Tune Your Metabolism: Draft
21 |-
22 |
-
23 |
Diet
24 |-
25 |
-
26 |
Artificial tastefulness -> obesity set point
27 |
28 | -
29 |
Sodium/potassium -> blood pressure
30 |
31 |
33 | -
26 |
Diet
24 |Artificial tastefulness -> obesity set point
27 |Sodium/potassium -> blood pressure
30 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
40 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
48 |The go-to metaphor here is tuning a car engine:
26 |The purpose of tuning is to allow optimal performance within the original design. It is definitely not to rebuild parts from scratch, or reinvent what they can be used for.
29 |Tuning is performed on an artifact made of clearly defined parts. If all of the parts work well, the whole does too (predictably).
32 |As you approach a "well tuned" configuration, you need only make smaller and smaller tweaks to the system, while continuing to see large gains in output performance.
35 |To see is to change.
43 |Struggling to control something is a very short-term and fragile strategy. To really fix problems you need to first understand their structure with sufficient clarity.
46 |Counterintuitively, this often means acting as if you didn't care about the results, but only wanted to see everything better.
49 |Thoughts are inputs.
54 |Awareness is a muscle.
60 |Putting attention on something often brings short-term benefits, but far more importantly it slowly rewires your brain to be better able to perceive that class of things.
63 |This applies to both mental objects and various aspects of the external world.
66 |Figuring things out is a whole-person enterprise. I'm always on the look out for ways to improve my generalized ability to think and act, and apply them to everything I do.
74 |There's a lot of original and experimental thinking that goes into BWT, and this is arguably why it's worth reading in the first place. I reserve the right to be embarrassingly wrong about everything.
80 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
88 |From a reader who clearly got it right:
24 |25 |30 |[...] I decided to try this for the first time during my daily mindfulness meditation. I usually include a body scan for a few minutes so I just scanned a lot more slowly and followed the instructions on the site eg pick a particular place on one’s body and search for qualia. I started with my head and slowly moved down in a spiral. I went really slowly focusing on patches with 3-4 cm diameters and only moving on after I got that patch of skin to acknowledge some sensation. It took maybe twenty minutes to get to my jaw from the top of my head. I decided that was enough for the first time and stopped. 26 | The next day was in a different circumstance. I was laying on a couch in front of a fireplace and figured I didn’t need to be meditating to practice feeling those sensations. I started with my face and immediately noticed a difference in the size of the area I was able to focus on. I could search my eyes with a really tiny diameter, but my lips were much much more difficult. I went back to the top of my head and noticed the diameter there was tighter. I went to my arms and chest next and searched there for half an hour before I decided I was done and took a nap.
27 |The third day was when I realized I didn’t need to be in a special mood to have the qualia. I could focus on a patch of skin and have it respond with what felt like a small burst of warmth and sensation. I spent a lot of this day (probably around an hour) doing chores or eating while paying a lot of attention to the qualia. Later that night while I was trying to sleep I noticed that my hand was hanging off the edge of my bed and feeling something. I tried concentrating upon the sensations and thought I might have been feeling the air currents with my hand. I tried blowing near my hand to see if disturbing the air would raise the intensity of the sensation, it did. So I tried blowing on my hand to see if that sensation matched the one I was feeling, it was. I fell asleep feeling giddy at my accomplishment.
28 |Those were the first few days of what’s been a bit over a week week where I’ve spent at least 20 minutes throughout the day practicing this. I’m going to try implementing a dedicated session for practicing this each day, not just whimsical mindful attention to qualia throughout the day. Some things that might have influenced my progress or starting point with this skill is the fact that I’ve been doing mindfulness meditation for about half a year. Directly before that I did exercises to strengthen my capacity to listen to sounds accurately (eg ability to distinguish number of individuals in a group, the stride length of said individuals, pinpointing the location of ambient sounds etc). Those are the two main confounding factors but I also did some other smaller experiments with perception and proprioception.
29 |
Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
36 |From a reader who got initial tuning experiences very quickly (after laying solid groundwork with body sensing ability):
24 |25 |30 |Day 1: I tried tuning three times. Once in the early morning when I first got up, I layed down on the ground and tried relaxing individual parts of my body. I found it really difficult and my mind kept wandering without me realizing it. After about 15 minutes of this I gave up, I think I was much too tired at this point to actually focus. Later in evening after my workout I decided to give it another shot. So I layed down once more, and tried to relax my body. I started with my traps and realized they felt tight in correspondence with being shrugged up towards my head I pushed them down and away and felt it much easier to get them to relax. I went over my whole body in this way, slowly making it more and more at ease. It began to turn into what felt like a continuous motion of relaxation that flowed over half of my body with each full breath. At this point I realized that the qualia of relaxing was just about the opposite of clenching a muscle. If I flex my bicep then that is a conscious move that I make towards my bicep, I have to exert some force mentally to get it to flex. Same thing with this purposeful relaxing, it required mental effort to deliberately push the tension out of a muscle. After doing this for about ten minutes I found I had the weird electric bubble bath sensations all over my limbs. Thinking it might just be my limbs falling asleep I decided to move them slightly to get more blood flow. This did not stop the sensations. I figured this was fine since it was what the guide said would happen, I was just surprised at how accurate the qualic description was. After twenty minutes of this I stopped. My last time was in-bed, I wanted to see if I could do it while sleepy since I had more experience now. Unfortunately, the same thing happened as the morning where my mind wandered fiercely and I wasn’t able to concentrate.
26 |Day 2: I tried tuning once before bed. It didn’t work well, I just couldn’t get my mind to concentrate on relaxing and whenever I started to get the flow going my mind wandered off.
27 |Day 3: I tried tuning twice in succession. Both before bedtime. The first one worked well, I managed to find that my buttocks, trapezius, and my vastus medialis were all linked together. Whenever I turned my mind to relaxing only one of them, my buttocks would tense up. It seemed to be the linking point. Upon trying it again I realized that if I put a lot of the untensing focus on that area and ‘pushed’ against my thighs and traps I felt them all relax. The sensation of untensing seems to be generally applicable to more than just relieving tension. Consider sleepiness, I noticed that during several lectures I had to sit through that went over redundant materials, I experienced the qualia of sleepiness (achy eyes, trying to think through fog, etc). Just like with the bodily tension, I found out that if I attempt to ‘unclench’ the feeling of sleepiness (this is mentally really tricky to describe). I can make myself noticeably more awake and energetic. This warrants further investigation.
28 |Day 4-8: The thing that seems to be the most successful at unlinking my tension is focusing on a part of my body (like my bicep) and really trying to relax it. This often reveals the other parts of me that won’t relax much more quickly than trying to relax my whole body over time. Additionally this lets me relax while I’m doing things that are normally stressful, like sitting at a desk. I just have to find somewhere on my body that is tense (noted by the absence of detailed sensations) and then purposefully relax it and try to relax the other parts of my body which start objecting. This is more or less part of my daily routine now, even for just a few minutes.
29 |
Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
36 |A reader after 2 months of emotional tuning writes:
24 |25 |32 |I'm spending less time with distracting things, like youtube videos, random wiki articles, video games etc. I more often just deal with the thing I would usually distract myself from.
26 |Normal and more stable sleep rhythm. I used to tend to go to bed very late (3am or 4am) and it would also often get later and later every day, eventually needing to "roll over" one day to get back to a socially acceptable sleep rhythm. If I went to bed late one day it was almost impossible to go to bed earlier the next day to catch up on sleep deficit, since I simply wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Now I usually get tired around 10pm to 1am, at which point I go to bed, and then sleep until around 7am to 10am, waking up naturally without an alarm, since I don't have external commitments at the moment. Occasionally I do go to bed later, or sleep until 1pm, but then the next day I just fall back into my usual rhythm again, catching up on any sleep deficit within one or two nights. I believe this is related to the point above, since I would usually be doing distracting/procrastinating things instead of going to bed.
27 |If I'm in a bad mood, it usually takes less than a day for it to resolve and for me to feel very good again. Knowing this also makes it much easier to endure the bad mood.
28 |Knowing that I have the tools/abilities to resolve unpleasant emotions is very relieving. Instead of "running around in panic" when I get an unpleasant feeling, all I need to do is sit with the feeling for a while and I will likely understand it better and it will go away.
29 |I'm also still noticing [...] it's more difficult to just distract myself from something unpleasant or try to ignore it.
30 |I'm trying to cultivate a mindset where I don't view my unpleasant emotions as annoying, or an obstacle that needs to be overcome. Instead I can feel grateful that they're looking out for me and that they're just trying to bring something important to my attention.
31 |
A reader comments on the relation between Focusing and emotional processing, and also on applying Focusing to itself:
34 |35 |39 |My impression is, that the emotional processing tuning is a natural extension of Gendlin's Focusing. [...] The way I see it right now, Focusing is a technique to make information conscious, that is available only in your sub-conscious. And then the natural next step is to use that information.
