(This blog was originally posted on
December 19, 2016)
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| Photo by Rick Hustead |
This
afternoon, someone told me an interesting anecdote that I would like to share
with you.
In
2008, after years of violence and discord, Ulster unionists and the Irish Republican
Army declared a cease fire. Northern Ireland’s Ulster Defence
Association disbanded its paramilitary group and said the war
between the two countries was finally over. Both sides promised to work toward
a lasting and productive peace, and citizens in Ireland, Northern Ireland and
even England breathed a sigh of relief. For generations, citizens in Great
Britain had lived with a constant threat of IRA-related terrorist activities;
but now that “peace had broken out” everyone could go about living their lives without
fear.
That
expression—now that peace had broken out—was so interesting to me.
Usually the words “had broken out” conjure negative images: disease,
physical/emotional pain, social discord, war or even bad weather. But if the
only thing you knew was a sensation of constant physical threat or danger, and verbal
and written rhetoric to incite or condemn violence is always around you, these
experiences become known and familiar. It could even be suggested that this
situation was a kind of comfort zone. Of course, this doesn’t mean you felt comfortable.
But you knew what to do if and when a terror alert was raised and had
adapted your other behaviors to basically live your life as normally as
possible in the meantime. It was not surprising, then, that even after the
cease-fire was declared and the hostilities between these nations was over that
many people remained vigilant for a while longer.
The
perceived mutual animosity, hostility and distrust had been going on so long
that it was difficult to know what to do with and in the new status quo. They
were used to following a specific subconscious mental script that kept them safe all those
years, and it took some time to write, reinforce and believe a new one that the
danger was past. But
maintaining that high state of vigilance couldn’t go on forever: The physical
body simply can’t and wasn’t made to handle this constant flood of hormones
coursing through the bloodstream, non-stop. Eventually, something had to give,
whether that was an emotional reaction (or over-reaction) or, equally likely,
going into a trance-like state to escape the sensory overload (environmental hypnosis).
Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory
of Mind concept exemplifies this phenomenon. According to Dr. Kappas, we
all start learning and adopting various beliefs and behaviors at a very young
age. Every time we repeat an action or express/observe one of those beliefs, we
reinforce that subconscious “known” until it becomes an established subconscious
mental script. While
this script can be rewritten to accommodate a new social norm, initial efforts
to modify previous beliefs and behaviors are also likely to be met with
considerable resistance. After all, even desired change can be uncomfortable,
inconvenient and painful as we learn a new way of doing things and living
our life, which can be very different from the comfortable and familiar
patterns of the past.
© 2017
