Way back in 1989, one day, I knew this was Intuition.
Abraham Thomas
KNOW YOURSELF PODCAST Listen each week, to one podcast. Based on practical self improvement principles. From the insight of an engineer, back in 1989, about the data processing structure of the human mind, recognizing, filtering, storing patterns, without stopping. Patterns of guilt, shame, fear. How to silence painful subconscious patterns and become self aware.
How
To Overcome Disappointment
You
feel let down. Your expectations of a happy outcome failed to
emerge. Surely, you deserved the positive outcome. What
happened was surprising and could not be controlled through your
personal actions. You even suspect that you will not get, or ever
achieve, what you genuinely wanted. What you feel is not a sense of
regret about your own actions, but distress, tinged with sadness, or
anger, over the outcome. You wish to escape this overwhelming sense
of helpless gloom. Take heart. There are actions you can take to
calmly accept the mishap, still the distress and move on.
The
stressful emotions you feel are instinctive and impulsive reactions
to a let down. You can overcome the agitation, when your mind shifts
away from its emotional viewpoint. A changed outlook will banish the
cycling “what might have been” images in your mind and still the
nagging sense of sadness. Disappointment is a frequent and negative
emotion. It provides a graded response. The greater the anticipation,
the greater the disappointment. The emotion can lead on to
depression. You mus act to replace disappointment with creative
excitement and joy by understanding and overcoming the emotional
triggers
of turmoil in your mind. Follow these steps to reach a sense of
creative calm. Then you will make a practical plan to move on.
Can An Algorithm Be Controlling The Mind?
I am not a physician, but an engineer. Way back in 1989, I catalogued how the ELIMINATION approach of an AI Expert System could reveal a way by which the nervous system could store and retrieve astronomically large memories. That insight is central to the six unique new premises presented in this website.
These new premises could explain an enigma. A physician is aware of thousands of diseases and their related symptoms. How does he note a symptom and focus on a single disease in less than half a second? How could he identify Disease X out of 8000 diseases with just a glance?
First, the total born and learned knowledge available to the doctor could not exist anywhere other than as the stored/retrieved data within the 100 billion neurons in his brain. The perceptions, sensations, feelings and physical activities of the doctor could only be enabled by the electrical impulses flowing through the axons of those neurons. The data enabling that process could be stored as digital combinations.
Second, combinatorial decisions of neurons cannot be made by any entity other than the axon hillock, which decides the axonal output of each neuron. The hillock receives hundreds of inputs from other neurons. Each hillock makes the pivotal neuronal decision about received inputs within 5 milliseconds. Axon hillocks could be storing digital combinations. It could be adding each new incoming digital combination to its memory store. The hillock could fire impulses, if it matched a stored combination. If not, it could inhibit further impulses. Using stored digital data to make decisions about incoming messages could make the axon hillocks intelligent.
Third, combinations are reported to enable a powerful coding mode for axon hillocks. Olfactory combinatorial data is known (Nobel Prize 2004) to store memories for millions of smells. Each one of 100 billion axon hillocks have around a 1000 links to other neurons. The hillocks can mathematically store more combinations than there are stars in the sky. Each new digital combination could be adding a new relationship link. In this infinite store, specific axon hillocks could be storing all the symptom = disease (S=D) links known to the doctor as digital combinations.
Fourth, instant communication is possible in the nervous system. Within five steps, information in one hillock can reach all other relevant neurons. Just 20 Ms for global awareness. Within the instant the doctor observes a symptom, feedback and feed forward links could inform every S=D link of the presence of the symptom. Only the S=D link of Disease X could be recalling the combination and recognizing the symptom.
Fifth, on not recognizing the symptom, all other S=D hillocks could be instantly inhibiting their impulses. The S=D links of Disease X could be continuing to fire. Those firing S=D link would be recalling past complaints, treatments and signs of Disease X, confirming the diagnosis. This could be enabling axon hillocks to identify Disease X out of 8000 in milliseconds. Eliminating improbable (unrecognized) prospects to arrive at a possible (recognized in the past) solution powers the powerful inductive logic of the mind!
Worldwide interest in this website is acknowledging its rationale. Not metaphysical theories, but processing of digital memories in axon hillocks could be explaining innumerable mysteries of the mind. Over three decades, this website has been assembling more and more evidence of the manipulation of emotional and physical behaviors by narrowly focused digital pattern recognition. It has also been receiving over 2 million page views from over 150 countries.
How To Overcome Disappointment
What Is The Basic Objective Of Nature?
