Mental Processes 1 & 2

As cultures mature from primitive to more advanced they enter an age of transition. The result is “cultural lag.” “Cultural lag” means that people are trapped between the old, traditional ways and the new ways. Life in an age of transition is a battle between Nature's Intent and the culture’s momentum.

Nature’s Intent directs your Life-Energy towards high Integrity choices to further evolutionary excellence. The culture's momentum fights to continue to control your Life-Energy and direct it towards the culture’s priorities.

CULTURAL VS. PERSONAL PRIORITIES

Each generation automatically trains the next generation to attend to the cultural priorities. This training ensures the continuation of the culture’s momentum. Cultural momentum passes on the traditional structure for living and working together.

Your Personal Priorities are unique to you and aligned with Nature's Intent. Personal and cultural priorities are indistinguishable, united, and of one singular intent in primitive cultures. They both act to further evolutionary excellence. Only as cultures mature do Personal Priorities and cultural priorities begin to conflict. Only as cultures mature does it become critical to recognize and choose between your Personal and cultural priorities.

To over-focus on cultural priories causes Self-abandonment. For example, single-mindedly striving to get rich, be famous, or acquire power jeopardizes your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. On the other hand, over-focusing on your Personal Priorities jeopardizes your ability to create and maintain healthy relationships in your community and with the people you love. The challenge is to live in the middle of these yin-yang forces and make Conscious choices that create Balance in your life.

The mental processes described below capture your Life-Energy and use it in the service of the cultural priorities by interfering with your ability to be aware of your Personal Priorities. Consequently, these mental processes severely jeopardize your ability to make Conscious, balanced, high Integrity choices that enrich the quality of your life and further evolutionary excellence.

MENTAL PROCESSES THAT AUTOMATICALLY DIRECT YOUR LIFE-ENERGY TOWARD THE CULTURAL PRIORITIES

1. MENTAL DIVERSION

Mental diversion occurs when your mind creates a shift of focus which does not allow you to track our own thoughts. An example of diversion is when you want to give some Conscious thought to a difficult or anxiety provoking issue, and before you know it, you find yourself sidetracked – thinking about something else. The "something else" usually appears to be of more immediate importance, but more accurately, the "something else" is just a convenient escape.

For example, you may find yourself wondering what you are going to say to a co-worker who continues to take credit for your work, and then suddenly you forget all about your troublesome co-worker because now you are really concerned about how am I going to pay the bills this month?

Mental diversion keeps you harnessed to your old self-depleting behavior patterns and to the culturally approved ways of behaving. Mental diversion severely limits your ability to give any Conscious thought to or make any Conscious decisions about the anxiety provoking issues that violate your Integrity and jeopardize your quality of Life.

CORRECTIVE ACTION: Vigilantly learn to track your thoughts and your emotions. Observe the patterns. Take note of the ways you distract yourself from emotionally challenging issues. Require yourself to stay focused by writing the issue down and staying with it until you resolve it to your released satisfaction.

2. COGNITIVE DENIAL AND RATIONALIZATION

Cognitive denial and rationalization allow you to rewrite what is actually happening or what previously happened. That is, anything you experience that does not fit with what you prefer to believe, you alter it. You have an amazing mental capacity for ignoring and/or rationalizing away anything that does not confirm your preferred sense of reality. Unconscious cognitive denial and rationalization severely interfere with your ability to assess and effectively deal with anxiety provoking realities you would rather ignore.

For example, you tell yourself that your reluctance to inquire into a friend's sour mood is due to your desire to respect his or her privacy. When in truth you are afraid of being rude or frightened that his or her soured mood reflects a changing attitude towards you. Rather than checking out your suspicions, you tell yourself that if something was wrong he or she would tell you. The silence continues, the confusion mounts, the resentment builds and the relationship weakens.

CORRECTIVE ACTION: Make a habit to gently, but consistently, clarify and all concerns and confusion you have in regard to everything and everyone. Do not let yourself be detoured from getting clarity by your fears of being rude or upsetting the apparent calm. Clarity is the first step to a calm mind!