The River Of Ration

         Take a drink; take a sip from the river of ration. The ability to function as an independent being, created to exist, and dominate through the gift of choice and free thinking. The ability to reason is one trait that has separated man from other species. The God-given power of reasoning has power over the unconscious processes or mechanism, and can change negative beliefs, feelings or behavior.

         Your automatic mechanism, or what the Freudians call the “unconscious mind”, is absolutely impersonal. It has no will of its own. it always tries to react appropriately to your current beliefs and interpretations concerning your environment.

         It is conscious thinking that is the control knob of your unconscious machine. It was by conscious thought, though perhaps irrational and unrealistic, that the unconscious machine developed its negative and inappropriate reaction patterns, and it is by conscious rational thought that the automatic reaction can be changed.

            The fact that there are “buried” in the unconscious, memories of past failures , unpleasant and painful experiences; does not mean that they should be “dug out”, exposed or examined , in order to effect personality changes. As pointed out earlier, all skill learning is accomplished by and error , making a trial , missing the mark , consciously remembering the degree error and correcting on the next trial , until a successful attempt is accomplished. The successful pattern is then remembered, and “imitated” on future trials. This is true for all learning process. Thus , all servo-mechanisms , by their very nature contain certain “memories” of past errors, failures, painful and negative experiences. These memories of past failures do not harm as long as our conscious thoughts and attention is focused upon the positive goal to be accomplished. Our errors, mistakes, failures, were necessary steps in the learning process. However, they are a means to an end and not an end in themselves. When they serve their purpose, they should be forgotten. If we consciously dwell upon the error, or consciously feel guilty about the error, then unwittingly – the error or failure itself becomes the “goal” which is consciously held in the imagination and memory.

           Continually criticizing yourself for past mistakes and errors does not help matters, but on the other hand tends to perpetuate the very behavior you would change. If you are victimized, it is by your conscious thinking mind and not by the unconscious. For it is with the thinking part of your personality that we draw conclusions, and select the “goal images” that we concentrate upon. The minute that you change your mind, and stop giving power to the past, the past with its mistakes looses power over you.

                   One reason why the power of rational thinking isn’t recognized is that it is seldom used. Remember that both behaviour and feeling spring from belief. In order to root out the belief, which is responsible for your feelings and behaviour – ask yourself, “why?” “Why do I act the way I do, when I am in this situation?” then ask yourself – “is this belief based upon an actual fact, or upon assumption, or a false conclusion?” Then ask yourself the following questions :

                                    I.      Is there any rational reason for such a belief?

                                 II.      Could it be that I am mistaken in this belief?    

                             III.      Would I come to the same conclusion about someone else in a similar situation?

                             IV.      Why should I continue to act and feel that this was true, if there is no good reason to believe it?

          Don’t just brush past these questions, think hard on them. Get emotional about them. Try to arouse some indignation, or even anger. Indignation and anger can sometimes act as liberators.

         For rational thinking to be effective in changing belief or behaviour, it must be accompanied by deep feeling and desire. Picture to yourself, what you would like to be and have, and assume for the moment that such things might be possible. Arouse a deep desire for these things. Dwell upon them. Your present negative beliefs were formed by thought plus feelings. Generate enough emotion or deep feeling, and your new thoughts and ideas will cancel them out.

      Looking at this closely, you will find out that you are using a process that you have often used – worry!. The only difference is that you changed your goals from negative to positive.

      The constant repetition and thinking in terms of “possibilities” makes the end result appear more and more “real” to you. After a while, appropriate emotions are generated, which corresponds to the end result your dwelling on.

       Instead of dwelling on your fears, picture yourself upon a desirable end result, gradually, the possibility will become more and more real and the appropriate emotions – cheerfulness, enthusiasm, encouragement and happiness will be generated .

                                         St.Prince Xavier/2012/ for the INC