Nature
uses disappointment to teach you how to make crucial decisions, when
faced with uncertainty. It is a powerful emotion, which calibrates
actual outcomes against your expectations. Damasio's Somatic Marker
Hypothesis suggests that emotional calibration is cardinal to complex
decision making. Life throws you many conflicting options. According
to the scientist Frijda, emotions, their bodily effects and the
desire to enjoy, or avoid similar experiences in the future decide
your choices. Your mind is constantly recording your significant
experiences with a calibrated range of emotions.
Such
finely differentiated grades of experienced emotions enable you to
make wise choices. Stronger emotions prevail over weaker ones. Your
mind makes those subtle choices, which empower rational thinking,
including reward anticipation and decision-making. Your distress
marks the event, which proved that your judgment has been seriously
wrong. You feel really bad. But, the event has made you wiser. But,
the effect of the emotion is to
shifts the goals of your mind away from a search for opportunities to
the fearful avoidance of problems. This troubling effect is caused
by the lateral habenula (LHb), a pea sized bundle of nerves in your
brain. You should not be affected by a faulty program in your nervous
system.
Since
life is full of uncertainty,
LHb adjusts your goals by keeping track of your
information-prediction and reward-prediction errors. If your
expectation of increased sales did not materialize, you made an
information prediction error. If your expectation of a raise did not
materialize, you made a reward prediction error. Since you failed to
predict such mishaps, LHb assumes that you have false expectations
from life. LHb weighs your setbacks (without counting your blessings)
to conclude that your activities will lead relentlessly into
disaster. It sets off a series of neural actions to motivate you to
retire from all activity. To overcome your disappointment, you must
understand that it is your LHb, which colors your world black. The
organ creates a bias in your mind by triggering neuro transmitters,
which cause a loss of energy in the system.
How
To Overcome Disappointment
What Does Disappointment Leads To?
The
studies of Schimmack, on the frequency and intensity of emotions in
real life events, found that disappointment is one of the most
frequent and one of the most negative of such emotions. It provides a
graded response. The greater the anticipation, the greater the
disappointment. According to Steven Shabel, disappointment is
signaled by the release of the neurotransmitter, glutamate, by LHb.
When more glutamate is released, the more intense are the
disappointment signals, which spread in the system.
Disappointment stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. The
chemical responses lead to melancholy, inertia, and a feeling of
hopelessness. The heightened sense of dismay leads to increased
expectation of future letdowns.
The setback envelops you
in feelings of helplessness. You lose interest in your daily
routines. There is a loss of energy and self criticism. Your appetite
and sleep get affected. Your problems look bigger and you worry about
problems that could happen. You feel scared with no specific or
direct threat. You become more prone to anger and irritability. Your
actions become less well considered and more impulsive. This
continuing emotional roller coaster can lead to heart disease,
digestive disorders, and a depressed immune system. All this is
triggered by a changed balance of chemicals in the habenula.
How
To Overcome Disappointment
What Is Self Awareness?
You
have no awareness of the intuitive process, which activated LHb,
which enabled your animal instincts to take over. Reduced dopamine
availability in the forebrain has lessened your energy. Intuition has
inhibited the memories of lilting songs and bright mornings to
morbidly convince you that your situation is hopeless. It is not. A
simple mental exercise can stop this whole knee jerk process in its
tracks.
Your common sense will take control and set free
memories of sunshine and laughter. All you need is a little practice
of self
awareness.
Learn to become aware when emotional turmoil begins within you. Self
awareness is the key theme in the meditation practiced for centuries
by the Buddhists. They recommended “staring back” at your
thoughts.
Matthieu Ricard, a respected Buddhist monk
said: "One may wonder what people do in retreats, sitting for
eight hours a day. They familiarize themselves with a new way of
dealing with the arising of thoughts." "When you start
getting used to recognizing thoughts as they arise, it is like
rapidly spotting someone you know in a crowd. When a powerful thought
or anger arises, you recognize it. That helps you to avoid being
overwhelmed by this thought." Self awareness enables you to
recognize your depression as just a transitory mood.
How
To Overcome Disappointment
Can You Accept The Situation?
The
vicious cycles of thoughts, which cause you anguish can be stilled
through self awareness. Recognize the turmoil in your mind. The
shattered images of your expectations of a bright future cause
endless reruns of “what might have been” images in your mind.
Each image of missed opportunities increase the discharge of
glutamate by LHb. Just awareness that your mind is in turmoil leads
you to the next thought. What can you do about it? You can takes a
series of mental steps to still the anguish.
The first
thing to do is to face
up to
the worst impact of your disappointing outcome. Can you live with it?
