better In a World Addicted to Speed by Carl Honore(2564)