Real Experience

I've been listening to a fantastic audio book lately. Not one that I would necessarily recommend to all ages, due to it's controversial content. There's the disclaimer. It's called "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan. I've been a fan of his writing for many years. He has many books I've read that I found particularly fascinating.

I'm not going to go into great detail on what the book is about. The part that has really stuck with me so far is about our perception. When we're children, all of our experiences are fresh and new and so our brains absorb the new information and grows. As we age, our brains begin to fill in information for us based on past experiences. It's quicker and easier and therefore more efficient for our brains to process experiences this way. But, because the brain is filling in this information, one no longer has true experience.

Based on the past, the brain predicts what an experience will be like. So the way we perceive things to be, is somewhat tainted. Even our perception of time can be changed and morphed into something completely subjective. Although time is relative anyways. The whole point here is that as you get older, it gets harder to change the way you think. In order to remain truly open minded, it's very important to step completely out of the day to day grind, and let oneself experience something that was never thought possible.

In our training, it's the same. The farther we progress in our training and the more we practice something, it becomes much more difficult to change how it is executed and how we approach our practice. It's very important to step outside of our comfort zones, let go of our egos, and try something new. This is how we continue to progress.