Think of the repercussions... You will have to admit that the earth
will keep spinning and the sun will rise again. Life will still go
on. Facing up to your let down is a purifying exercise. The flailing
in a cage feeling stops. Directly facing the consequences of the
mishap will stop the “might have been” reruns. The turmoil
remains, but you recognize your disappointment not as an overwhelming
world view, but as a sad event in your life. What action can you take
now?
How
To Overcome Disappointment
What Are Your Other Options?
Your
earlier expectations had filled you with hope and excitement. After
the let down, you face a bleak future. Look around and evaluate your
expectations. Hindsight grants you a better view of the real world.
Your mind will store this outcome and bring it up the next time you
face an uncertain choice. What was the possibility that you had
ignored? Was that a freak event, or a reasonable likelihood? Plan
your future course of action in the light of this new knowledge.
If
you expected to win a million in a lottery, one hundred thousand will
be a disappointment. If you have experienced intense
disappointment before, it may be an indication that your expectations
are too high. Lowering your targets will not kill your dreams. You
only become more practical. Consciously lower your expectations in
future to achieve a more balanced emotional life. Evaluate the
reasons of the let down and see if you can improve the outcome with
more resources, or better planning. Detach yourself from a losing
cause.
How
To Overcome Disappointment
Can You Give Yourself Time To Recover?
Disappointment
is nature's way of jolting you into reality. But, don't let
disappointment breed pessimism. It is a feeling, which envelops you
in gloom. The intuitive
process acts
globally. It manipulates all your memories. It darkens your horizons
by preventing you from recalling all your past successes. It prevents
you from fighting back.
Decision analysts operate on the
assumption that individuals will try to avoid the potential for
disappointment and make decisions that are less likely to lead to the
experience of the feeling. When feeling disappointed, a person is
more likely to sell at a loss. Give yourself time to come out of the
low feeling. Make your important decisions, only after the sense of
hopelessness leaves you.
How
To Overcome Disappointment -
How Can You Recover Your Spirit?
A
depressed outlook is the result of reduced forebrain activity. Shift
the focus of your mind to simple tasks which you enjoy. Play computer
games, polish silver, or walk in the park. Any activity, which
interests you. The human mind operates at its highest level, when it
anticipates a reward. Professor Wolfram Schultz discovered that
reward oriented behavior is promoted by the release of a group of
neurotransmitters by neurons in the early reptilian part of the human
brain.
These neurons detect signals in the environment,
which indicate the possibility of a reward within a specific time
frame. By releasing dopamine, these neurons increase neural activity
in the forebrain. Dopamine increases alertness and provides clarity
to immediate objectives and makes a person feel more energetic and
elated. Schultz noted that the release continues only for
the predicted time period, when a reward can be expected. The release
reduces at the end of this period. The releases stop if the rewards
have become a matter of routine.
Your work needs some
novelty for sustained interest. The solution of each new problem,
however simple, provides a reward. Studies indicate that energy does
not require engagement in creative, or artistic tasks. It is
experienced even in tasks such as analyzing data, or filling out
income tax returns. Swift answers in the challenges of a job grant
energy. As you continue your task, you will come out of the mood of
hopelessness.
How
To Overcome Disappointment
Why Is A purpose Important?
The
future that you looked forward to has vanished. The human mind needs
a purpose to become strong and vibrant. The famed psychiatrist,
Frankl, suggested that, even when life looked hopeless, a purpose was
absolutely needed for survival. Having encountered the horrors of the
Nazi concentration camps, he learned that people could survive
torture and beatings, if they had a purpose in life.
But,
these were not large purposes. A hope of meeting a son after the war
was a purpose. Even a decision to harden oneself against suffering
was a sufficient purpose. After the war, Frankl established a major
field in psychiatry, assisting thousands of suicidal patients around
the world to recover by discovering an acceptable purpose in
life. After
your disappointment, you too need to find an acceptable purpose.
Enjoy the feeling that you are better prepared to meet the
uncertainties of life. After all, trying to avoid disappointment will
make you over cautious.
Treat this experience as a foot
board to avoid distress, if similar things happen again. Change your
goals to overcome your errors. Can you set an easier goal? Can you
reach your goal by attempting less ambitious steps? Can you get
helpful advice? Can you follow the steps of those who succeeded? In
the end, disappointment improves your ability to predict the future.
Benefit from the powerful lesson granted to you by nature.
KNOW YOURSELF PODCAST Listen each week, to one podcast. Based on practical self improvement principles. From the insight of an engineer, back in 1989, about the data processing structure of the human mind, recognizing, filtering, storing patterns, without stopping. Patterns of guilt, shame, fear. How to silence painful subconscious patterns and become self aware.
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