Patterns

Using your body in new ways by breaking old patterns helps you see that precise moment when an automated aspect of consciousness is operating and gives you conscious choice. One way to do this is to resolve, for the entire day to switch your handedness. This means you would comb your hair, brush your teeth, stir your coffee, and do other simple tasks with your non-dominant hand, and when you can, also chew on the non-dominant side of your mouth, enter doorways or start stair climbing always with the non-dominant foot, etc.

Do this as much as possible and try to keep a score card going about how often, in hindsight, you realize you missed an opportunity or purposefully skipped the exercise for that particular situation (such as shaking hands with someone.)

Ask yourself,

Is this really just the tip of the iceberg? How many layers upon layers of patterns that react to or are triggered by other patterns do I have going here? Am I an unravelable Gordian knot? What sword would I use to give myself an Alexandrian cut?

Should I fight patterns or give into them so completely that I no longer “author” my own life? Which way would be more work? Which way would be the most spiritually advisable?

What amount of time did it take for me to accommodate to this exercise’s intent? Did the intent fade over time? What secondary processes are affected by this switching? How often did I do something with the “wrong” hand, before I developed the new habit? How did I feel about myself when I erred?

What part of me resists this experiment? Is there a “comfortable” pattern at work here that knows how to “argue” with “me” about this?

How many patterns do I have that I have never “gone against?” How do most of them get “in there?”

If I could, which of today’s discovered patterns would I instantly erase? How would I use such a pattern-eraser right now to better my life?

How much wisdom do I actually have that I can believe in my judgment of how I should change patterns? Am I that wise?

Was this pattern-discovery process a mental process that I can properly call a creative act?

Okay, bottom line now, just what percentage of everything I do, think, feel, say, and sense is completely pattern based? And what percentage of that are patterns that I dislike?

Is my life a re-run? Was “I” set in motion long, long ago along with all the other pattern-people just so that “someone” could watch all the “billiards bounce about” or “listen to the patter of little feet?”