Hello, I am on a quest for the possible perfection of the mind and behaviors. To achieve this, I have been studying many topics, and this time I bring one of them, which is automatic behaviors.
Over time, we engage in various activities, and the brain keeps track of when we were happiest, quickest, or easiest. Then, life goes on, and moments of sadness arrive. In those moments, like an ambulance, the brain brings back that happiness to counteract the sadness immediately. Now, the issue is that if we have a tendency to resort to these automatic behaviors, it means we haven't developed self-control. Often, automatic behaviors are negative, but the mind doesn't care if it's quick happiness; it brings them with a set of feelings and emotions that lead you, without any reasoning, to engage in that negative behavior without any awareness, whether it’s a painful love or an addiction.
The key to stopping these automatic behaviors is to develop positive thoughts and be grateful. If we manage to create a whole set of positive thoughts, we can gradually reduce the intensity of those automatic behaviors. It’s like love: it was an avalanche of positive thoughts that affects all feelings in a good way. But that’s not enough; we need to have a rescue plan. When the mind leads me to bad things and negative sensations, I counter it with positive meditation exercises. However, for a depressed person, generating positive things is very difficult, which is why we need to develop a new way of thinking gradually.
Saying “I am a person, I am not going to die,” and then mentioning the good things you have: whatever it may be, a dog, a roof, food, parents, a friend, the sun, the air, the stars, the plants, health—countless things. The key is to meditate as much as possible and read the Bible, which is full of help, especially the Psalms. Little by little, we will emerge from the automatic behaviors that do us harm, and thus we will not lose good things.
I was a prisoner of automatic behaviors my entire life. I finally took control of my life without pills or doctors, just by thinking about how to get out, with the help of God.