dailydatewithgod

The purpose of creating a proper setting in a film or on stage is to help the audience create a context of understanding for the interaction that is to take place.  What transfers from the witnessing of the interaction does not often include the setting as it is either implied or a generally accepted cultural norm.  The funny thing about our own lives is how in our minds we take something that happens in a particular setting and attach ideas to it without the setting.   In other words, something happens and we code it in our minds with particular thoughts and feelings. We do not encode the setting.  So then the next time we find ourselves thinking or feeling similarly even if the setting does not fit we wire off a similar response.  It is the brain’s way of being efficient.  If enough of the setting is there, we will draw upon our previous experience.  This formula while highly efficient at conserving energy and surviving through a situation, causes us to actually be reacting to something from the past.  Since our mind is busy pulling up past records and quickly reacting, we do not have to be fully present to the current setting.  One of the simple elements I learned from my daily dates with god is to find a way to presence myself in the current setting.  I can look at my hands or feet and notice where I actually am at this moment.  I can look around who is there with me and what the environment around me is.  When I take in the full set of the present moment, there is enough of a pause created before I react. In the pause to assess the setting of this moment, I can choose how to respond instead of reacting from the past.