Hope and Neuroplasticity

Disclaimer: don't take it literally as these are not statements of facts.

there is hope

Inside the inner workings of our brain is a primitive part called the amygdala which is in charge of activating our fight-or-flight response. Along with this response is an uncomfortable feeling of anxiety that's designed to protect us from harm, releasing cortisol to physically help us run away from a charging grizzly bear.

Given these in mind, where's the problem?
Good question.
Do you ever get the urge to laugh during an important presentation? Or find yourself wanting to go number one in the middle of a movie in a theater?

The problem begins to exist when it is activated at the wrong time - when we are nocking and drawing our emotional arrows without something to aim at, when we're holding up our umbrellas on a bright and sunny day (assuming your skin is compatible with the sun). It's causing us to feel like shit when we don't have to because we mistakenly believe that the rain is about to pour. That part of the brain thinking that it's gonna rain isn't programmed for accuracy but for efficiency so we have to stop listening to our bug-ridden, assuming, non sequitur-breeding, and plainly stupid brain sometimes.

This is where the newest feature of the brain called the neocortex comes in. It's the one getting impaired when we're intoxicated. It's meant to be used to stop us from doing stupid shit just like how giraffes' long necks are meant to be used to get apples from a tall tree.

Here's the clincher: the neocortex is capable of persuading the amygdala to calm down. It's capable of convincing the part telling you to run that there's nothing to be worried about and you're in a safe space.

thoughts shape our reality

In the field of psychology, there's this thing called the ABC model in CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

The A stands for Activating event, the B is for Belief systems, and the C is for Consequences. It's a way to look at things, dissect them, and troubleshoot the patterns of our cognition that's causing us to feel what we feel. The B part is where we have control over. Our beliefs in this world dictate a lot of what we feel.

Example: One of the things I learned in college was "if something looks too good to be true, it probably is". Now while that's true, we should bear in mind that concurrently, there are a lot of good things in life and just because something is a very good thing, doesn't mean we should worry about its quality of being true; otherwise, we're gonna be walking around thinking as if we don't deserve good things in life. There's still the probability that good real things can happen to us - example of which is having a normal life .

We have to take care of our thoughts because our perception of reality depends on it - heaven can feel like hell without the right perspective to appreciate it.

I was just reading Mark Manson's book "Everything is Fucked" yesterday, and similar to how sometimes, an overactive amygdala can literally make us stupid and block some pathways in the neocortex since we focus on survival mode (which isn't a mode that's supposed to be activated for a long time - that's why the other calmer mode exists), there apparently exists a phenomenon called the Blue Dot effect which states that the more we're exposed to the opposite of something, the harder it is to distinguish between that and its counterpart.

It stems from an experiment made with blue and purple dots where these dots (either blue or purple) will appear on a screen one at a time and people are supposed to point out whether the dot is blue or not. The more purple dots were present in the round, the higher the error rate was. It was found that this phenomenon was not only present in seeing dots in a screen but also with interpeting whether job proposals were good or not, whether practices were unethical or not, whether regulations were fair or not.

We tend to see what we look for and in survival mode, it can seem as if everything is a threat.

This is where being mindful comes into play.
This is where using our God-given (and/or evolved - depending on what you believe in) logic comes into play.

This is why we have to take care of our thoughts.
This is why we have to stop doomscrolling.
This is the part where we take a break and recalibrate on the person that we want to be today and initiate the firing (and consequently, rewiring) of the neurons responsible for making us more resilient and versatile people because what good is our minds if we won't use it in our favor.

I'm not recommending ignorance and apathy, I'm just trying to point out that mismanagement of resources (this time, mental one) will limit our capability to bring about progress.

there's a difference between us and our thoughts

We feel things but we aren't the things we feel. I believe this capacity to separate response from the stimuli is how people achieve a sense of peace and clarity.

I haven't really practiced it but I heard in a podcast that meditation is about observing your (probably negative) thoughts and saying "No, bitch - I'm the boss and I decide what to do and how to feel."

This apparently is not so different with:
Body has to take a whiz? No bitch, I'm the boss - go do it later.
Itchy? No bitch, I'm the boss - scratch you later.

This practice reinforces the part where your whole being recognizes that you're in control - thereby granting your release from the prison of the past, increasing your chances of being in an unbothered state. It's truly healthy to not repress emotions, but this part's use case is meant for when things go overboard and we become enslaved by our emotions

It surely is easier said than done but sometimes, all we need is a new perspective to go about our lives in a much more favorable manner - and I truly hope we do so, as it just seems like the better way to live.