36 |I started doing a lot of Focusing in late October, and I've since noticed a few times when communicating via text, that I can use Focusing to get a wonderful clarity on what my feelings concerning the situation are, and then it follows automatically what I should say. It was nice to see that sort of thing confirmed in your Focusing description. Also, I'm assigning a lot of recent improvements in my life to the skills I got through Focusing, and so I'm now sort of viewing practicing the Tuning stuff as More Dakka for Focusing and I'm rather optimistic that I will get some good benefits.
37 |Another thought/thing I noticed: One of the first things I used Focusing on was a nervousness I felt about doing Focusing itself. And now the first session where I deliberately did the emotional processing tuning I chose to process the resistance I felt to doing it. I think it's really cool how this is a thing that can bootstrap itself, and I suspect many people may benefit from the advice to Focus on their feelings related to Focusing when they are just starting to learn it and want to practice it. I think I got a bit lucky, in that I had the insight that I could do this.
38 |
Another reader had some initial successes:
40 |41 |45 |I looked at [BWT] for the first time a little over a week ago. Since then, I've been going back to the guidelines for Gendlin Focusing and "Tune Your Emotional Processing" regularly. I've noticed feelings of boredom, agitation, (often physical) discomfort, and overwhelm. Sometimes, going through the processes from [BWT] have helped me find a clear way forward.
42 |For example, I focused on the feeling of overwhelm at all the knowledge in the world, and the hopelessness of my learning it all. I think thinking about this, using the processes from [BWT], has led my mind to better realize that I have finite capability (i.e. all the employees are on board with this), and made it easier to prioritize. It's easier to say "Oh yeah, that action isn't worth doing, let's forget about it."
43 |Sometimes, focusing on feelings doesn't lead to much, so that a part of me still feels mostly unresolved, even after trying to process it. This happens in degrees -- problems can feel unsolved, partially solved, mostly solved, or totally solved, though usually after processing them, there is some sort of shift in attitude.
44 |
Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
51 |It's is a very unusual guide to improving your brain and your life:
21 |No bullshit.
24 |It doesn't waste your time. Information is given minimally in bullet points.
27 |Each skill has clear results, with detailed information that lets you evaluate your progress. Pretty soon, you'll know it's real.
30 |No religious or mystical connotations.
33 |Detailed causal models.
38 |If you don't like the approach suggested by BWT, you can substitute your own ideas and get equivalent results.
41 |You can also plot your own way though the skill tree. It isn't here to tell you what to do, but rather to give you new, empowering options to choose from.
44 |Fundamental level.
49 |It's not another bundle of productivity advice, or a miscellany of life tips and tricks.
52 |Rather, it's about tweaking the fundamental settings of your brain. If you get them precisely right, most other "life advice" will become unnecessary or effortless to apply.
55 |Assumes you can think.
60 |The correct approach is probably to keep in mind at the same time that the instructions are broken, and also that there are profound insights that can be learned by trying to follow them.
63 |Before you can learn something, you need to find it in yourself to admit that you don't already know it. You have been warned.
66 |Note 1: all the top-level skills have very, very strong effects. If you learn them, you will have no trace of doubt about whether they work, and about whether they have really improved your life.
74 |Try to also apply this principle of clarity to all sub-skills that you will encounter on the way. Whenever you aren't sure that something is working, assume that it isn't and continue learning.
77 |If you get stuck, bored, confused, or can't make the instructions work for any other reason, get in touch. Or even better, you could pre-register before starting!
80 |Note 2: do not fix with cognition what can be fixed with chemistry. Before anything else, your brain is a biological machine.
85 |Basic survival.
88 |Tune Your Emotional Processing
91 |Sub-skills:
94 |Because nothing will get done if you don't show up for it.
105 |Tune Your Cognitive Strategies
110 |Sub-skills:
113 |Track Reality With Beliefs
116 |Upgrade Your Decision Theory
119 |Because by default you'll spend your life repeating the same mistakes over and over.
124 |Doing it the smart way.
131 |Sub-skills:
137 |Sense Your Body with Extreme Clarity
143 |Because no matter how many years you've spent not thinking about this, controlling muscles is still the main thing your brain does. If you get this right, magic happens.
151 |Tune Your Ontology
156 |Sub-skills:
159 |Make Your Own Concepts
162 |Augment Your Memory
168 |Because learning from experience can't take you all that far if you have wrong models. If you get this right, magic happens.
173 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
182 |The good.
25 |You are able to do activities which require strong focus, but do not come with external structure that would keep you engaged and motivated.
28 |Your ability to discern mental states is improved.
31 |The bad.
39 |Intense focus necessarily comes with negative health effects.
42 |This is a consequence of every kind of stress that you put on your body.
45 |By being more aware of your mind and body, you should be able to get better results with less overall stress.
48 |But just as easily you could use the skill to abuse your body, and suffer the consequences later.
51 |Note: this skill is uncommon, except among serious meditation practitioners. It's not very difficult to learn, but requires your emotional life to already be in reasonably good shape.
59 |You are able to enter intensely focused states at will.
62 |You can easily tell what mental state you are in.
68 |One axis is feeling calm/relaxed or anxious/under pressure (often described as having more or less mental "space"). Moving on this axis is described in Pause Your Feedback Loops.
71 |Another axis is feeling sleepy or alert (this corresponds to how much you are able to focus, and how physically energetic you feel).
74 |All four combinations are possible.
77 |The usual mechanism that regulates your mind and your body works by responding to the environment, but only when necessary.
85 |If you think some event or activity requires your attention, it activates some degree of stress response in your body.
88 |This is not negative unless the stress levels are abnormally or persistently high. In fact, without any stress you wouldn't be able to do much at all (you'd probably have trouble standing up).
91 |The stress response has many effects on your body, including increased heart rate and muscle tension.
94 |The stress response also comes with psychological pressure that keeps you focused on the stressful event or activity.
99 |This means that while your total ability to focus goes up, your ability to focus on other things goes down.
102 |When the reason to be stressed disappers, your body will quickly revert to its default mode, which is a sort of a lazy slumber.
105 |However, some activities are valuable but not inherently stressful.
110 |Meditation is a very clear example, and that's why all serious meditators have practiced this skill to perfection.
113 |Another example is reflecting on and thinking strategically about life goals.
116 |By learning to change your mind state, you unlock all the activities that don't already come packaged with powerful feedback loops.
119 |Step 1.
127 |Achieve a deliberately calm mind state, as described in Pause Your Feedback Loops.
130 |From here, the goal will be to ramp up alertness without relying on any external pressure, so that you can avoid being pulled back into the loops.
133 |Rather than executing this step separately, try to do it together with the rest of the procedure, while keeping balance.
136 |If you become too calm without working on alertness, you'll just end up resting a lot.
139 |If you become very alert but keep engaging with feedback loops, you'll just end up with a period of anxiety or manic work.
142 |Step 2.
149 |Prepare a list of all the things that tend to make you more awake.
152 |Locations: e.g. far from your bed, around nature, in direct sunlight.
155 |Positions: e.g. sitting, standing, anything slightly uncomfortable.
158 |Activities: e.g. running, walking outside, yoga.
161 |Food and drink: e.g. coffee, lighter meals.
164 |Physiology: e.g. naps, faster or deeper breath.
167 |However, beware of things that come with their own feedback loops!
172 |People, messages, notifications, social media.
175 |Movies, books, games, anything with a plot or narrative.
178 |Quickly changing images, sounds or other sensations.
181 |Anything that puts you in flow state, or is hard to stop.
184 |Step 3.
191 |Keep stacking all the available methods on top of each other.
194 |Ultimately, it's simply a matter of testing many approaches, and applying them with enough intensity and persistence.
197 |If something seems to work, do more of it!
200 |The results tend to compound with time.
205 |As you become better at the skill, you might find yourself relying less on external pressure to get things done in general (even in case of activities that already come bundled with such pressure).
216 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
227 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
250 |The good.
25 |You know more about yourself and your emotions.
28 |You have better access to subtle intuitions.
34 |You recognize more easily when other people are being honest.
40 |The bad.
48 |You have the reality of your mind rubbed in your face.
51 |You won't always like what you see.
54 |Depending on your pre-existing assumptions, it might trigger a serious re-evaluation of your self-image and life philosophy.
57 |You might be more easily frustrated with shallow conversations.
62 |Note: this skill is naturally easy for some people, and quite tricky for others.
71 |You find it easy to talk about your emotions.
74 |You can systematically resolve vague, nagging doubts into clear insights.
80 |You are able to make quick decisions which you don't regret later.
86 |Note: Working on this skill gives you indirect benefits, which are much more important than any particular insights coming out of a single session.
95 |Putting effort into it will train your mind to be more responsive to emotions in general, even when you aren't paying attention.
98 |If this is already your second nature, you'll probably feel that any specific instructions about how to do it are pointless. Don't worry - the purpose of the detailed instructions below is limited to initial stages of learning, and you are supposed to go beyond them.
