The learning process

I realised that it's really hard to get rid of bad habits. Even though I believe I make progress things that I don't do correctly or think correctly won't just disappear completely, at least not for a long time. For example, I used to use my shoulders too much when raising my arm when executing a technique. At some point I noticed that I didn't need to use it so much. Then I realised there were moments when I didn't seem to be using my shoulder muscles at all. Then comes the stage when I don't use them at all. However, sometimes, somehow bad movements come out again and, together with them, force also appears. With regards to the shoulder muscles, I'm currently at the 'starting to use them less and there has been at least one single moment in my aikido career when I moved so well that I didn't need to use my shoulders' stage. At some other aspects of aikido and life I'm at various other stages.:

Sometime I write a blog post about my development saying that 'I used to do and think this and that but not anymore'. Particularly about thoughts (such as negative thinking or disbelief in myself) sentences of the above type are for self-assurance, trying to convince myself that I have been through the mentioned problems. However, insisting so much on saying 'this is not the case any more' makes it sure that it's still there but I want to convince myself about the opposite. Funny, isn't it?

In the past weeks, I'm kind of hooked on positive and negative thinking, self-development, psychology and philosophy. It's just fascinating how the brain works and sometimes does tricks with ourselves. In the book I'm reading the authors talk a lot about how the brain tricks us and how it makes shortcuts, assumptions about the world and ourselves. As our brain can't accept and process every incoming information, it processes only a tiny portion of it and makes up the rest using logic and past experiences. This input problem makes it possible to run internal processes which makes us 'think'. Thinking is processing the information we already have, making new assumptions, connecting existing information to make as many connections as we can. This organisation of information creates an order in the mind through which we  understand the world and ourselves better. Sometimes the information to be organised is incomplete or even contradictory. When this happens and we start thinking (which rarely stops except for some 'special' cases :)) we automatically create a network of connected information which might not be correct, but given the information we have makes the most sense.

A child, for example, has less information stored, so organisation of this information and the resulting network is far from being complete. Learning is needed to get more info and process it. Also, a young brain needs flexibility as new incoming information can cause that the whole existing internal network needs to be reorganised. I've recently read in a paper about people who, when they were kids, thought that horses were grown-up dogs or a slug was a snail that lost his home.

The network of information can be equally sparse and unstructured in the brain of adults. The learning process occurs over a longer period of time here (as adults might not be so flexible) and, possibly, over generations of adults. So learning is not learning by one adult but learning happening over time with adults at the same age. Coming back to the above examples, in Hungarian, the word slug translates as 'naked snail'. So adults in the past also made connections with their available information network in their brains and found that a slug has probably lost his home. And I still haven't mentioned superstition, witch hunting or that the Earth was thought to be flat.

Why am I discussing these? Possibly because my info-network has a structure when it is trying to organise itself to make sense of the learning process and trying to hardwire that we cannot be perfect because of the incomplete information we have which, possibly unexpectedly, makes us perfect. Because if noone is perfect then there isn't such as a perfect person so everyone is supposed to be perfect at their current stage of development and by their own capacities (thought inspired by Gaius Baltar). Given the information I have my brain does its best and does that perfectly. Mistakes are made not because I'm stupid or bad but because the information within is incomplete. This sounds like a good argument but although I'm trying to convince myself about it, I'm not convinced completely. How should I consider genetics? Is there an external measure of perfection that can or should be considered? The more I think the more questions I have unanswered. Similar to what masters say about aikido: the more you practice the more you realise that there is much more to learn.

Now let's come back to the initial point of getting rid of old habits. As we grow older and have habits for longer it takes more time to change the brain's corresponding neural network connected to our habits. There might be so many connections to the habit that it may take years to restructure the network. And now I realised (at this moment) that this might be the cause of internal conflicts between 'what I do' and 'what I want to do'. I want to get a good job but I'm just sitting here writing because I have never been a particularly proactive and practical person. I want to keep my shoulders down in trainings but my constant stressing of myself over various things causes that my shoulders are up almost all day.

I think this why affirmations were invented. If I tell something to myself every day it will be stronger part of my neural network and, eventually, this will replace the bad habit as the new becomes stronger than the habit. If I tell this to myself loudly then it will better burn into my brain as not only I used in internal restructuring method of thinking but feedback was also used. The feedback is that when I say something I will remember saying it so that is added to the network. If I say something I will remember hearing that so it goes straight into the corresponding network. If I write something I remember writing it and I remember seeing it which is particularly good for visual types of people.

Meditation and imagination are also very good tools. They might be thinking only but it is proven scientifically that if you recall an event, thought, etc. the corresponding connections will be stronger. The more you think about something the more important it will be in your brain's own network. The more important it is the more you will think and act on it. This might be the reason for the law of attraction. If you think a lot about meeting good people then your brain will automatically seek these people and, although you might meet others as well, you will remember the good ones because that is in accordance with your thought structure.

So we should focus on positive things and feeling good at present so we will sense similarly positive things when new information is added to the neural network. Many people focus on negative things in life, this is what the have been building for a long time. But as the brain's network is not completely fixed but able to change, we can train ourselves to think positively because, naturally, feeling good is better than feeling bad.

In aikido, we should practice a lot to teach the brain's network that corresponds to movements. We should practice to learn to see the connection of movements and to actually be able to connect to another person's movements. We should imagine techniques individually so that it could work as affirmation of what worked. We should draw circles to teach ourself to move and to remember visually that aikido's movements are circular. We should practice the basic steps and rolls so when they work and have a strong enough connection we can focus on making networks of higher level movements stronger. We should cut 100 shomens a day to make the cut's corresponding network so strong that it almost appears as instinct.

Thank you for reading the post, I think it shows patience which is a positive thing :).