Garbage in, garbage out

Seems silly when you look at this photo because it is so obvious to see it this way. But how many times have we been this little boy, when things are right there in front of our nose or sitting on top of our head and we don’t see them. Now is it inattention on his part or is it that to him it is such an impossible thing to have a bird sit on his head that he cannot see it.

It is easy to not see what we don’t want to see or what we don’t understand. The brain is very much like a computer. It can only use the programs that you have uploaded into it. Your eyes do not see, your brain does.

I think we have all been there when you get so scared that you swore you “saw” something and in reality nothing was there or something completely different than what you saw was actually in play. And the reverse is also true, something was there and you never saw it.

“But I never saw that car driving right toward me, that’s why I pulled out at the intersection”

Your brain may have preconceived notions on what “reality” is. Like I said before, your brain can only work with the program it was enabled with.

Where am I going with this? You need to program your brain properly. Let’s discuss this topic regarding self defense, since this is a SD blog. A good way to “program” your brain is to open it to new knowledge. GOOD reality based scenarios will really help doing this. You are introducing your brain to “Wow, this can really happen” or “this is what violence looks like/ feels like/ sounds like” or “so when a potential predator says/ does this, it means I could be in danger?”. Your brain will be filing this information for later use. It might make it easier for you to recognize a potentially violent situation and avoid it before you find yourself knee deep in doodoo.

But if your brain is unaware of what violence looks like (I am NOT talking about Hollywood violence here), it may not be able to recognize in time to save your hide. If you don’t take time to understand danger signals, bad behaviors, potentially dangerous situations, your brain will not perceive them as reality.

Your beliefs also work into perceiving the things you do and say. You might think you meant something when it might come across a totally different way to another person since his perception and beliefs are different than yours. This is especially true when you come across people from different cultures and backgrounds.

So remember, good input = good output. If you program yourself with garbage, don’t expect to produce gold and diamonds. If you want to prevent yourself from experiencing violence, you will have to understand what you are trying to avoid in the first place.