ERM-2.3
ERM* – Feeding the Elephant…
Your Elephant “has been fed” (conditioned by) all kinds of things ever since (and actually long before[1]) you were born. Some of the more familiar ways your Elephant learns include:
- Real Life Events – especially stimulating, meaningful experiences (joyful, sad, traumatic)
- Exposure to Sensory Input – consciously and unconsciously perceived (e.g., visual and social media, art, advertising, music, driving…)
- Exposure to Conceptual Input – ideas, concepts, beliefs (e.g., on the internet, in books, listening to or reading “the news”…)
- “Teachings” from Others – parents, friends, schooling, religion (i.e., all that conditioning)
- Training by the Rider – engaging in proactive (i.e., self-driven) efforts, like:
- Rationality (e.g., processing, critical thinking, problem-solving)
- Reflection/Introspection (e.g., Self-Awareness, Sitting Quietly, prayer, meditation)
- Practicing (e.g., a musical instrument, a sport, learning to drive, memorizing)
- Education (self-directed, as in: self-improvement, schooling, internet/online, reading)
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As previously noted, there is lot going on in your Elephant[2]. While our Rider can really only focus on one thing at a time,[3] the Elephant is continuously performing dozens of automatic functions simultaneously; e.g., managing bodily functions; carrying out mental operations like sensory processing, judging, and comparing; and the rather amazing activity of emotional processing.
This last – emotional processing – is a complex combination of integrating your beliefs and prior experience with the stimulating (and sometimes disturbing) input of the present experience. Like most Elephant functioning, it is a continuous and ongoing process with in-the-moment results. And they are available – although it should be noted not always recognized – as feelings to the Rider.
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To understand what your Elephant has to work with in creating your emotions, consider what you’ve already learned and experienced as well as what you’re “feeding” it. That is, identify what you are choosing to engage in and expose yourself to in each of the first four ways above. And ask yourself, “Is it negative, de-meaning, predictable, and/or numbing? Or is it positive, inspirational, stimulating, and challenging?”
The answers you come up with are the “grist and influences” that will continue to shape, define, and condition your beliefs and worldview (i.e., your personal “take” on what’s going on in your life). And these are what your Elephant – your emotion generator – has to work with…
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[1] Through our genetics; i.e., via evolution, and until our science develops ways to change what we’re born with…
[2] The “keeper” of our memories, beliefs, values, and habits, it also includes the reptilian brain (i.e., controls heart beat, breathing, temperature and balance), and the limbic system (i.e., dealing with instinct and mood, emotions, and drives).
[3] Some people claim they are good at multi-tasking; but this is really only the Rider moving its focus “quickly” between tasks.
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*Elephant/Rider Model: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt, 2006.
