This reminds me a lot of James Clear's "Atomic Habits" where he says that in order to make a habit stick it needs to become part of one's identity. Writing down one's beliefs for 10min in a row might certainly be one way of going about this, though I do wonder how long it will last.
“Maltz became interested in why setting goals works. He learned that the power of self-affirmation and mental visualization techniques used the connection between the mind and the body. He specified techniques to develop a positive inner goal as a means of developing a positive outer goals”
I've been hearing a lot about this book lately. Added to my reading list.
These concepts definitely aren't new, probably as old as humans. But I wonder who in history harnessed these methods to 'maximise' themselves really, really well?
In addition to affirming what I want by repetition, I try to generate logical ammunition for an argument: to think in depth how and why something is bad for me.
It's very interesting how just repeating something makes it more "real".
I'm really starting to think that the physical body (which contains the animal mind) is really just an advanced self-learning AI that improves itself by pattern recognition. And of course our consciousness (the self aware part) is what can steer this AI more precisely.
It's almost like a stubborn mule (your physical avatar) and a rider (your self aware consciousness).
The mule just wants instant gratification, while the rider wants to get up the mountain. So you have to work with the mule, by providing instant gratification that gets you both up the mountain.
I'm not sure if you've read much about neural plasticity - where behaviours get programmed into the brain like a trail path. The more the trail gets walked on (repetition), the deeper and more permanent it becomes.
But I don't think the animal mind understands logic that well, so you can program it through repetition, hence making it more "real".
Sorry for my hazy morning scribbles. I meant real as in how this property often is employed to mold our reality or behavior. Indeed the information has more copies - or links (as a better analogy for brain structure). I should have made it more clear that I don't use repetition to "program myself" or change habits, but to affirm thought. I am familiar with the concept since it's actively in use everywhere from religious mantras to marketing.
Generally life can be seen as a copy mechanism for DNA. The logic of it is (drumroll) to make more copies. I'm not sure about artificiality, but mentioning that reminds me that we are already capable of simulating neural nets that very much correspond to some (simple) real organisms.
In any case, I agree that our brain is structured over time and old "animal" areas of the brain appear sometime to have a firm hold over the cortex . Deeply ingrained habits have indeed 'deep pathways', and of course they're not only localized single neurons that can be flip-flopped.
Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain structurally change, or rather to correspond to thought. The software/hardware analogy is useful but I want to add thar the human brain is really not just a programmable computer, but much more.
