The Language of self-mastery

“We shall require a new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”  Einstein, anticipating the power of the bomb.  This stren proposes the easy mental steps that update our thinking to benefit our personal well-being and that of our global community. 

Introduction

             Our brain has similarities to our computer.  The computer, often referred to as the “hardware,” requires an operating system (O.S.), what we call a software program, to direct the information it receives to an outcome.  Wordstar was my computer’s first word processing program or O.S.  It has been replaced by more sophisticated programs.  I have updated my computer with the prevalent newer word processing program called Word.  Additional specialized O.S.s that more effectively process numbers, manipulate pictures, emphasize formulas or musical symbols, and/or other languages may also be added.  These programs provide new paths to attain desired outcomes.  Like the computer, when our brain receives data it requires an operating system to process the information to an action outcome.  The O.S.s provided our brain determine the manner we think.  Einstein recognized that the prevalent manner people think is not compatible with humankind’s emergence into maturity.  We have yet to update the O.S. of our thinking to survive the challenges of modernity.  These three easy-to-do word substitutions, to be here explained, will make giant steps towards the newer way of thinking.   ANWOT = a newer way of thinking.
           (1) Descriptive words are substituted for prescriptive words:  
           You should, have to, must →  I could, would like, prefer, choose
           (2) Analog “continuous” words are substituted for dichotomous words:
           Either … or                       →  Both … and           
           (3) Personal responsibility words are substituted for dependency words:
           He, she, it, they make me  →  I allow 
 
Who programs the manner we think, our operating system or O.S.?

            Most of the problems of our life’s experience, both personal and global, are related to our manner of thinking, the way we process information.  We are our own worst enemy … individually and globally!  Einstein also told us what we must do to prevent our demise, but we have thus far largely ignored his advice.  The task is quite doable and we already have the means.  We only need to muster our will to take the necessary steps. 

            Through our early years, nature and our nurturers equip our brain with words and symbols that convey meaning.  Our brain uncritically accepts the meanings we are provided to process information to action.  Thus, our first O.S. is the expression of what fate and circumstance make of us.  “The gift we cannot refuse” aptly describes the manner of thinking first embedded in our native language.  Our early thinking has been designed to work effectively through the years that we are physically undeveloped and mentally immature.  This manner of dependency thinking emphasizes whatever perspective our genes and nurturers provide.  We can understand why this first O.S. is inadequate to manage the issues of our contemporary world. 

            Nature wires our thinking for survival.  It prepares us to instinctively fight or run to survive.  It is here-and-now oriented, impulsive, and primarily concerned about me (us), often at the expense of not me (them).  Nature is amoral.  Might is right.  Our nurturers require us to blindly obey their authority.  In our relatively civilized world, they prefer the symbols of power more so than direct physical aggression.  We are taught to get our wants through titles, position, wealth, owning, status, “rightness,” winning in competition (“beating” others), asserting God and/or the prevalent authorities are on our side, etc.  However, when symbolic dominance fails, physical aggression is condoned.  Immature thinking limits its conclusions to two categories such as right/wrong, good/bad, “I (we) know what is right,” and seeks punishment for noncompliance.  Thus, the dependency O.S. imbedded in our native language supports prejudice, hatred, intolerance, blaming others, guilting our self, and related means to engage in physical and/or mental harmful aggression. 
           
           Nature provides us baby teeth and automatically updates them with more effective replacements. It builds in clocks preset to turn-on physical maturity, such as menstruation, reproduction, and body hair.  Unlike nature’s endowment of physical maturity, we receive no program that turns on mature thinking.  Rather, nature provides us “hardware,” its latest most advanced brain which when mature, dwarfs any computer we create.  It also provides us a beginning software program we call instinct.  Thereafter, our nurturers provide us sophisticated language, humankind’s product 50,000 years in the making.  Mating our marvelous hardware and the sophisticated language provided by fate and circumstance, we engage in the degree of reflective thinking that makes us unique.  Reflective thinking is the capacity of our complex brain to think about our thinking, to be conscious of our consciousness.  Reflective thinking is a gift of opportunity more so than an outright gift of mature thinking.  It is our resource to manipulate ideas, create and initiate new patterns, and most important to free our will from the directions of our early programmers. Do you see, our first manner of processing information persists, with but minor modification … unless and/or until we update it.  Multiple studies on adult development indicate we don’t take control of our thinking until our late 20's, and for many, mental freedom from what our genes and nurturers make of us is never acquired.            

