December 19, 2009
To YAboi and Darth: Thanks guys.
I was unable to post this last night. I think the website was down or something.
Video 2 Part 2
I wasn’t able to finish the video (audio file now) again.Nevertheless, during the short period of time that I listened to it some of the points David brought up made sense of the other things that I’ve previously learned about. Before I discuss that though, I want to bring up the things that he talked about.
New behaviour results in Neurogenesis, which is new neural connections in the brain. Neurogenesis in turn causes development of new habits, which reinforces that new behaviour thus making it into normal behaviour.
On awareness:
Awareness is a rare state. Awareness is that moment when you have great clarity and sensitivity about the forces that directs you to act the way you act. Most of the time we are unaware of these forces just think about gravity. Yes, we know that gravity exist but we are unaware, for the most part, on its effects on our bodies, and how we live unless, of course, you are a physicist or an engineer.
On forces:
Pook talked about a few natural forces and one of them is time. Pook said “the classics” have withstood the test of time. Assuming that everything dies at some point (in time), the classics are immortal. He said the classics are able to withstood this natural force because it itself is natural, a mere reflection of nature. The classics are not the only things that are immortal; we also have people that we will never ever able to forget. Again, this people holds a certain nature in them (I think its called character, which is also a force just like gravity) that time cannot (indefinitely) erode.
On Will Power:
Back to Mr. Deangelo, he discussed about will power and he described it as the raw, and purest form of energy that people have. If this energy is concentrated and directed to do a single action then definitely that action will happen. However, the problem is that will power, the fuel, is commonly burnt on trivial things; therefore, it is much more difficult to complete an action, especially a new action, because there is not enough “will power” to sustain or power it!
Therefore, if a person wants to create “neurogenesis,” first he must have a reservoir of will power to fuel this new behaviour. Then the person must persist on continually doing this new behaviour till the neural pathways, which leads to habit, is formed.
In summary of what I’ve learned and in simple English, successful change (neurogenesis) is possible if a person has awareness, and has the discipline to muster most (if not all) of his will power to an action. This new action must persist through time, which then aids this new action by turning it into a habit.
Change = Effort x Time (possible only if there is Awareness)