101 |Method 1.
106 |Learn from the original book or audiobook by Eugene T. Gendlin.
109 |Alternatively, follow the short version of the original instructions on the website of the Focusing Institute.
115 |Method 2.
120 |Follow the simplified instructions below and wing it.
123 |Step 1. Felt sense.
126 |Bring up something that you'd like to work on together with your subconscious mind. It can be a question, feeling, memory, desire etc.
129 |Focus on the wordless blob of intuition that represents it, rather than any names you might have for it.
132 |It's usually a good idea to let the topic "pick itself" as much as possible.
135 |Hold "delicately" it in your attention.
140 |Don't assume that you know any answers! Your mind is likely to surprise you, and you need to give it space to do so.
143 |If your intuitions seem murky and hard to access, stay with the feeling for a minute or so, to give your mind time to bring up the full richness of related thoughts and feelings.
146 |Find a corresponding sensation in your body.
151 |Emotional disturbance tends to influence muscle tension, and this can often be felt as physical sensations in the body.
154 |Even if you can't feel anything in yourr body, you might still have some success with the next step.
160 |Step 2. Match a verbal description.
170 |Try to bounce some guesses off the felt sense, to see what feels right.
173 |Give your mind lots of space! If your guesses don't stick, let them drop away without getting attached.
176 |If something just pops up in your mind, try going along with it for some time and see what you can find. Just don't lose track of what you're trying to do.
179 |Often, you'll hit on some words or phrases that "click", but aren't a complete answer. Build on them and explore the most promising areas.
184 |Step 3. Felt shift.
189 |At some point, you'll finally hit on a description that "clicks" really well, and feel a release of tension.
192 |If the short version above is not enough to get you started, you might have more luck with the original book.
202 |The instructions above aren't really how you use the skill when you're good at it.
213 |You don't need to do anything in any particular order, as long as it works.
216 |You also don't need to use any verbal thoughts. In fact, mental images or impressions might be more powerful.
219 |Try to stay in touch with your body and your "felt senses" all the time.
224 |In this case you don't need to use the technique at all, because you already "get it" automatically.
227 |However, before making a big decision, you might still want to take a longer time to consult your inner feelings and thoughts.
230 |Change how you communicate.
235 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
246 |The good.
25 |Your mind and body can finally get some high-quality rest.
28 |It's not enough to dedicate time to resting, if you can't also reach the corresponding mind state.
31 |Even if you are pursuing maximum productivity, you will ultimately achieve more if you know how to rest well.
34 |You get an opportunity to reflect on your life from a distance.
39 |The bad.
47 |It's possible to end up too far on the other side and become unproductive.
50 |Note: this skill is in some sense very natural and easy, but tends to be unlearned by those who pursue high productivity. So if your life is in general successful and under control, it's quite likely that you've forgotten how to rest.
59 |You do some activities that don't have a clear goal.
62 |Being goal-oriented is good advice most of the time, but also forces your mind to rely on strong and persistent feedback loops.
65 |This is simply because humans have not evolved for sustainable, intensely goal-oriented activities. In order to pursue them, you need to keep your body and mind in a state of constant crisis (to some degree).
68 |A popular way to relieve this burden is to have some leisure activity, or "hobby". In particular, a well chosen hobby is something that you don't mind doing for a long time, but also don't mind interrupting and coming back to later.
71 |When you take a day off, you feel no pressure to get lots of other things done.
76 |At any given time, your mind is probably keeping track of dozens of activities and issues, and struggling to keep all of them under control.
85 |This happens on each scale, ranging from "is my makeup OK?" to "am I doing something useful with my life?".
88 |You can recognize these feedback loops by the emotions which they consistently generate. What you are looking for is repeatedly having new thoughts and emotions about the same topic, often in changing directions depending on the situation.
91 |Another clue is what kind of thoughts automatically enter your attention, especially when you are idle.
94 |The goal is to put all the feedback loops temporarily on pause.
99 |It's not about solving all your issues (that's impossible).
102 |It's also not about reducing the importance of some issues, relative to others.
105 |Pausing a feedback loop shouldn't feel like giving up on it. Each loop represents something you care about, and it's there for some reason.
108 |If you succeed, you will be rewarded with long stretches of refreshing freedom in your own mind.
116 |This naturally causes a tendency to focus on your body, and the things that are right in front of you.
119 |At the same time, your willingness to do anything at all will drop significantly. So it's wise to have some plan already in place to make sure you'll get back on track.
122 |Step 1. Plan your rest.
130 |It will be hard to relax completely unless you make sure that your life is still OK when you come back to it. So think about how long you can afford to rest, and how to make sure that afterwards you'll smoothly go back.
133 |Prevent all the usual distractions from reaching you, and pulling you back into the loops.
139 |Step 2. Start some calming, grounding activity.
144 |It ultimately doesn't matter what it is, as long as it helps you reach a restful mind state.
147 |Activities that provide mild, pleasant sensory experiences tend to work well for this (e.g. walks in nature, tea ceremony, massage, or simply sitting comfortably).
150 |Step 3. Notice what you are ruminating about.
155 |Almost invariably, when you start a relatively slow and low-pressure activity, your mind will gravitate towards all the feedback loops that are still active.
158 |Try to notice each time when your thought stream turns to something unrelated to what you are currently doing.
161 |Each of these thoughts corresponds to some feedback loop, which means that there is something your brain wants and there's also something that your brain is trying to use to get what it wants.
164 |Think about how you'll certainly go back to processing that issue later, because you already made plans to that effect.
167 |Also reflect on the fact that getting rest will make you be better equipped to deal with the issue. And if you keep being anxious about it now, you'll not rest and ultimately get less of what you want.
170 |Step 4. Pause the loop.
177 |This is a specific mental motion that is hard to describe, and you'll have to explore how it feels in your own mind.
180 |Both ease and speed of doing this can be greatly improved with practice.
183 |Your clue that you got it right is that for the time being, your thoughts no longer go back to that particular issue.
186 |Of course, there are probably other loops which have been waiting for their turn, and will pop up as soon as your mind has enough space for them. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as necessary.
189 |At some point you will find that you can directly access the mental motions of noticing and pausing mental feedback loops. This means much less need to do any special preparations to get rest.
199 |When working through psychological issues or other difficult problems, it is often helpful to do it from a fully calmed mind state as a starting point.
202 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
213 |The good.
25 |A predictable, easily actionable way to reduce stress.
28 |Helps relax muscles after exercise (similar to massage).
34 |A gentle introduction to Sense Your Body with Extreme Clarity and Tune Your Motor Cortex.
40 |The bad.
48 |You might easily fall asleep.
51 |Note: this is an easy skill. You are likely to get value out of it on the first try, though there will still be a lot of room to improve.
60 |You can intentionally relax your body to a degree that makes a clear difference.
63 |You know how to balance exercise and relaxation in a way that makes your body refreshed and ready to repeat the cycle on the next day.
69 |The stress response (activation of the sympathetic nervous system) is closely linked to muscle tone.
78 |Whenever you are stressed, your muscles tend to subtly get more and more tense, in a way that accumulates throughout the day.
81 |The connection between these two effects is two-way, so you can also directly reduce the stress response by making all (or most) of your muscles relaxed.
84 |One way to learn how to explicitly relax your muscles is to put your body in a situation in which it’s naturally going to happen anyway, and pay close attention to the process.
89 |Before you start.
98 |It’s a very good idea to do some mild exercise.
101 |The skill works perfectly fine without it, but the positive effects are amplified by combining it with exercise.
104 |Try e.g. 20 minutes of light jogging.
107 |Step 1.
114 |Lie down comfortably on your back, and give yourself somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes to do this.
117 |Make sure that your body is oriented in a natural way, and there’s nothing uncomfortable about your clothes or the position of your limbs.
120 |This typically involves having your arms symmetrically spread to the sides, at an angle to your torso.
123 |Step 2.
128 |From this point onwards, keep your body perfectly still (for the whole duration of the exercise).
131 |Close your eyes gently.
137 |Stop moving your tongue (just let it relax and rest on the bottom of your mouth cavity).
140 |Step 3.
148 |Follow the template of an inner monologue that is given below (or some customized variant of it).
151 |While calling out each part of your body, let your attention go completely to that place.
154 |However, put no pressure on yourself to make anything happen as a result of this.
157 |It helps to explicitly add slow, deliberate inhales and exhales as a practiced part of the monologue.
163 |For example, take a slow inhale before each line, and then say the line together with a slow exhale.
166 |Alternatively, to slow down even more, breathe twice for each line (you can also repeat the words).
169 |I want the toes of my left foot to be relaxed.
174 |I want my left foot to be relaxed.
175 |I want my left ankle to be relaxed.
176 |I want my left calf to be relaxed.
177 |I want my left knee to be relaxed.
178 |I want my left thigh to be relaxed.
179 |I want my left buttock to be relaxed.
