Honor the Machine

Willingness to interrupt what I'm doing to take care of a little thing (usually making a reminder) will probably make my life better. It's why I wrote this before putting my socks on. I was just putting on my socks and shoes to go for my daily walk when I recalled that I said to my oldest daughter, "your subconscious is screaming at you because you're ignoring it." Since I said it, I've apparently been working on taking the advice myself. I was about to ignore the thought and finish what I was doing, but instead, I wrote the first two sentences of this post and a list of other things I cover below.

I did write about a very relieving decision I made a while back, that I would take care of anything that comes up while I'm meditating instead of expecting my subconscious ("the machine") to remind me. It's the second to last paragraph of Instructions to Myself.  Since then, I noticed the peace of mind, that I usually achieve through meditation, hanging around in my mind when I'm not meditating. It's like I'm meditating all the time by default. Quickly honoring the words that come out of that mouse hole seems to give me more head space.

My claim to Julia that she was ignoring her screaming subconscious stuck in my mind. It might not be true for her, but it's definitely true for me. The trick is to figure out how to build what it says into the structure of my life before it says something else. That includes taking notes, telling people things, verbalizing (at least in my mind) what I feel, plan, and recognize, and even just doing something right away. I want to have a mind like water, so I should honor my subconscious when it peeks out.

I have been publishing a chapter of my book each Sunday.  In considering the role of my subconscious in my life, I realized that the company in my book, ICM, must be very good at what they do in order to provide everything a body usually provides to the mind. My understanding is that a lot of information processing happens in parts of the body other than the brain.  I haven't read The Body Keeps the Score, but perhaps that book will solidify this point for me.  I do know that our psychological states are heavily influenced by the bacteria that live in our guts.

Part of my morning routine is to write a little bit.  I have not yet used that part to write any of the story I'm telling in iCyborg.me.  Rather, I use that time to come up with or expand on ideas to write about in this blog.  "Honor the machine," to me, basically means that I can't expect my subconscious to produce ideas (or bring memories to mind) on command (during that part of my routine) because they can come any time, and so I should stop ignoring them and just add them somewhere, for example in my phone.  What's your subconscious telling you?