Finding Your Cape – Digging Deeper

Previous Posts in this series:

Initially when I was designing the Finding Your Cape tool, this analysis and thinking was included upfront as a way to share the logic I have used to outline this tool. I have come to learn though that not everyone shares the same drive to know “why?” as me 😊.

As such, I thought I would share this work as an afterthought for people who want to dig in to things a little deeper.

Designing

Superpowers are fundamentally behaviour, and behaviour is driven by a complex set of internal interactions, the core of which is our perception.

In order to discover how to tap in to these superpowers, I wanted to understand how our internal processes and beliefs all interrelate to make manifest our behaviour.

The information in this post is my attempt to do that.

I would ask you:

Do you agree?
How would you change it?
What does your schemata for understanding lived experience look like?
If you don’t have a map of the territory, how will you know which way to go?

Digging Deeper

Behind simplicity, there lies complexity.

Here is a link to download the image:

Finding Your Cape – Digging Deeper Download

You may want to print it or have it open on a different device so you can ponder it while reviewing the definitions and interface descriptions.

Supporting definitions:

Metaphysical understanding of the universe – Where we think the universe came from and how we think it functions.
Applied models of understanding –Maps that we have saved internally as a way of understanding other people, our emotions, our beliefs and our behaviours.
State of mind – A combination of your active perception and model of understanding. You could think of this as a perspective.
Perception – The frame governing how you see the world (see pliable perception). This is the engine at the core of our psychological processes.
Principles – Your rules to live life by
Values – Behaviours in alignment with your principles that you think move you towards embodying your authentic self
Emotional Response – How our values trigger neurological responses to external stimuli – link emotional checkpoint
Purpose – The focus for your superpower and the director of action.
Oneself – Our experience of our own resonance and our connection to the resonance of the universe – link reaching for the stars.
Rational Thinking – How our conscious mind integrates input from itself and the external world. Applying our principles and values using logic to form our actions plans
Feeling – How we establish equilibrium of forces in our rational thinking determines how we feel. Think of this as an articulation of the integrated product of our perception (with all its strong influences) and our rational thinking.
Behaviour– How we feel determines the action we take in the present moment.
Habit formation – The actions we repeatedly take become unconscious and our unconscious behaviours define who we are.
Reality – Input from the external world.
Lived Experience – The summation of all of the above.

The Interfaces Make the System

When we want to improve a complex system, the way to go about it is to first focus on optimising the interfaces between the different parts. Once information is flowing freely through the system, we can the optimise the specific parts to effect further change.

Optimising interfaces in the context of this system starts with simply developing an awareness of the neurological processes at hand. Here is my summary of this map of lived experience:

Metaphysical understanding of the universe and Principles

Our understanding of how the universe functions and why it exists underpins the higher order principles we develop which in turn underpins our understanding of life.

Metaphysical understanding of the universe and Values

Principles are rules that frame behavioural choices, values drive the behaviours we value. We value these behaviours because they lead to us acting in alignment with our metaphysical understanding of the universe. It is a value because it helps move us towards this understanding and vision.

Principles and Values

The rules you chose to live your life by create the foundation for the behaviours (psychological and physical) that you value.

Values and Purpose

Values are behaviours or you could say expressions in alignment with your principles. Your purpose is to live an authentic life which embodies your values. As you discover more about yourself you will come to learn which activities provide the least resistance to you flourishing as your authentic self.

Metaphysical understanding of the universe and Applied models of understanding

How you think the universe functions at a macro level will influence how you think situations will unfold at a micro level. Models of understanding are like stored maps of how events will unfold in relation to your experienced emotions and beliefs.

Applied models of understanding and emotional response

Models of understanding are recipes for how events will unfold. This means when you experience and emotion, you mind may use one of these models to tell it how you will react. If the situation is new, you may create a new model to save you time figuring it out in the future. Our stored models can both empower and/or limit us. We reserve the right to update them and evolve them, this is only a choice available to us once we develop an awareness of them though.

