The Robot, the Rat, and the Artist

In my last couple of blogs, I've written about the pervasiveness of habit in my life.  I've written about the need to accept this pervasiveness, to accept my "inner robot" making decisions automatically throughout the day because I always do THIS when THAT happens.  From the moment the alarm clock rings until I go to bed, more decisions than I care to admit are made by my "inner robot".  My "auto-pilot", to a large degree, flies the airplane.

And my habits get their power, their ability to dictate my actions with or without my conscious agreement, from my "inner lab rat", my tendency to behave in whatever way I find most rewarding, my tendency to do whatever I need to do to get my "cheese".

So where does this leave my "inner artist", the being that creates my experience and my accomplishments?  Is it possible for life to be filled with both unconscious habit and conscious creativity?  Can I be a robot, a lab rat, and a human?

I think so.  I think that habits create a framework within which I can be as skillful and spontaneous as I want to be.  Habits get me out of bed.  They feed me, exercise me, give me perspective through meditation, get me to work, and get me to check my e-mails and review my To-Do List.  If they are healthy habits, I end up relaxed, well fed, physically fit, and clear about my priorities and plans when I face each challenge that arises in my day.  And it is when these challenges arise that my inner robot and inner rat step back and allow my inner artist to take over.

Embrace my Inner Lab Rat

I mentioned in my last blog, that I feel cultural pressure to deny my "Inner Robot", to deny the idea that most of the choices I make each day are automatic responses to my alarm clock, to hunger, to arriving at work, to my mid-morning lull, to more hunger at lunch, to my mid-afternoon lull, to everything that happens from after leaving work.

I also feel pressure to deny my "Inner Lab Rat".  I feel pressured to deny the fact that I respond to "cheese". I respond to rewards.  I'd love to think that I'm motivated to do something if it is "the right thing to do".  I wish I was always motivated by logic, that I picked all my actions based on reason and willpower.  But the reality probably is that I do most of what I do because in one way or another I find it rewarding.

The idea that what we choose to do is based mainly on rewards and punishments is the basic premise of "Behaviorism", a theory of psychology developed by B.F. Skinner in the 1930's.  I read several of his books in the 1970's and 1980's when Behaviorism was still in vogue.  According to a recent article by David Freeman in Atlantic magazine, "Behaviorism" fell out of favor for a while because of discomfort with the idea that our choices are based so deeply on rewards versus reason and willpower.  But behaviorism, says Freeman, is now coming back because its principles are the best explanation for the most successful programs aimed at changing behaviors such as Weight Watchers, Alcoholics Anonymous, and certain exercise programs.  Here's a link to Freeman's article:  The Perfected Self.

So, if I accept my "Inner Lab Rat", if I accept that I behave based on rewards more than I do based on willpower and logic, what should I do?  If I want to make a certain choice more often, I guess I'd better figure out how to make it rewarding.  If I want to use the treadmill more, then watch an action movie on DVD or Netflix.  If I want to get through paperwork at home (something I hate doing), then listen to music while doing it.  If I can't make the task inherently rewarding, treat myself afterwards.  Don't just say, "From now on, I'm going to ______ more often" and expect willpower and memory to take it from there.  Figure out how to make the experience so enjoyable that I can reward my "Inner Lab Rat" with some "cheese".  

Embrace my Inner Robot

I recently read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  The book is about research into how people develop habits, how they change them, and how big a role they play in the choices we make from moment to moment.  The book persuaded me that many--if not most--of my choices are driven by habit.  They are automatic responses to recurring triggers.  I respond to the triggers with little thought, like a robot behaving as he was programmed.  But this doesn't have to be bad.  I can embrace my inner robot, as long as I'm aware of my habits and, over time, replace bad habits with good ones.

Duhigg describes research on laboratory rats.  When they are first learning to get through a maze, they expend tremendous mental energy.  When they have repeated the maze so often that they move through it out of habit, their mental activity relaxes greatly.  Their actions become effortless.  This is what I can value about my "inner robot".  Habits allow me to do routine things effortlessly so that I conserve my mental energy for the really challenging, creative tasks.  Also, good physical, social, spiritual, and mental habits can make me happier and healthier.

I feel cultural pressure to deny my "inner robot".  It feels to me that our culture idealizes a life in which we make conscious, thoughtful decisions about everything we do.  It is as if we should always be behaving deliberately and thoughtfully.  Duhigg's book makes a strong case that humans are NOT designed to put a lot of thought into every decision.  We don't need to think about what we will do when the alarm clock rings, when we drive our cars, when we first arrive in the office, when we get ready to leave for the day, etc.

I'm convinced that it's better accept my "inner robot".  Accept the fact that many or most of my decisions will be based on habits--automatic responses to triggers.  Don't expect to change that; to suddenly find ways to make all of my behavior deliberate and willful.  Instead, analyze the habits I have and find ways to improve them.

Layers of Meditation

I love the SleepStream 2 iPhone app.  It's so easy to add layer after layer to the meditation experience:

• The first layer:  a binaural beat.  I talked about binaural beats in my last blog post:  Brainwaves "beat" at a higher frequency when stressed, lower when meditating, lower still when relaxed, and even lower approaching sleep.  Listen to a meditative binaural beat with headphones and your brainwaves measurably change to match the beat.  Meditation becomes easier.
• The second level:  sound effects.  SleepStream offers multiple categories of high definition recordings of waves, wind, fireplaces, rain, forests, white noise, and--one of my favorites--"dry drones", which are space-age electronic sounds.
• The third level:  overlays.  Meditative music such as piano or soft electronic/spacey music or spoken guided meditations.  Huge number of options available for free and more for low-cost download
• The fourth level:   visualizer.  The iPad can cycle through gorgeous photos of Autumn, Spring, Summer, Winter or places like Norway or video of waves crashing on the shore under a huge moon.

I don't always use the visualizer because the other three levels are usually enough to provide a rewarding meditation experience.  But there are times that I listen to one of the many "Waves" soundtracks, go to the "Shamanic Meditation" binaural beat (my fave), put on the "Deepspace Ambient" music, and watch the video of "Midnight Waves".  It is easy for me at these times to pretend that I'm on a real beach, listening to crashing waves, breathing in the ocean air and feeling the power of the waves running through me.