Learn To Change Old Reaction Patterns

Many years back, a pal of mine walked up behind another mate who had just returned from 2 tours of duty in Viet Nam with the Marines.

 The vet failed to hear my friend till she was right behind him.

His coaching kicked in, and he whisked and struck out with a karate chop. Luckily , he caught himself in time, and my friend says sorry copiously for appearing to sneak up on him. The Sea had spent months in mortal danger, using the survival skills he'd learned, and was still reacting as if he were in the jungle. We are trained much the same way when we're kids and teenagers. Over time, we learn a certain way of reacting that reflects our parents' perspectives, our faculty environment, our friends' perspectives. We could have grown up in a threatening situation,eg with an aggressive parent or being stressed in faculty, and discovered that being quiet and invisible kept us safer. Or we may have learned to strike out in hate to reduce our risk. When we grow older, we continue those reactions without thinking, just as my sea buddy did.

However, now that we are older, and no longer in the antagonistic environment, we will consciously select an alternative way to retort to our present situation. This is the difference between "re-acting" and "responding." When we "re-act," we act in the same way, repeatedly, instantly. By consciously selecting what type of result we'd like, and how we would like to feel about ourselves thereafter, we are "responding" to the situation. There's an old proverb that goes something similar to this, "If you always do what you have always done, you are always going to get what you have always gotten." By continuing to react in the same way we have, we are never going to modify and neither will our lives. It's hard to change old reaction patterns, but it can be done. We will be able to begin by having a look at reactions that are not working in our lives. Do you elude risk and feedback, but wish to achieve more in your life? It may feel frightening, but decide to accept the following opportunity that takes you out of your comfort section.

When you get into an argument with somebody close, do you either lash out or hide? Does this give you the best resolution? If not, consider how it's possible for you to reply to the situation next time. Role-play it in your imagination. You may feel a nearly impossible to resist urge to fall back to your old reaction, but resist it, and follow thru with your selected reply.

Visualizing the new reply can make the new reply more automated. The subconscious can't spot the difference between a robust image and fact. If we rehearse the new reply repeatedly, the subconscious will have a tendency to act on the impressed reply less complicated.

When you visualise, use your senses ; like sight, sound, feelings, even smells to make it more real. The more you practice at visualisation, as with any new ability, the better at it you may become. To switch the old patterns permanently, we need to pick our replies, and act on them each time the triggering situation arises. Otherwise, we give the subconscious mind confused claims. If we oscillate forwards and backwards between the old reaction and the new reply, the subconscious will have a tendency to draw us back to the familiar mold. However, if we react, but catch ourselves doing it and right away change to our selected reply, the subconscious will start to catch on. As my Sea chum became more snug in being back home, in safety, his hair trigger replies commenced to vanish.

The same is true for us. Now that we're in a different situation than the one in which we learned to react, we will be able to choose more positive replies. Replies that bring us the results we'd like.