Applied models of understanding and state of mind

If models of understanding are like music tracks, and perception is like the melody of a song, then state of mind is like an album. We have an album for each model of understanding and the album selected dictates the tracks which gives us our melodies. This is like adopting a perspective which only then determines the angles to perceive from. Remember, compilation albums are also a thing! 😊

State of mind and perception

Perception is the frame for how we view a situation. Our current state of mind determines the framing options available to us. So, if we want to become adept at shifting our perception, we need to learn how to influence our state of mind. Sometimes the track we want to listen to is on a different album.

State of mind and emotional response

Each state of mind is tied to all possible emotional responses, but the strength of the bond to each emotion varies by state of mind. This means that in certain states of mind we can be more predisposed to particular emotional responses.

Values and emotional response

Gain and loss of value elicits emotional response. The bigger the change, the bigger the response.

Values and Oneself

Do we think the Oneself exists? If we do, what do we think it’s purpose is?

We value what we value because based on our metaphysical understanding of the universe we think these behaviours synchronise us with the unfolding of the universe (even if we are not consciously aware of this). If we are spiritual, we will connect with “it” by embodying our values authentically.

Purpose and rational thinking

Your purpose exists regardless of if you know it or not, it is through the process of rational thinking that you identify it and name it as your purpose.

Emotional response and perception

Continuing the music theme, our emotional response to a situation (which is founded on our values) acts like an album selector and volume knob. We see what we choose to focus on and our emotions turn up the volume of specific things and direct our focus.

Perception and rational thinking

We can only rationally process what we perceive. This relationship highlights the needs to develop an awareness of how our perception is formed so that we can explore all facets of life in its full colour.

Emotional response and rational thinking

This is an indirect relationship, but a key one. Our emotional response is strong and will present itself before the rational mind can even act. The boundaries of our perception influenced by our emotional repose can constrain our ability to think rationally considering all information available (because some is stripped from our perception by our emotions). It is for this reason why developing an awareness of the systems that influence our emotions is key to enhancing our ability to think rationally.

Oneself and Perception

How the Oneself fits in to our metaphysical understanding of the universe creates the canvas that our perception is formed on. This means our relationship to the Oneself influences all facets of our perception forming.

Emotional Response and Feeling

Like emotional response and rational thinking, the relation ship between emotional response and feeling is in direct but key. Again, it is bridged by our perception – this bridge can be so small though it is almost imperceivable.

Perception and feeling

Our perception acts like a funnel, filtering down the options available to us for how we feel.

Rational thinking and feeling

The extent to which our rational thinking determines how we feel is determined by the quality of our rational thinking. The more work we put in to developing an awareness of our psychological process, the greater our ability will be to use rational thinking to shape how we feel.

Feeling and behaviour

Behaviour is our expression to the outside world. Feeling is our expression to our internal world and is the precursor to how we behave.

Behaviour and reality

What we express in to the world determines what we will receive back from the world.

Reality and Perception

Reality is the input from the external world coming in to our perception, but the fluid nature of our perception shapes the reality that we experience.

Perception Creates Reality

Our metaphysical understating of the universe, principles, and values form the foundation within our psyche for all our neurological processes, everything else sits revolving around our perception.

This includes reality itself.

Our perception is pliable, meaning that is can be shaped and influenced by a number of factors. Just reading this information is shaping your perception as it may be introducing you to new concepts and insights of which you were previously not aware.

Awareness is key.

Once we are aware of something, we can then choose to pay attention to it. Once we give it our attention and start to understand, we can then focus with intention using our powers of rational thinking to reprogram the way our perception is formed.

This skill is something I have explore in the tool of pliable perception. Click here for more information about it.

Concluding the Introspection Toolkit

In the next post I will share my final reflections on this first iteration of the introspection toolkit.

Enjoy, for now.

Previous Posts – Finding Your Cape – Purpose and Reflections

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