           The manner we think powerfully influences our feelings and our actions.  The dependency O.S. first acquired is the manner of processing information that may be found in every native language.  This primitive O.S. is suited to our dependent, helpless, nurtured state when our brain is ill-equipped and we have little sense of “self.”  It becomes our main source of problems to the degree we continue to use this O.S. when we attain physical maturity.  We need to update it with a newer O.S. that is more suited to the challenges of our rapidly changing contemporary world.  Our recent and spreading mega-weapons of destruction demand prevention more so than cure.                

A newer way of thinking = ANWOT

           Updating our thinking is accomplished by substituting words that redirect information to newer pathways.  I call these word-switches¹ trigger words.  They switch the manner information is processed from one path to another. Trigger words convey meaning that influences the direction we process our thinking.  They powerfully influence the action outcome of the data our brain receives.  The newer trigger words may dramatically alter the action outcome.  The acquisition of the newer language of self-mastery is attainable with maturity.  Since there are a limited number of trigger words, this basic step to ANWOT is easily taught and readily learned. 

           Our dependency O.S., the software programs acquired from our genes and our nurturers, is embedded in our native language.  It predictably has these four important characteristics:

1. Native language thinking is dichotomous.  It categorizes information into two distinct either…orcategories: me/not me, us/them, good/bad, right/wrong, O.K./not O.K., safe/dangerous, friend/enemy, like/dislike, and so on.  Reality is distorted when thought processing is so limited.  Dichotomous thinking is the basis of prejudice, intolerance, hatred, resentment, discrimination, and most of the conflict we create.  The “bad” category is to be eliminated.  It deserves physical and/or mental harm.
2. It is prescriptive.  The orders for the conduct of our life express the perspective of nature and our nurturers.  Orders are conveyed in characteristic trigger words like should, have to, must, and lesser used words like demand, require, and so on.  The orders are prejudiced, i.e. pre judged and pre determined.  Prescriptions commonly lead to blaming when the orders are disobeyed, followed by physical and/or mental harmful aggression.  Independence, choice-making, mental freedom are restricted.  
3. It conveys our dependency on others.  Our native language manner of thinking reflects the many years of immaturity and helplessness when we need to be provided for by others.  This is the basis of requiring endorsement from others and remaining a love junkie when we could appropriately provide for our own basic emotional requirements, just as we expect and learn to take care of our own physical needs.   
4. It is automatic.  Through thousands of repetitions, as with our alphabet, the meaning-pathways data is processed become imperceptibly habitual, and effortless.  Our first manner of thinking persists within our native language virtually unchanged, unless and/or until we provide a newer way of thinking, ANWOT.

Consider the characteristics of ANWOT, a newer way of thinking suited to adult maturity:

1. ANWOT is analog².  Both… and is substituted for either…or.  The +’s and –‘s of each choice, positives and negatives of alternative choices are processed and evaluated prior to action.  Both we and they, present and the future may be considered.  We greatly expand our accuracy and flexibility in processing reality.  Our will is freed to mentally evaluate and rehearse infinite possible outcomes prior to directing information to action.
2. ANWOT is descriptive.  The orders for the conduct of our life are self-initiated.  Characteristic descriptive words such as could, prefer, would like, choose, select are trigger words that direct the processing of information to choice-making among alternatives.  Descriptive trigger words turn-on creativity, initiation, and self-mastery.  Prescriptive words such as should, have to, must may turn-on initiation and creativity but in the service of some “others” authority, through nature and/or our nurturers perspective.
3. ANWOT promotes self-mastery, mental freedom.   We become our own person when we substitute I allow for they (he, she, it) make me ....  We switch the dependency blaming path to a personal responsibility path.  A freed will is among our most cherished goals.
4. ANWOT must be learned.  Challenging an established habit requires work, patience, direction, and the application of willpower.  The skills to update our thinking are easy to teach and easy to learn.  Getting rid of established outdated habits is far more difficult.         

