Subtle Reinforcements

Remember the study of Pavlov's Dogs? Each day someone would ring a dinner bell and feed a group of dogs. After doing this same thing for a while they decided to ring the dinner bell but would not feed the dogs. However the dogs had developed a "conditioned response" and would still get excited and salivate in preparation for the food.

We are not so different from the dogs. What I am coming to realize is that no matter what "stimulus" I choose to have around me -whether it be positive or negative- I become conditioned to it. This is amazing really and what good information to be armed with...if we know this happens we can choose with awareness what "stimulus" we will allow to be in our lives repeatedly. We can also see what patterns are happening in our lives...ie. how we react to situations on a regular basis.

What separates us from the dogs is our ability to think and reason. Pavlov's dogs had no choice...they just continue to salivate. We have the ability to tell ourselves "dinner is not coming, its just a bell" and change our response. This may take a couple of (or many!) times to "re-condition" our behavior but as human beings we are blessed to be able to do this.

This new understanding has given me an opportunity to look at the patterns of behavior in my own life. I am staying aware of how I feel physiologically and emotionally. When I am feeling very low I can look to what I am doing to reinforce my low feelings; sleeping too much, overeating, not taking care of myself physically, telling myself negative things. These are my conditioned responses to feeling an unpleasant emotion. When I am feeling great I can look to see what I am doing to reinforce those feelings as well.

The challenge here -at least for me- is having the strength to make a different choice. I know I cannot do it on my own for very long...it seems to work for a while but then ultimately I can't keep it up and I end up doing what I've "always" done...

I mentioned we are blessed with thought and reason; I believe accessing the place where the blessings come from for guidance and strength is the key to changing our behavior. This place is in all of us at our center and there is more strength in us than we could ever imagine. We simply have to choose to use it.