Who Says I have to Post That?

Hi All,

It's been a while - let me tell you a few reasons why.  Last week, I had an idea in the car driving home from Sharon's office (I've mentioned her here before - even shared some of her "Sharon-isms").  I sat and wrote about it...but got a bit stuck.  It is such a random idea that I wasn't so sure where to go with it - so in typical Emily fashion - I just stopped it...tabled it...put it on the back burner.  

Never once did it occur to me that ... "Hey Em, you don't have to publish that now.  You can revisit it later and just move on to something else." 

Duh. Really...  D.U.H.  

Who says I have to ever post that?  ME.  

Who says I can't have an idea and just let it go.  ME.

Who says I what I can and can not do.  ME

  

Hello, Emily in the Emilyverse - this is YOUR place.  

That means I get to do what ever I want with the post.  If I decide to publish it, Fine.  If not, Fine too.  I really do think I will publish it...when Crazy girl shuts up because she's made it so random that the rest of us can't get our own two cents in and we're having a hard time understanding the point.  And Resolution girl likes to have all her questions answered before she moves on - she needs a point of view.   That post right now doesn't have one yet.   Though it is a great idea, so I will clean it up when I find some internal duct tape -keep an eye out for it - I've entitled it "My Life Seems Like a Bunch of Music Lyrics".

So my time since then - was interesting.  I had a meeting that was one I never thought I would be having; it felt awkward leading up to it; it was emotional in the before, during and after; it was informative; it was things I needed to hear; it was difficult - and No, I will not be telling you about it for the moment.  I had an actual visceral reaction to this meeting. (I just thought HA! I did it again, but you won't understand the visceral thing until I publish that Music post... sigh.) 

I'm telling you this as it really lead me into a bit of a "tale spin" of thinking - if you will. Thinking about choices.  Why do we make the choices we do?  What leads us to those choices? 

 "With every decision you take, every judgement you make, there is a battle in your mind - a battle between intuition and logic."

I read this recently and found it interesting... Is it between intuition and logic?  Because what if the choice you make doesn't seem to be apart of that battle at all?  If I make a choice based on my intuition, my gut (which Yes, I do regularly) there wouldn't be a battle in my head because I don't let logic in.  Or do I and I don't realize it?  I don't think I do because sometimes there is no explaining away what seems like the strangest choice when I've let my gut take control - which means logic wasn't near being present for its side of the battle...(or is it Crazy girl?  Sometimes I can't tell the difference!). 

So Yes - I googled "why do we make the choices we do" because - I mean you can google anything and if its on the Internet, it must be the truth, right?   ;)

I did come across part of a BBC article that I found interesting... and YES - I'm posting it here for an easier read.  Your Welcome. 

“Prof Kahneman and his late colleague Amos Tversky, who worked at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford University, realized that we actually have two systems of thinking. There's the deliberate, logical part of your mind that is capable of analyzing a problem and coming up with a rational answer.

This is the part of your mind that you are aware of. It's expert at solving problems, but it is slow, requires a great deal of energy, and is extremely lazy. Even the act of walking is enough to occupy most of your attentive mind.

If you are asked to solve a tricky problem while walking, you will most likely stop because your attentive mind cannot attend to both tasks at the same time.

But then there is another system in your mind that is intuitive, fast and automatic. This fast way of thinking is incredibly powerful, but totally hidden. It is so powerful, it is actually responsible for most of the things that you say, do, think and believe.

And yet you have no idea this is happening. This system is your hidden auto-pilot, and it has a mind of its own. It is sometimes known as the stranger within.

Most of the time, our fast, intuitive mind is in control, efficiently taking charge of all the thousands of decisions we make each day. The problem comes when we allow our fast, intuitive system to make decisions that we really should pass over to our slow, logical system. This is where the mistakes creep in.”

And oddly enough - this make sense to me.  It makes sense to Lazy girl.  It makes Crazy girl a bit intimidated because I take away from this that when making a choice - I need to slow down a bit.  Let that attentive part of my mind that likes to just chill, do some of the work for a change.  

And as I am reading this to proof...add, take away - My body is telling me I made the absolute wrong choice for lunch today.  I've been so good - and really eating 90%-95% clean every day since the challenge ended. So why oh why did I choose today to not pack my lunch - and order from the deli?   Why did I not choose to get a salad with some grilled chicken?  Why did I think it was a good idea to order a corned beef Ruben sandwich? And eat 3/4th's of it? With a side of Russian Dressing? 

I will spare you any bit of detail of how my stomach is yelling at me.  But know I am fully understanding the consequences to my instinctual choices right about now. 

My friend is starting up her challenge again - though this is more than a 30 day deal.  It's to help us get through the holidays and not slide backward.  Yeah!  Though this time it is Clean Eating and Fitness (yup - you bet I told her I'd do the eating part - but the mention of fitness just made my Lazy girl pass out!)... So I will be more accountable for what I put in my mouth and my body.  I will, of course, share here - not all the time or every day... but I plan to support and be supportive... to be accountable for the food choices I make and try out and experiment with different recipes.  Aren't you lucky?!?  ;)

Well, that's it for this installment in the Emilyverse.  Stay tuned... more to come with less time between.

Until Next Time....

EAT (logically)