180 |I want my left hip to be relaxed.
181 |[Then repeat the same for the right leg]
182 |I want my crotch to be relaxed.
183 |I want my belly to be relaxed.
184 |I want my lower back to be relaxed.
185 |I want my left side to be relaxed.
186 |I want my right side to be relaxed.
187 |I want my chest to be relaxed.
188 |I want my back to be relaxed.
189 |I want both my shoulders to be relaxed.
190 |I want my neck to be relaxed.
191 |I want the fingers of my left hand to be relaxed.
192 |I want my left hand to be relaxed.
193 |I want my left wrist to be relaxed.
194 |I want my left forearm to be relaxed.
195 |I want my left elbow to be relaxed.
196 |I want my left upper arm to be relaxed.
197 |I want my left shoulder to be relaxed.
198 |[Then do the same for the right side]
199 |I want my shoulders to be even more relaxed.
200 |I want my neck to be even more relaxed.
201 |I want the back of my head to rest gently on the ground.
202 |I want the top of my head to be relaxed.
203 |I want my forehead to be relaxed.
204 |I want my eyes to be relaxed.
205 |I want my nose to be relaxed.
206 |I want my left cheek to be relaxed.
207 |I want my left ear to be relaxed.
208 |I want my right cheek to be relaxed.
209 |I want my right ear to be relaxed.
210 |I want my mouth to be relaxed.
211 |I want my jaw to be relaxed.
212 |I want my tongue to be relaxed.
213 |I want my throat to be relaxed.
214 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
228 |A long-time reader reinterprets the skill in terms of managing subagents, adds several examples, and shares a lot of other interesting concepts:
24 |25 |96 |There seems to be a strong connection between this skill and meditating. They both put me in a particular state of mind, they involve actively perceiving some part of your phenomenology and being curious or experimental about it. For the sake of relatedness and the utility of memorable concept handles I'm going to refer to this skill as "metatating" (at least until someone comes along with something better).
26 |[...] I've already noticed some really weird stuff as a consequence of my time practicing. For instance: The cooking pot analogy has proved itself to be extremely valuable. [...] 90% of the time my thinking is caused by a concept bubbling up in my mind. I can seize upon the concept and my internal narrator will start going over the idea and talk about it. Or I can let the concept go and go back to a blank mind, or a different direction or any number of things.
27 |The interesting bit lies the consequences of choosing whether or not to hold onto the idea. If I let the idea go, I still understand the concept, I have the entire feeling in my mind and it's usable. In this way I can make startlingly rapid thoughts or arguments or assessments in my head. I use Bayesian expected value all the time in my day to day life, and after learning how to metatate, whenever I find myself making an estimation, I can grab the estimation and pick it apart. Before it was a gut feeling of which I was fairly cognizant, but now I can really say the historical cause for a lot of my estimations, this also makes it easier to update as the gut feeling has more gears to tweak.
28 |Additionally, if I let go of an idea two major things happen, firstly, I understand the idea less and can't manipulate it as well. I still grasp it, but since these ideas don't take the form of words, just concepts with associated spatial properties it's really hard to actively parse all the pieces of it in great detail. Secondly, my memory of having had the thought fades very quickly. This seems very analogous to "time under tension" (a term in exercise literature describing increased protein synthesis in response to a sufficiently long and intense muscle activation). Again, for the sake of useful concept handles, I call this 'thought under tension'. [...]
29 |Successful metatation feels like directly informing subagents about their performance. Performance about what? Well it depends, if I'm doing ODE (math) and I catch myself dropping a negative, or rushing through the problem, I will explicitly reward the subagent who identified the issue. In-fact I will reward the subagent who noticed that there was a subagent trying to tell me I had a problem. This reward structure feels like excitement, happiness, self-affirmation, and a squirt of dopamine. My heart rate speeds up a bit and there’s some tension in my neck and shoulders. I get very happy for a small time. It feels like the mental equivalent of giving someone a high-five or a hug. There's even a subagent who's sole purpose is to reward other subagents who find helpful information. This subagent rewards itself for doing it's job, so after an initial period of roughly three days of conscious attention, my rewarder subagent started automatically rewarding subagents for doing their job.
30 |Subagents are a pretty common metaphor for many of the internal conflicting desires in a person. I never really identified with this until I started metatating. At which point subagents became not conflicting desires, but personifications of habits and tendencies of my mind. This is what I personally started thinking of 'deltas' (the patterns of thought) as. When something relevant comes up, a subagent will chime in with what it thinks might be important. I then mull over the thought (via some process I'm not sure of yet) and then reward or punish the subagent for it's behavior. For example, I have a subagent I identify as "Munchkin". Munchkin likes to optimize and give the middle finger to people who don't optimize for their goals (including myself). Usually this is helpful, Munchkin tries to optimize pretty much anything I'm doing, from writing a proof, to finding the shortest route to my destination, to taking making protein shakes as efficiently as possible. However, sometimes it's not as helpful to pay attention to Munchkin, especially in combination with another subagent "Agent". If I notice that one of my teachers is running a class poorly, or is making us do busy-work, Munchkin kicks on and usually gets frustrated. When Munchkin does this I make sure to reward (feel good about noticing, give myself a hug, etc) Munchkin for coming up with ways to optimize, but also punish (internally chastise, feel bad, etc) Munchkin for impacting my mental state in a negative (suboptimal) way. I'll go through a few examples to demonstrate what it actually feels like to do this.
31 |Example 1:
32 |I'm playing guitar scales
33 |Notice a concept bubble up -> quickly evaluate its relevance to playing guitar -> decide it's not relevant to playing -> discard the concept -> reward myself for noticing and evaluating -> return full attention to the guitar
34 |This is an example of the most common form metatation that happens. The general cognitive strategy is - Notice thought -> evaluate thoughts relevance -> encourage or discard thought
35 |36 |
46 |- 37 |
39 |This thought chain (probably) took somewhere between .5 and 1 seconds.
38 |- 40 |
42 |It happened consciously, but also wordlessly.
41 |- 43 |
45 |I kept playing my scales while doing this, but the scales became harder to execute while metatating.
44 |Example 2:
47 |I'm trying to prove something in math
48 |Notice what I'm trying to prove -> try to wrap my head around what the thing I'm trying to prove is ->realize failure and a sinking cold fatalistic sensation in my midsection -> make a plan to prove the thing -> reward myself for noticing and planning -> state all the relevant definitions -> state all the relationships between the definitions -> I find a specific relationship which guides me to the proof.
49 |This is a specific math example of what it feels like to fail to execute something. This can happen in any domain, but the general cognitive strategy is something like - Notice potential/actual failure -> Make plan to avoid failure -> execute plan - This is something which works pretty well on small object level issues, but falls apart when it comes to executing longer term plans (I'm working on fixing this).
50 |A few things to note.
51 |52 |
65 |- 53 |
55 |This specific mathematical thought chain (probably) took around 10-20 minutes.
54 |- 56 |
58 |There are small deviations and random mental babble not included in this for clarity sake.
57 |- 59 |
61 |It happened consciously and with words.
60 |- 62 |
64 |My performance didn't suffer at all because of this metatation, but was in-fact what enabled me to complete my object level task.
63 |The 'deltas' here are the generalized strategies which help me think or work. I tend to explicitly include a positive feedback loop in all my 'deltas'. This lets me reinforce their use by making sure I feel good about executing the strategy. Additionally, including at least 1 meta step in the whole chain ensures that I actively notice when I use them, instead of only seeing the object level progress. This meta step also serves as a good leverage point for modifying cognitive strategies I've already made.
66 |Consider that if I want to use the cognitive strategy in example 2 for longer plans like writing papers or planning my day, it often fails. If I kept using the same cognitive strategy without a meta step, I wouldn't have an easy way to modify the cognitive strategy while inside it. That sounds abstract so I'll go over another example
67 |Example 3:
68 |thinking of the things I need to do
69 |Notice I will probably not do everything I should -> feeling of potential failure -> make a plan to do all the things I should do -> reward myself for noticing and planning -> notice that I'm executing this cognitive strategy -> reward myself for noticing -> notice that I'll probably fail based on past experience -> engage murphyjitsu -> ...
70 |The act of noticing when I'm executing a cognitive strategy makes it much easier to change the cognitive strategy. When many of the common strategies take less than a few seconds, it's incredibly difficult to actively try and remember to change the cognitive strategy without some outside help. This is why I always put meta steps in my cognitive strategies.
71 |A few things to note.
72 |73 |
80 |- 74 |
76 |This thought chain (probably) took around 3 seconds to execute.
75 |- 77 |
79 |Modifying a cognitive strategy from the inside can feel like breaking stride, or like trying to write with a non-dominant hand.
78 |Some final notes:
81 |82 |
95 |- 83 |
85 |Some cognitive strategies (like in example 1) actively reduce the amount of mental RAM I have to work with. This feels like having less space to use in my head, I can't fit as many ideas in my head or do things as quickly. Cognitive strategies like this are noticeable in the back of my conscious mind as quiet little voice or thrum.
