“Nature doesn’t hurry, yet everything is still accomplished.”
Day 17 Morning Scorecard and Consequences Self-Reflection:
Stages of Development
Erik Erikson, a famous psychologist, stated that all humans go through distinct internal battles as they progress through life. He called this framework for life the Psychosocial Stages of Human Development. Erikson hypothesized that if a person did not completely resolve issues at earlier stages it would hinder them from fulfilling future stages successfully. For instance, Erikson stated that infants' main goal is to figure out if people in the world are ultimately “trustworthy or untrustworthy.” If their primary caregivers are predictable and consistent then an infant will learn to have hope for the future. However, if mistrust begins from an early age then that infant will struggle to form bonds over their entire lifetime. Erikson stated that if a person experiences trauma at any of the life stages the event will have to be effectively processed for them to move forward. Neuroscience studies have backed up this claim, by pointing out that trauma affects the 'timekeeper' in a person's brain. This effectively makes a traumatized brain believe that the event is currently happening even if it ended long ago. Erikson hypothesized that therapy is so successful because it allows individuals to see how their trauma fits into their entire life timeline, convincing their brains that they are safe "now" even if they weren't safe "then."
FACT: When a traumatic event happens, cells in the brain's hippocampus (learning center) can overheat and die. This causes the brain to only remember fragments of the traumatic event.
TAKEAWAY: Therapy helps individuals piece together the trauma into a coherent whole, allowing the individual to see the bigger picture and not just pieces of the puzzle.
Micro Vacations: Practice Pausing
Our brains are power-hungry and don't always trust us to make the right decisions. Therefore, the brain is most happy when you let it make all the important choices for you. The brain loves when you run on autopilot because it means less work in an organ that wants to be as energy-efficient as possible. However, living on zombie mode may be good for your brain but have terrible results for your life. Therefore, from time to time throughout your day it’s good to remind your brain that you're actually the one in charge. When you practice pausing throughout your day, you are giving your brain the message that you can control your actions. This may mean just stopping before you open a door, taking a deep breath before replying in a conversation, or pausing before making a decision. If you practice pausing enough, then maybe the next time you drive past a McDonalds, you can stay the course and head home instead of packing on the pounds.
FACT: Domestic violence offenders were told to open all doors with their non-dominant hand for one month to practice their impulse control skills. A month later their domestic violence rates had dropped by 40%.
TAKEAWAY: If you practice your impulse control in one area you often times will get impulse control results in another area.
“You’re always one decision away from a totally different life.”