            Our society has yet to establish the educational resources to teach the newer way of thinking that transforms immature, dependency thinking to mature self-mastery personal responsibility thinking.  Multiple educational resources are available for most any skill.  Do you know of any courses in mature thinking?  We have many institutions that teach warfare, such as the army, navy, marine, and air force academies, and multiple colleges that are military institutes.  How many teaching resources can you name that specialize in peace?  The payoff of ANWOT education will be huge.  You are encouraged to become a part of the academy.  Do you recognize that proficiency in a foreign language does not change one’s dependency manner of thinking?  Persons who think using their early O.S. will continue their dependency manner of thinking no matter how many foreign languages are mastered.          

Additional features of our two O.S.s.³
           Our native language O.S. reflects our dependency; the ANWOT O.S. is conducive of maturity and personal mastery.  Words and symbols convey meaning that triggers physical action; they have been called our second signaling system.  They powerfully influence our primary physical signaling system such as nerves and hormones. Different trigger words initiate different actions.  The specific trigger words we use determine whether we take control or allow a source outside of our self to push our buttons.  By leaving the prescriptive, dichotomous, dependency words placed on our control panel exposed to sources outside of our self, our thinking remains a servant to what nature and our nurturers have prescribed for us.  Many years pass before we attain the required physical maturity and sophisticated language to take responsibility for our thinking, feelings, and actions.     

           Our first O.S. is most adapted to physical tangible matters such as wealth, power, recognition, appearance, and the “toys” of adult life.   The mature updated O.S. enriches the first by shifting emphasis to mental and emotional matters, viz., love, peace-of-mind, aesthetics, creativity, knowledge and the like.  The first language must serve physical safety, our innate fight or flight response, emphasizing harmful aggression or withdrawal and the symbolic equivalents of dominance … competition, winning, owning, controlling, etc.  The second O.S. facilitates problem-solving, cooperation, sharing, developing independence as well as such skills as long-term planning, initiation, innovation, and prevention.  The second language is far more adept at providing us choice among alternatives, the mental freedom we highly prize. 

           Prescriptive, dichotomous, and dependency trigger words belong to the first language acquired during immaturity.  Descriptive, analog, personal responsibility trigger words belong to the newer ANWOT language that promotes creative choices among alternatives.  When we understand these concepts and teach our self to recognize them, we may assume mastery of our self.  Simple word substitutions upgrade our thinking to ANWOT:
 
Trigger words that promote dependency and  blaming, or responsibility and problem-solving:

	Prescribing words: Describing words:	should, have to, must, ought, it is predetermined, I am compelled could, choose, am wise to, like, allow, permit, desire, wish, prefer, decide, elect, opt, think, fancy, determine, take responsibility, originate, cause, when this occurs then likely ...
	Dichotomous words:	Either…or --- me/not me, us/them, good/bad, right/wrong, O.K./not O.K., safe/dangerous, friend/enemy, like/dislike, and other concepts are limited to two categories
	Analog words:	Both…and --- this and that, the positives and the negatives, the pluses and the minuses of each alternative are considered!
	Dependency words: Responsibility words:	They (he, she, they, it, God, the devil) make me …. I allow ….

           These patterns of expression represent the extremes along a spectrum of motivation to act, where hurting is at one end and helping at the other.  Blaming indicates whoever or whatever caused a situation is in need of punishment.  Blaming implies the quality of badness that justifies aggression toward the blamed.  Our energy is triggered to diminish that which is wrong or bad.  Responsibility implies the potency to problem-solve.  Responsibility = response ability.  Ability is a measure of our power to respond.  Descriptive words invite our skill-power to solve the problem at issue rather than the prescriptive words that lead to badness and the expression of blame.  Lack of skill suggests need for education to improve our response ability.   Responsibility leads to a problem-solving response.  Potency is highly prized; our energy may be directed towards growth rather than destruction.  