84 |- 86 |
88 |If I don't stop it, it can be easy to go into positive feedback spirals of the form - Reward myself for noticing -> notice I am noticing and reward myself for noticing -> notice I am noticing I am noticing and reward myself for noticing -> ...
87 |- 89 |
91 |These aren't actually very difficult to stop, the mental move feels like putting a stick into the moving spokes of a bicycle wheel. However, it's really interesting to note the fact that it's possible to do these loops in the first place.
90 |- 92 |
94 |It's worth noting that in my experience, subagents have explicit predictive power. I have an unnamed subagent that makes mundane predictions about events in the world. For example, if I go into a public bathroom this subagent will factor in the current time, my spatial position, and everything I can see or hear to give a probability that someone else is in the bathroom. This manifests (unless I look directly at the subagent's process) as a gut feeling about whether or not someone's in the bathroom with me. I have another unnamed subagent who predicts other people's actions, if I'm making plans with someone, this subagent will make active predictions about whether or not this person will show up, how late/early they will be etc. Additionally, if these subagents make an inaccurate prediction about the world I can update their models via the same mechanism I use to reward or punish them for cognitive strategies. Many of the gut feelings or intuitions I have about the world can be actively broken down and seen.
93 |
Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
102 |The good.
26 |It allows you to Tune Your Motor Cortex.
29 |Your whole body will be more sensitive.
35 |Experiencing detailed sensations seems to be intrinsically pleasant, though don't ask me why.
38 |You will be more likely to notice when something is wrong with your body, and interpret it correctly (e.g. illness).
41 |You will have interesting mental experiences, and learn something about how your brain works.
46 |The bad.
54 |Developing the skill takes a bunch of hours of pretty tedious mental work.
57 |Afterwards, you'll need to continue training with some regularity, or it will regress.
63 |Note: this skill requires effortful training. It is extremely unlikely that you already have it without also having clear memories of having trained it.
69 |You can hold your focus on each individual small patch of skin, on the whole outside surface of your body.
72 |You started clearly experiencing sensations in your body that you have never felt before, and didn't even suspect were possible.
78 |The diameter of your sharpest spot of attention has gradually decreased over time.
84 |To judge your progress, try to keep track of the smallest diameter you can maintain depending on the body area and your state of mind.
87 |E.g. if at the beginning you could focus only on your whole mouth, and after a week you can focus separately on the left half of the upper lip, that's progress!
90 |Your brain is naturally capable of getting all sorts of detailed signals from the body.
98 |Neural connections decay when they aren't being used, and grow when they are.
104 |We can make neural connections grow by conscious effort.
110 |Loosely speaking, if you want more neural connections that do something, try hard to act as if you already had them. Soon enough, your brain will catch up with the game.
113 |The rate of growth is the fastest when 100% of your attention is on a particular subject. The brain reads this as a signal that the matter is very important, and reacts vigorously.
116 |Some circumstances make it easier to keep unwavering attention on the body for long hours.
121 |Method 1: go to a meditation retreat.
130 |This is not for everyone, because it forces you to take a long vacation, and to listen to some spiritual yada yada that you might not agree with.
133 |Try a 10-day retreat with the Goenka school of vipassana meditation. They run on donations and offer retreats in most major cities around the world. The amount of spiritual yada yada you have to sit through is acceptably low.
139 |As a bonus, they'll give you detailed meditation instructions, which you can simply follow to the letter and have a reasonable expectation that you'll get somewhere. The essence of Goenka's instructions is pretty similar to what you'll find on this page.
142 |However, be careful not to absorb some confusions that are deeply embedded in their tradition. For example, the idea that muscle tension is in some mystic way a direct representation of your mental issues (duh).
145 |Method 2: try it at home.
152 |This is definitely possible, but requires more tinkering and possibly also more total effort. Half-hearted attempts are not likely to succeed!
155 |Be prepared to fail for many days, if not weeks, before you make any of this work. If you give up, you can always change your mind and go to a retreat.
158 |However, some people are at an advantage, and are likely to make progress very fast. This includes e.g. yoga practitioners, dancers, gymnasts and other people who work a lot with their own bodies. In these cases, going to a retreat might be an overkill.
161 |Step 1.
166 |This is absolutely crucial. Otherwise, you won't be able to keep up the consistent focus, and without it the process takes too long. You'll get bored to death and give up before you see any results.
172 |A reliable indicator of being ready to start is that the prospect of sitting perfectly still for at least 1 hour, and doing nothing else but focusing on your body, does not seem horrible.
175 |Find a quiet place where you won't be interrupted.
180 |You'll probably need at least around 1 hour at a time to move forward, though at first it might make sense to try short times (e.g. 5 minutes) just to get used to it.
183 |Concentrating your effort into a short period of time is better than spreading it out.
186 |It doesn't matter how and where you sit, however...
192 |If you are too comfortable, you'll likely relax too much and drift away.
195 |If you are too uncomfortable, you'll likely not be able to focus on anything.
198 |Step 2.
207 |Sit motionlessly for the whole allocated time, to the best of your ability.
210 |This is not strictly necessary, but tends to help, and especially at the beginning you'll need all the help you can get.
213 |It's very useful for concentration to keep your back straight, held firmly in place by the muscles around it.
216 |Keep your eyes closed.
221 |Again, not necessary but helps you focus completely on the internal world of sensations.
224 |It's OK to let your eyeballs move behind closed eyelids, tracking your attention.
227 |Pick some consistent order of going through all the external surface of your skin.
232 |Doesn't really matter what it is, as long as you cover your whole body and it's simple enough to not be distracting.
235 |This way, after several repetitions, you won't have to think about what to do next.
238 |Step 3.
245 |Focus on each individual patch of skin, according to your consistent order. Try to feel the minute sensations on the very surface of the skin.
248 |It's very important to really reach for something that you couldn't have guessed before, before you move on to the next patch.
251 |Otherwise, it's very easy to slip into just going through the motions, without using any of the neural connections that bring in new information.
254 |For example, if you sit in a warm room, you'll easily guess that your arm is going to feel "warm" in general. But you can't predict all the subjective-experience detail that comes with realizing what it's like to feel that a particular patch of skin on your arm is warm at a particular time. Find your way to those detailed, raw sensory experiences, which in daily life you'd ignore as unimportant.
257 |Initially, it might be the case that even with a lot of effort you aren't able to reach the sensations. I describe this feeling as having a "soft cotton padding" on the inside of your skin, and many people resonate with this metaphor. However, genuine trying also counts, and makes the padding gradually "burn away".
260 |Smaller patches are better than big.
265 |Accurate and slow is better than quick.
271 |If you can't feel anything, you can stop in that place and keep trying for a few seconds.
274 |However, don't stop for more than 10 seconds or so, because your brain will get bored and give up.
277 |At the beginning, if working on the whole body feels too difficult, you might do better if you put all your effort into one particular area.
282 |Ultimately you'll want to do the whole body, but it can be hard to keep going when you don't see any results.
285 |Using a smaller area will make your progress faster, and you'll have more chances to correct your technique.
288 |Whenever you get distracted by thoughts about other matters, notice that it happened and return your attention to the body.
295 |Resume from the last place that you clearly remember.
298 |Don't deprecate yourself for failing.
301 |Unless you have significant experience in meditation, your attention will likely keep on doing that. Be patient, and keep up the work.
304 |If you have lots of trouble with some personal issues that constantly come up and grab your attention, you might want to Tune Your Emotional Processing before continuing.
307 |Repeat the cycle as many times as you manage.
314 |That's it, really. If you keep up the pressure, your brain will definitely respond.
317 |The only problem you are likely to encounter is that for this or other reason you can't exclusively focus on your body for long enough.
320 |This problem can be solved by regulating your life, body, and brain before you start executing the steps above.
323 |The instructions above focus on the outside surface of the skin, because it's the easiest.
338 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
349 |The good.
26 |You act decisively on your problems.
29 |You recover from bad moods quickly.
35 |You can easily focus and do productive work.
41 |The bad.
49 |You are forced to face your demons, and deal with them.
52 |Note: this is a medium-difficulty skill. You are likely to already have it to some degree, with lots of room for improvement.
61 |You don't have any nagging thoughts or memories.
64 |It means literally zero of them.
67 |What is this thing you did a long time ago that you are still embarrassed about?
70 |You never refuse to deal with problems.
78 |What do you wish you could just forget about?
81 |Do you have a personal issue that you think will never be fixed?
84 |Analyzing your past experiences feels pleasant.
89 |First, some background.
98 |You can roughly model your brain as using two different types of thinking, the conscious / deliberative / sequential type and subconscious / intuitive / parallel type (often referred to as System 1 and System 2, or "rider and elephant").
101 |There are several important brain functions that are mostly exclusive to conscious/deliberative thought:
107 |Communicating with people verbally (doing the "public relations").
