BRAIN BUG

July 4th, 2019

Coders talk about debugging code.  Finding the one spot where things go awry, where the whole system stops or trips or redirects in a strange way.

What about debugging the mind.  Surely we all have a few bad ideas running around wreaking havoc from time to time.  Like bugs in code, bad ideas or narratives can keep us stuck in a bad system of thought and behavior, creating a vicious cycle and burrowing who we are deeper and deeper into a problem.

However, just as code can be debugged, the mind, and the ideas that run on our gooey hardware can also be debugged.  These bugs might look like bad habits.  And no matter how nonsensical, there is always a story that we are telling ourselves when such a bad habit rears it’s counter-productive head.  Sometimes, the mere act of saying this story out loud, by simply speaking the thoughts as they occur around a bad habit can be enough to totally disrupt a habit.  We become mindful and reflective in a way that exposes our thinking as opposed to letting it slide in the silence created by a private mind.

At the very least, saying such stories and thoughts out loud can spark a new perspective that breeds ideas about how to our own undermining behavior.

Getting rid of these bugs may in fact be more important than installing better ideas and habits. The urge and possibility of these better habits might already be there, lying dormant, remaining static from  friction caused by brain bugs making everything go haywire.

What’s required first and foremost is the idea that we can change who we are.  Without that idea, little is possible in the way of debugging our thoughts.

But, with a solid curiosity installed about who we could become,  everything is up for grabs, and like a program that instantly starts performing as intended, the mind can begin to weed out it’s own bugs and start performing as intended.