           Both blaming and responsibility motivate us to act.  Blaming others leads to resentment and harmful aggression.  Blaming our self leads to guilt and depression; in the extreme, it may even lead to physical attack and suicide.  Blaming may also promote avoidance and/or conformity out of fear of punishment.  Taking responsibility for our self promotes personal growth and physical well-being.  It promotes creative problem-solving for the mental satisfactions of wisdom and free choice.  A happy mind influences our body to respond likewise. 

           While blaming is destructive, we may use it to express anger positively.  Directing blame to an inappropriate action or situation (but not the person!) may mobilize our energy constructively to get rid of the “bad” or harmful act.  Do you direct your anger appropriately by distinguishing between the person and the person’s behavior?

           Our native mental O.S. appropriately first serves our passively acquired masters; it emphasizes dependency and blind obedience to authority.  Because children and animals have limited abstract reasoning ability, heeding the prescriptions of authority is usually appropriate.  There is an absolute “right” in should, have to, must, ought ... and any alternative action is “wrong.”  Prescriptive words remove choice; expectations are predetermined.  The primitive mind is restricted by its impulsivity and reactivity.  Our native language emphasizes dominance by conflict while the ANWOT language promotes civilization.  While the primitive mind deals with stress by fight or flight, a civilized mind attempts peaceful negotiation.  The ANWOT O.S. strives for independence, individuality, and use of our marvelous thinking capacity for self-mastery of our thinking, feeling, and actions.  Description words emanate from the authority of our self as “the describer,” to select among alternatives and thus call forth choice, alternatives, and our free status.   Descriptive words label the views of their creator in a manner that is not absolute.  Description involves critical appraisal instead of blind obedience.  The mind’s work is decision-making as well as personal accountability (responsibility).  Demands are not automatically regarded as right, to be uncritically and unalterably obeyed simply on the authority of the prescriber.  Rationality and consensus are the means for critical appraisal and problem-solving action.  The distinction between prescribing and describing is dramatic.  Descriptive words inform more so than demand; they invite critical appraisal and are subject to interpretation, modification and self-management.  ANWOT adds vision and greater objectivity.  Of greatest importance, ANWOT promotes personal freedom.  An understanding of these concepts stimulates motivation to teach our self to apply the trigger words of ANWOT.  

           We readily distinguish the implements of war from those of peace.  The trigger words of immaturity and maturity are also distinct.  Consider several examples of freely choosing:

           Prescriptive:    You [I] have to go to school.  You must study.
           Descriptive:     If I choose to become educated, I have to study.

           Prescriptive:    I must lose weight.
           Descriptive:     I’d like to lose weight; therefore, I must control my food intake.

           Descriptive:     Since I would like to date her, I’ll have to call her and ask.
           Descriptive:     I believe it wise to save; therefore I must put something away.

           Notice that once we our self make a choice, prescriptive words may be appropriate.  Once we take personal control by freely choosing, by judging what is wise, then a prescriptive word automatically appears that we must obey in order to attain the goal of our own selection.  The prescriptive statement that follows our own free choice is no longer expressing dependency, for I choose the goal that determines what I must do and I am free to alter my choice.  What a difference between “I go to school because I have to” from “I go to school because I want an education.”  Doing out of choice stimulates motivation and cooperation. 

           Prescriptions often arouse our innate rebellion:  “I will do the opposite of what I’m told I have to do; no one tells me what to do.”  In time, most persons recognize that such rebellion is just as dependent because the opposite action is determined by the authority’s demands.  However, such primitive rebellion is often our first step to realizing that we can challenge authority.  Persons who never engage in primitive rebellion are most likely to remain stuck in whatever fate and circumstance have made of them.  To what degree do you consider more so than blindly accept the dictates of outside authority?  Did you (do you) “rebel” constructively or destructively?  

           As more persons recognize the benefit and need of formal preparation in ANWOT, we can expect to see the initiation of many opportunities for education in the ANWOT language of self-mastery… such as book discussion groups and support groups like AA, various media such as printed material, radio, TV, the Internet and computer disks, and short courses in our accredited schools.  Along with these new resources offering ANWOT, expect related programs offering the collected wisdom of those persons who have identified the bits and pieces of knowledge, which together promote our personal and community well-being, peace-of-mind and peace-in-the-world, love, cooperation and the skills required for the utopian society that is in our common interest.