110 |Preparing complex plans and strategies (especially those which require multiple steps to be done for the first time ever).
113 |Tweaking other brain functions to perform better.
116 |However, System 2 (deliberative thought) tends to overestimate its own importance.
121 |This is not an accident, it is very adaptive from an evolutionary perspective to think and speak as if our conscious/deliberative thoughts were indeed very important, and in control of our lives.
124 |Instead of "rider and elephant" you'd do better with a metaphor such as "elephant and its trunk", or something else which emphasizes that deliberative thought is just one of many functions and modules that are essential to healthy functioning of the whole brain.
127 |The experiences "you" are "conscious of" are exactly the ones that are essential to perform the functions listed above, no more and no less.
132 |For example, "you" are not conscious of real motives of your behavior.
135 |In other words, the things you are conscious of are essential information that is needed to do your job, if you imagine yourself as a component of your brain.
138 |They are definitely not there for you to passively enjoy (like an exposition in a museum) or have an existential crisis about.
141 |At least, not if you want your brain to work without glitches!
144 |The last thing you want to do is attempting to control everything your brain does. It not only doesn't work, it also creates a divide between your conscious intentions and behavior, which ultimately causes you to lose control.
151 |If it's still unclear, consider this metaphor:
159 |You are an employee in a small company (your brain).
162 |Your job is consumer support, and you are the only person responsible for answering the phone.
165 |You regularly get tasks to do (emotions) from your boss.
168 |Sometimes these tasks come with documentation (memories, mental images etc.).
171 |In case the instructions are unclear, as they often are, you can request more information (Gendlin's Focusing).
174 |If you gathered enough respect and trust, you can also assign tasks to other employees.
177 |Are you a good employee, or a bad one?
182 |A good employee:
185 |Finishes tasks quickly and well (the "emotional inbox" is empty).
188 |Communicates with other employees, and knows what's going on in the company.
191 |Gives accurate information to customers (other people), and their expectations are realistic.
194 |Has no reason to be embarrassed when someone learns about the internal workings of the company.
197 |The company delivers with excellent quality, and can afford to spend resources on keeping all employees happy.
200 |A bad employee:
205 |Ignores all but most urgent tasks, and always has a pile of unfinished work.
208 |Develops a fear of looking at the inbox.
211 |Has no idea about what other employees are doing, and is constantly surprised by it.
214 |Has illusions about being very important and in control, despite being the most useless employee by far.
217 |Often has to make up information on the spot when talking to customers.
220 |This puts a lot of pressure on the other employees, and they become resentful.
223 |When some aspect of the company is in the public eye, there is panic all around, and no one can do their job properly because they are busy pretending reality is something it is not.
226 |The company fails to deliver across the board.
229 |Before you start.
241 |Step 1.
247 |Pick some emotion that you experienced recently, or are experiencing at the moment.
250 |Fully understand the purpose behind that emotion.
256 |If the emotion is a task to do, what would it mean to do it really well?
259 |Is there a lesson to be learned?
262 |Is there something you didn't seem to know about yourself?
265 |Is there something that you should simply go and do out there in the world?
268 |Why do you think you'd be asked to do it?
271 |Don't judge the emotion, and don't judge yourself for having it! It's important documentation for your task, treat it accordingly.
276 |This is also true for "negative" emotions. Do not forbid yourself from feeling shame, fear, disgust, frustration, disappointment, or even hate.
279 |Every emotion is important information, and getting rid of the emotion doesn't mean you get rid of the underlying problem!
282 |A common mistake here is to think that if you never experience negative emotions about other people, it will somehow automatically make you a kind person. But what actually happens is that it makes you a person who doesn't know that they are not kind.
285 |If you have trouble coming up with answers, repeat a process similar to Gendlin's Focusing until you have some answer that is satisfying.
290 |Step 2.
297 |Make plans and act of them.
300 |Especially if you don't have much trust as an "employee" in your brain, you'll need to prove your worth with actions not just words.
303 |In many cases, the "plan" will be something very simple, so don't get stuck on thinking too much. Often, just keeping your emotions in mind will already be enough to shift your actions in a good direction.
306 |When you think the task is done, repeat the process of questioning, to make sure that you really nailed it.
311 |This is crucial, and you can't make progress until you get to the bottom of this!
314 |Is the problem completely, definitely, unambiguously solved, to your whole-brain satisfaction?
317 |If you have a bad track record, be extra careful in order to gradually regain some "trust" of other parts of your brain.
320 |Sometimes you'll feel that the task is too much, and you absolutely cannot deal with it at this time.
325 |Try to switch to some smaller part of it, and make a little bit of real progress.
328 |If this fails too, at the very least make sure that the problem is not getting even worse while you aren't looking at it.
331 |This is very important! Tasks that feel impossible are exactly the ones that matter the most for your life.
334 |Distancing yourself from emotions is never a solution, and eventually the problem will catch up with you. The longer you wait, the worse it'll be when it does.
337 |After you ensure this, you might have no other choice but to set this task aside for a while. Keep doing other tasks, and eventually you'll become strong enough to return.
342 |In some cases, this will be enough to remove this item from your "emotional inbox". If that is the case, lucky you! Go back to Step 1 and repeat with the next emotion/task.
349 |Step 3.
354 |In other cases, even after doing all you possibly could, there is still some negative emotion about the whole thing.
357 |This tends to happen with items that have spent a long time lying around neglected. It's as if instead of one e-mail from your boss in your inbox, you have fifteen of them, all asking you to do the same thing.
360 |If some thoughts often happen together with negative emotions, they become associated by pure exposure.
363 |In this case, it is safe to simply let go of the negativity.
366 |Bring up the negative emotion, and associated memories.
371 |At this point, they should have lost most of the sting, so it's not as bad as you'd expect!
374 |Sit with the emotion and try to "tell" it that there's no longer anything there to feel strongly about.
377 |It often helps to focus on your body and use some relaxation technique.
383 |You probably know best what is relaxing for you.
386 |If you don't have any ideas, try to simply take 10 deep breaths.
389 |Repeat until you feel a definite lack of emotional disturbance about that particular topic/event/memory.
396 |The job can actually feel pretty good, can't it? It is only hard if you make it hard for yourself!
399 |Move on to the next task.
402 |There's always more you can learn about your emotions, and about yourself.
412 |Remember that you don't already know it! You have an impression of knowing it, but this impression is not accurate.
415 |It is only there because it's useful to seem to other people as if you knew!
418 |You can't learn if you think you already know.
421 |A higher level of this skill is trying to overperform at your job so much, that you do most tasks before you are asked to do them.
428 |This results in a spectacularly clear mind, and also in a spectacularly successful life.
431 |If you get a small prompt (the inkling of an emotion) to do something, try to make a big deal out of it!
434 |There's probably more to it, and you'll have to do it at some point, so why don't do it right now?
437 |Note that this is only for advanced levels. If you have this attitude while your "emotional inbox" is still cluttered, you'll just be overwhelmed and make your situation worse.
440 |When your emotional processing is on track, you'll gain the freedom to sometimes take a refreshing vacation from it, as in Pause Your Feedback Loops.
447 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
455 |The good.
26 |You feel extremely relaxed and comfortable in your body.
29 |Surprisingly many health issues are outright fixed.
35 |Many cases of back pain, recurring headaches, tinnitus, carpal tunnel syndrome etc. are directly caused by the brain mismanaging muscle tension.
38 |Because muscle tension is a very likely cause and can be fixed with homemade methods, it makes sense to try this approach before seeking out more invasive medical treatments.
41 |Your body can handle stress much better, and recovers quickly with no lingering tensions.
49 |You don't suffer from any stiffness or persistent muscle pain (e.g. in shoulders after sitting).
52 |Your sleep might be more restful, and it might be easier for you to find a comfortable position (possibly, you'll even need less sleep than before).
55 |You find it easier to relax around other people, and enjoy spending time with them more.
58 |It is effortless to maintain correct posture while sitting, walking, exercising etc.
63 |Your breath is deep and easy regardless of whether you pay attention to it or not.
66 |Even when using a lot of strength, only the muscles necessary for executing the movement tense up, and the rest of the body remains naturally relaxed.
69 |You take body sensitivity to the next level.
74 |There are two reasons for not feeling extremely fine sensations on your whole body:
77 |One reason is that the neural connections are missing or weak, and you need to simply make them grow as in Sense Your Body with Extreme Clarity.
80 |The other reason is that tense muscles send a strong signal, which blocks out everything else. If they are permanently tense, you stop feeling it, leaving only a vague sensation of dullness in that area.
83 |After fixing these problems, activities which stimulate the body will take on a new life.
88 |Weak anecdotal evidence suggests a range of interesting mildly pleasant side-effects, ranging from vivid dreams to sharper eyesight.
91 |It's worth noting that these effects are definitely not something that happens to modern humans by default.
