Hard Wired
If you are going to fix a motherboard…and be successful - you first need to learn everything important about how a motherboard functions, and the connections that make the components work.
When it comes to the human psyche, the cortex of your brain is not the motherboard. Your cortex is just simple software. Data in - data out. We are so fascinated, obsessed, and proud of the part that barely matters.
Your motherboard is the 90 percent of your brain that never enters into consciousness. We function, every single day, with the vast majority of our brain not needing us - “us” being our over celebrated thinking mind aka cortex. Hence, that whole approach of “mind over matter” nets virtually nothing when it comes to the psychotherapeutic intervention.
The “matter” in “mind over matter” is your motherboard - the 90 percent. Good luck trying to outthink it.
Your motherboard has become Hard Wired. The process began when you came bursting onto the scene, and most of the hard wiring was completed by the time you turned eighteen. The hardware became hard wired by the experiences you passed through in that timeframe. It now uses these templates to judge and navigate every experience, sans your lovely cortex. The reason you survived is because the 90 percent figured out for you exactly how/what you needed to do that (survive). Because it was successful, there is zero probability that the wiring is going to change spontaneously.
Broken Circuits
So, here is the big problem. The compensatory coping skills we learned met our needs in pre-adulthood - the proof, of course, being in the pudding.
Unfortunately, when we enter adulthood, and begin to engage with the world in a manner that requires independence in thinking and action, we find our Self stumbling, bumbling, tripping and falling over our now hard wired coping skills. Who knew “the launch” would be so hard. Hard it can be indeed. Our psyche sometimes takes quite the beating in the process, resulting in broken circuits.
Going Back to School - Becoming a Neural Electrician
So now we need help to fix the broken circuits. Many people start with a self help book or two. There is usually a gem or two to be found in any such book, however on the whole, the self help genre largely depends on the old cortex, therefore significant and meaningful change does not happen. If it does, it tends to be temporary, and does not stick - meaning, it never reaches the 90 percent. This is also, unfortunately, true of many psychotherapeutic approaches as well. Why? Because you need to replace the motherboard.
To fix the broken circuits, you must understand how the components and connections of the motherboard work, otherwise it is just another game of darts. Or, if you prefer, the old adage - throwing stuff up against the wall and see what sticks. You will find an economy of stickiness, however.
There is only one way to fix the broken circuits, that is to create new ones that overlay or bypass the old burned out broken ones.
There is a single pathway by which this can be achieved. It is the same pathway that laid the circuitry down for the old motherboard. It is called LEARNING. You old motherboard became hardwired through learning, cause and effect, stimulus and response, conditioning…aka LEARNING. If you wish to replace the old motherboard with a new process you must engage in NEW LEARNING.
You must take the 90 percent to school, doing exactly what you did in school, reading, studying, taking pop quizzes, writing papers, studying for finals, etc. All of this learning is accomplished by a single modality - Repetition - Repetition - Repetition. All of the reading, term papers and tests function to solidify the understanding gained by Repetition. Repetition/New Learning was the mechanism by which the original motherboard was created, and Repetition/New Learning is the mechanism by which it is possible to create a new motherboard to overlay and replace it.
Now - you are in school to become a Neural Electrician.
The Art of Rewiring
Your brain has an AMAZING capability. It can change itself. It is called neuroplasticity. You can change your brain. You can, literally, Rewire it.
Thus far, The White Tiger has predominantly offered, the equivalent of, the didactic portion in a course of learning. The component parts, how they are connected, and how they function in the human psyche has been reviewed.
The next phase of New Learning will be the introduction of the, oh so essential, Practicum. Moving forward, the focus will be the implementation of all the New Understanding. This will be the section of the course that focuses on the Art of Rewiring.