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Unlearning in the mind...

Caution: Evolving thought and amateur post

So, if unlearning is so interesting, why is it difficult? And whereas (atleast in my experience), unlearning physical aspects seems to be easier than unlearning mental bad habits...

And how does one tackle that?

First up, the age old debate of does body follow mind or does the mind follow the body? In a lot of physical things - the mind follows the body. Get the body to do stuff and the mind follows. Not immediately, not with a whoop of joy, but eventually the mind falls in line. Whether it is acting or tennis or even in body language - as the terrific TED talk by Amy Cuddy shows and we have all felt it.

However, in places where it is only in the mind - like certain behavior aspects or some age old thought pattern one is trying to change, this is a fairly mental game. Sure, yes, your body is around and you can use it a bit, but in these cases, its all in the mind.

So why is the former relatively easier and the latter relatively difficult?

I have my theory and I think it is practice. Practice of physical gymnastics is easier than mental. And unless you get into the rigor of coaching it won't change in either. But the fact is that physical gymnastics have one 'right' way of doing it (with many variations) - whereas in mental, it is really 'to each his own' and arriving at the sweet spot of 'what I can do' and 'what is the best way to do it' to 'what can work here' has too many variables. Plus of course, most mental gymnastics involve another person. And that makes it all the more complex...


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