96 |If you have no strong experiences that suggest otherwise, it is safe to assume your body is abused and in pain even though you aren't consciously feeling it.
99 |Muscle tension that is a result of motor cortex inefficiency doesn't go away even when you sleep.
102 |The neutral.
109 |The bad.
115 |The process is quite time-consuming, though it might be used as a replacement for some other forms of rest.
118 |In the initial period after you make the skill work for the first time, you might have a tendency to live in your head and neglect other aspects of your life.
121 |When intense rewiring is in progress, the coordination and precision of your movements might get temporarily worse (before it gets better than ever).
124 |Note: performing the tuning consciously is a difficult and uncommon skill. Working a lot with your body moves you in the right direction, but fails to reach the same quality as doing it purposefully. Good quality of tuning tends to be achieved as a side-effect by experienced yogi and meditators, though they take a rather roundabout way to get there.
133 |During tuning, you feel clear tingling/prickling sensations in the specific muscles that are involved.
136 |They should be easily told apart from other sensations that you might have felt before.
139 |The sensations can be very pleasant!
145 |If skill is learned to the level where it becomes automatic, these sensations might sometimes be felt during normal activities.
151 |You experienced intense relief from muscle tension.
156 |You got a strong kick of happiness for the first time you succeeded.
162 |You discovered which pairs of muscles in your body had become spuriously connected.
168 |You went through a stage of muscle pains.
174 |Before you get the hang of it, instead of smoothing out neural noise, you'll likely be pushing it around the motor cortex (see the explanation below for more details).
177 |In that case, output levels of some neurons might become abnormally and persistently high. This makes some particular muscles very tense, and they start hurting acutely.
180 |It's not dangerous, and your brain will gradually deal with this even if you stop consciously making progress at the skill.
183 |This problem will disappear completely when you learn to include all of your body in relaxation (while focusing on some particular muscle or group of muscles, you still keep the rest of your body in your background awareness, and prevent it from tensing up).
186 |First, consider what happens by default.
194 |Your motor cortex automatically learns to execute complex movements by putting together simpler ones, all the way down to control of individual muscles.
197 |Because the process of learning happens organically, the resulting architecture of neural connections (you can think of them as "hidden layers" in machine learning terms) is not always perfectly suited to the task.
200 |Some local optima of those neural configurations are hard to get out of, and constantly reinforced by using them.
203 |There is some pressure for muscle control to be efficient, and the motor cortex is doing a "good enough" job at it, but tends to stop a fair bit from perfection.
206 |By repeating certain movements and positions over and over again (e.g. during sitting work), we involuntarily strengthen connections between movements and muscles that don't make much sense lumped together.
211 |Second, the intervention.
219 |It is not possible to directly fix how the motor cortex is wired inside.
222 |However, it is possible to grow/enhance neural connections to feel exactly what is happening to the muscles in one's body.
225 |Using this, we can put pressure on the motor cortex from both sides (top-level conscious controls, and individual muscle outputs).
228 |We teach the motor cortex to reach a configuration where the tension of all individual skeletal muscles is set to zero with very high precision.
231 |This forces the motor cortex to internally smooth out any noise and spurious neural connections.
234 |Before you start.
244 |Make sure you learn to Relax All Your Muscles. This is a relatively simple skill, which you can treat as an introduction to the real deal.
247 |Go on the journey to Sense Your Body with Extreme Clarity. Unless you are an advanced practitioner of meditation, yoga, etc., this will take a long time, but be persistent! The final effect is definitely worth the effort.
253 |Proceed when you reach this level:
256 |You are able to separately focus on and feel sensations coming from each 3-5 cm patch of skin, on 50-80% of your total skin area.
259 |Naturally, some places will be easier than others. For example, you might reach accuracy of 1 cm on your mouth, while still having 20 cm on your back.
262 |Take into account that your accuracy will strongly depend on your current mind and body state (e.g. the radius decreases when your body becomes more alert).
265 |Feeling minute sensations on the skin (as specified above) should be enough to get started, but what you really want is to feel your muscles.
270 |Preparation.
280 |If you are trying it for the first time, you'll probably need to Become Very Alert and Calm. Later, you should have no trouble executing the skill casually.
283 |If you are new to this, it is very helpful to get mild exercise or massage before you start.
286 |Use the toilet and make sure you absolutely won't be interrupted for at least a few hours.
292 |Lie down comfortably. If you got the state of mind right, you shouldn't feel sleepy even when lying on your bed without moving for many hours.
298 |Step 1.
303 |Slowly go over your whole body multiple times, relaxing it more deeply with each pass (this part is just like Relax All Your Muscles).
306 |At some point, it will become clear that no matter how many times you repeat the process, tensions remain in some areas (before, you didn't have enough fidelity of sensations to realize this).
309 |Since you already know what it's like to feel minute sensations on some area of your skin, you should be able to detect muscle tension as a conspicuous lack of sensations.
312 |Or even better, if you have reached the level of being able to feel your muscles directly, use it as much as you can.
318 |Step 2.
323 |Focus on some area of your body that is not yet completely relaxed. From there, pick out something that feels like a single muscle.
326 |Focus on that single muscle, while holding in your mind a background intention to relax it.
332 |Do not use effort! It will just cause your body to tense up, and undo all the work you've done so far.
335 |Make sure your breath remains easy and smooth. If it isn't, it's a dead giveaway that you're doing it wrong.
338 |Try to keep the rest of your body in background attention, so that it stays in the same fully relaxed state.
341 |While relaxing that one muscle, observe the rest of your body, and try to notice if some other particular place tenses up as a reaction.
346 |Step 3.
354 |If you managed to identify two places that are "wired together", include both of them in your attention (while keeping a background intention that you want them to be relaxed).
357 |If you get it right, you will feel very clear tingling/prickling sensations, and both muscles will relax without making any other parts of your body more tense.
363 |Congratulations, you are rewiring your motor cortex!
366 |Don't break the flow. Move on to other muscles and repeat, until you learn exactly what it feels like to "get it".
369 |Additional tips for dealing with stubborn places:
376 |Try to make your attention very narrow and pointed, and then move it back and forth along the muscle.
379 |Try feeling the pulse of blood as it flows through the muscle.
382 |Try feeling clearly the minute sensations on the outside of your skin, in the area that covers the muscle.
385 |Try alternating the intention to relax a particular muscle with an intention to tense it up (advanced, be careful not to make the rest of your body tense).
388 |Try moving on to some other parts of the body, and coming back later.
391 |Investigate your reflex reactions. If you still have trouble after trying all the other methods, it is likely that you have some subtle reaction that makes you tense up just about when you get to the point when the tension would be released.
394 |You need to become aware of it, and learn to keep that part of your body relaxed no matter what.
397 |E.g. it's common to have a subconscious reflex that tightens belly muscles, the jaw, the neck, or the forehead.
400 |Note: if at any point you feel that the process is no longer pleasant, you are moving too fast!
407 |Take a break. If you push through with force, you'll just hurt yourself, and become unable to make long-term progress.
410 |The same goes if you experience muscle spasms or shivers. Your body is telling you that it's too much. Continuing will make you more tense, instead of less.
413 |You will probably find that the process is so pleasant and satisfying that you will have no trouble practicing regularly (it's best to do it every day for the first week or so).
418 |If you are like most people, it will take many multiple-hour sessions to iron out all spurious neural connections that you've accumulated over the years. Take it easy.
421 |After you go through the initial baggage of accumulated tensions, the work will become easier, and you'll get better at it.
430 |You will be able to do it while listening to music, thinking about something else, or even in light sleep.
433 |At some point the skill will start to work automatically in the background, as you go about your day.
436 |There is a higher-powered version of the skill, in which you feel an overpowering "river" of those tingling sensations mentioned above going through you.
441 |It happens when you manage to request relaxation from all of your body at once with sufficient precision.
444 |This is very fast, but be careful not to overdo it! If you do, your brain might develop aversions to the process.
447 |It's pretty difficult to reach perfection, and might take months of practice even with a lot dedication.
452 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
460 |The good.
26 |Better returns on thinking time.
29 |Your cognition is much more powerful than just the part you have conscious access to, and it's crucial to make good use of it.
32 |A small tweak to how your brain processes information in general is worth more than a big upgrade to your conscious repository of cognitive tricks.
35 |Goal-oriented thinking.
40 |When working on real-life problems, your peak performance matters less than the ability to simply think useful thoughts at all.
43 |Improved ability to fix cognitive biases.
51 |More creativity and good ideas just "popping into your head".
57 |Less anxiety about performing well in cognitive endeavors.
63 |The bad.
71 |Uncanny valley.
74 |Most people already have a thinking style built on top of excessive conscious cognitive effort.
77 |This often involves relying on side-effects of verbal and conscious thoughts, while mistakenly assigning the full credit for results to those effortful thoughts.
80 |When you already have some conscious/verbal thoughts, it is tempting to imagine they are the only result of your thinking, and then try to pick up from there. But this is limiting, because the most power is in whatever generated that output.
