STOP THAT, DO THIS!
In the teaching profession (well meaning) teachers/coaches attempting to help students will use the words, “stop that, do this.” The logic seems simple, they recognize you are doing something wrong and it needs to change.
Teachers know or think they know, what student should do instead. In either case, they are missing an essential element! in the process of changing what the brain has learned as a habit.
All the brain knows is your habit.
A little brain science is useful here. An example that is often used is learning to write your name. You had to learn to make the shapes of the letters, then learn what the letters meant. Millions of bits of information were compiled into a file called, “write your name.” Once you learned the motor skills, the act of writing your name became predominately unconscious. It became a habit.
Not all habits are bad.
Many habits are good and some elements of bad habits are also good. The point is, the brain has spent a lot of time and energy learning activities, that have become habitual. Telling the brain to “stop that, do this” is a waste of time.
If we knew exactly what to change, we would already be doing it.
The learned behavior in our unconscious brain is what dominates every action we do. If by accident we do something differently, the brain will initially reject it as wrong. Even if it’s a happy accident and results in enhanced performance, the brain will not know how to repeat it.
We can learn to stop what is unnecessary or harmful in our habits.
We know there is enormous amounts of information being communicated between the conscious and unconscious brain.
The unconscious brain however is not hooked up to our language centers. That means – if we make a request from the conscious brain to stop whatever is unnecessary/harmful to the unconscious brain- we will not receive a message back saying “message received, will do.”
The newest part of the conscious brain and one of the last areas, to get fully hooked up is called the pre frontal cortex. The PFC is like an orchestra conductor, coordinating different activities in the brain. The PFC can tell active neurons to stop firing and others that need to be activated. When we send a message from the PFC to stop doing what is harmful in habits, the information we receive in the form of bodily sensations, will often surprise us because it is not our habit.
Making a conscious choice.
When we experience something other than our habit by happy accident, it is just that, a happy accident.
However when we make a conscious choice to stop what is harmful in our habits, we talk to the unconscious file named after that habit. If we are sufficiently aware, we will receive consistent information of what needs to STOP. The behaviour is modified because of what has been subtracted from our habit. Once the harmful aspects of the habit are removed, then a deeper coordination emerges and “the right thing does itself” ~Alexander quote
Activating the “stop that” part of the equation in this way leads us, to a new and unexpected “do this.”
~ Ed Bilachone
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