83 |As you tune your cognitive strategies you're likely to lose that thinking style.
88 |Control anxiety.
96 |Note: everyone has cognitive strategies, and challenging yourself with intellectual activity tends to improve them (e.g. mathematicians tend to be very good at a certain specific class of strategies). However, it is very unlikely that you have reached your full potential by blind gradient descent.
105 |You know how to think without "trying hard".
108 |The cost you pay for high quality thinking is mostly time, which you know needs to be free from other concerns.
111 |You definitely don't pay the cost in effort or willpower.
114 |Your thoughts don't get "stuck" when you most need them.
119 |There's a constant stream of good ideas occurring to you.
125 |Consider this metaphor:
134 |Imagine your mind as a giant bubbling cauldron full of "thoughts", including "feelings", "ideas", "words", "concepts", "memories", etc.
137 |Some of those "thoughts" rise to the top of the cauldron, and get picked up by your conscious attention.
140 |If the conscious "you" is like a cook standing over the cauldron, then the cook has only a very small spoon at their disposal. They can only taste whatever has bubbled to the surface.
143 |Your creativity and thinking power come from the full depth of the cauldron.
146 |The rules of how thoughts interact and form new thoughts are the same, regardless of whether those thoughts are conscious or not.
149 |When you don't like whatever has risen up to the top of the cauldron, the last thing you want is to try to "fix it".
154 |You only have access to the topmost layer, so it would be hopelessly ineffective anyway.
157 |But it's much worse than that - by attempting to "fix" your cognition, you stop being able to see how it works.
160 |How well your cognition works is shown not by what thoughts you have at the moment, but rather by the pattern of how one or more thoughts combine into a new thought ("cognitive strategy").
163 |Instead, you want to learn as much as possible about the differences ("deltas") between each thought and the next, as they occur to you.
168 |Your brain already has the ability to update its cognitive strategies (this is called "meta-cognitive reinforcement learning"). However, the usual mechanism works with unnecessary levels of indirection, as in:
173 |Cognitive strategy -> Thought -> Action -> Reward or punishment
176 |Cognitive strategy -> Thought -> Reward or punishment
182 |However, by carefully looking at the "deltas" between conscious thoughts, we can get rid of the last remaining level of indirection (this is the key insight of this whole page!):
190 |Cognitive strategy -> Reward or punishment
193 |You have learned to perceive your cognitive strategies as they happen, and developed some heuristics that tell you whether they are good or bad. Now your brain can update cognitive strategies immediately, and do it regardless of the topic of your thoughts.
196 |Even when you generate a useless idea from another useless idea, you can still track whether the cognitive strategy behind it was sound, and learn from the experience.
199 |Note: awareness is a muscle. Time spent trying to see your thoughts more clearly is time well spent, regardless of the degree to which you succeed at getting any specific results.
209 |Step 1: basic sanity checks.
212 |For practice, we'll start with improving some simple local efficiency heuristics. They definitely aren't the final goal, but will later be useful regardless of what goal you have.
215 |Pick a small problem, question or thinking puzzle of any kind.
218 |It's best to use something that you think you can solve in at most a few minutes, and which makes it easy to see how well you are doing.
221 |Choose something outside of your area of expertise.
224 |Beware of "school trauma": think about whatever you want to think about, not things someone else would like you to think about.
230 |If you don't have any ideas, you can always pick "picking a puzzle" as your puzzle.
236 |Notice a thought chain.
241 |Load the puzzle into your memory, and let go.
244 |Instead of focusing on solving the puzzle, focus on the question "where do my thoughts go when this puzzle enters my attention"?
247 |At minimum, try to notice a sequence of two thoughts (the shortest possible "chain"): the initial question you asked yourself, and the first thought that occurred to you afterwards.
250 |It's very important to focus on what feels like very quick, atomic transitions. Do not wait until you have a full word or sentence formed in your mind!
253 |Aim for sub-second timescales. In fact, you can easily have a chain of 5 or more conscious thoughts in one second. If you think you can't, you're just missing skill in noticing it.
256 |Repeat as necessary to get a clear read - just trying to do this is already valuable cognitive training.
261 |Example: just now, my thoughts:
267 |looking at the typed word "Example:" -> wanting to know what to type next -> flash of dread at not having anything prepared -> noticing that flash of dread -> noticing that I noticed it -> looking at the whole thought chain so far -> noticing I executed the technique -> realizing I can use this as an example -> picking a grammatic form to describe it -> ...
268 |Extract the pattern of "deltas".
273 |After you become aware of at least one micro-scale thought chain, you can reflect on the principles that generated it.
276 |This probably shouldn't be a very detailed or time-consuming analysis - your advantage here is that you have lots of raw data, so you don't need to be very parsimonious with it.
279 |In fact, the act of reflecting on a thought chain will necessarily generate dozens of a new thought chains. It's basically impossible to run out of data to reflect on and learn from.
282 |Think which "deltas" are doing good work for you, and which aren't.
287 |This will send a signal to your brain to learn and update the corresponding cognitive strategies.
290 |Do not try to assume forceful control over what you think! This applies both to thoughts and "deltas".
293 |The delta which moves you into noticing your deltas is very useful. Give it the reward it deserves!
299 |Example 1:
304 |After someone asked me to add examples here, my thought chain was roughly:
307 |feeling of not wanting to bother -> checking reasons to do it -> noticing a cached thought that it's good to give examples -> doubting if this makes sense -> what happens if I just stop doing it -> intuition that this would be bad for BWT clarity -> flash of reasons why I care about writing BWT in the first place -> wanting to make a quick decision -> deciding to add an example -> ...
308 |The deltas "planning X -> question reasons to do X" (appeared twice) and "suspicious belief -> try to negate it" seem useful.
311 |There was also a pair of deltas "reasons feel shaky -> investigate" and "reasons feel solid -> use cache" which made me go off on a tangent once, but not in the other cases.
314 |This means I'm also tracking in the background what it means for reasons to feel "solid", and already have cognitive strategies in place which update this information. This is all very useful.
317 |Example 2:
322 |On the other hand, a large amount of low-hanging fruit can be extracted from noticing deltas which are obviously broken, like in this thought chain:
325 |blank mind -> noticing having a blank mind -> verbal thought "my mind is blank" -> feeling of despair -> blank mind -> ...
326 |More examples of useful cognitive strategies, and common low hanging fruit:
331 |If you hit an impasse (no new useful thoughts), relax and let your mind wander to related but different topics.
334 |If your mind wanders too much, check why you even care about the problem.
337 |If you think the same thought again, change the topic.
340 |If you know what you are going to think, think something else.
343 |If you think with lots of effort, remember it's useless and just watch your thoughts happen.
346 |If you don't know in which direction to think, pick whatever seems fun.
349 |Step 2: make sure to win.
358 |Notice thought chains you generate naturally as you go about your life.
361 |While local efficiency (not getting stuck etc.) is useful, it hardly has the power to change how you play the game. The biggest challenge in an open environment is knowing what to focus on in the first place.
364 |For example, you can notice thought chains when you:
370 |choose the next task to do,
373 |do better or worse than expected,
376 |plan your day or week,
379 |process emotions,
382 |change the topic in conversations,
385 |accept or reject offers.
388 |It's recommended to do it without setting up external reminders.
393 |A far better solution is to reinforce cognitive strategies which would make you naturally remember at the right times.
396 |E.g. one or two straightforward deltas can take you from "feeling of mild dissatisfaction with decision" to "wanting to know how to think better", from where it's close to remembering to reflect on your thought chains.
399 |Get the deltas.
406 |Reconstruct as much as you can of how your mind went there. In real life, you are not restricted to the micro scale.
409 |Try to identify both low-level and high-level patterns, such as key insights, emotions, changes of topic, and inspiration.
412 |How does your emotional state influence your deltas?
415 |Keep your goals in mind.
425 |Warning: this is definitely not about "policing" your thinking. You should never try to put restrictions on the content and style of your thoughts.
428 |Do not use this under pressure (when someone or something tells you what goals you should have).
431 |Also do not fall into the trap of rejecting vague, dreamy thoughts as worthless.
434 |How well have these particular deltas performed in the past?
442 |What are they optimized to do?
448 |You'll often find goals which you don't necessarily feel proud of, e.g. feel better, impress someone (who?), prove something to yourself.
451 |However, trying to attack those goals would be a terrible mistake - they are there as a result of your real preferences.
454 |You need to understand where the patterns come from, and what you really want to achieve in any given situation (see also Tune Your Emotional Processing).
460 |How well do you expect to do if you continue the current trend?
467 |Turn the skill on itself.
480 |Reinforce cognitive strategies that will help you with reinforcing cognitive strategies, and finding better ways to reinforce cognitive strategies.
483 |The skill will then quickly bootstrap itself into your most powerful and general thinking tool.
486 |Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell
496 |