FR Mind/Body Disconnect

[Thinkingenigma]

So last night I decided to knock out some grocery shopping after work (One of my jobs is at Best Buy). Even though I was still in my work uniform, it looks sharp, fits nicely, etc. which played in my favor. After spending a great deal too much time trying to find a specific ingredient for a meal I'm making, I asked one of the girls who works there. She was very cute, and looks to be about my age. I flirted with her for a minute in front of her manager, which she responded well to, and she helped me find what I needed. When it was time to check out, I found her register, and checked out there. We chatted a bit more, and I found out that she lives here and works at Kroger full time instead of going to school (which would have been excellent deep dive material). At that point, she was fully primed and I decided to ask her if she wanted to go out some time. This is the point at which my body decided it just didn't want to cooperate with that plan, and decided to walk out to the car with the groceries instead. In my head, I was trying to ask her out, but my body wasn't obeying me. I'm really confused as to what was happening, because I don't think it was approach anxiety (I don't usually have that anymore), but there was a genuine disconnect between my intentions and my actions. The worst part was that she was giving me all kinds of signals, and yet I didn't do anything about it. It was almost if I was watching myself do things instead of actually being in control. It's not unlike what happened the one time I tried pot (that shit works WAY too well on me).

*Sigh*, I really hate that it turned out that way. I'm trying to figure out what happened, so if anyone has any insights, it would be appreciated.

 

[Chase]

TE-

Likely you were just tired and running on autopilot. I was heading home in the same direction as a friend recently, and said, "Let's grab lunch across the street." My friend agreed, and I was thinking about lunch, but when we got to the turn not even 30 seconds later after I proposed lunch, I turned in the direction of home anyway and started walking that way. My friend had to call out to me, "Hey, I thought we were going to lunch!" before I realized I was going the wrong way. It was surreal... as if my conscious brain had simply switched off and I was just running the pattern I normally run when walking that way.

They used to call it "absentmindedness," and it's essentially when your conscious mind gets occupied or is fatigued, and your autopilot takes over. Most of what we do day-in and day-out is automated; you just run the routes laid out already in your brain. Saves your mental horsepower for other things, rather than having to think your way through things you've already got down. But, every now and then, autopilot switches on at the wrong time or place and you forget to do something you intended to do.

Weird when it happens, but sometimes it just happens.

Chase

 

[Thinkingenigma]

TE-

Likely you were just tired and running on autopilot. I was heading home in the same direction as a friend recently, and said, "Let's grab lunch across the street." My friend agreed, and I was thinking about lunch, but when we got to the turn not even 30 seconds later after I proposed lunch, I turned in the direction of home anyway and started walking that way. My friend had to call out to me, "Hey, I thought we were going to lunch!" before I realized I was going the wrong way. It was surreal... as if my conscious brain had simply switched off and I was just running the pattern I normally run when walking that way.

They used to call it "absentmindedness," and it's essentially when your conscious mind gets occupied or is fatigued, and your autopilot takes over. Most of what we do day-in and day-out is automated; you just run the routes laid out already in your brain. Saves your mental horsepower for other things, rather than having to think your way through things you've already got down. But, every now and then, autopilot switches on at the wrong time or place and you forget to do something you intended to do.

Weird when it happens, but sometimes it just happens.

Chase

I would think that too, except that I was completely wired at the time, and I was consciously thinking about asking her out before I left. It's one of the weirdest things that has happened to me recently.

 

[Chase]

I would think that too, except that I was completely wired at the time, and I was consciously thinking about asking her out before I left. It's one of the weirdest things that has happened to me recently.

That's odd. Well, could have simply been some under-the-surface anxiety that you weren't even consciously aware of. Or, could've been your brain picked up on something it didn't like about the situation and wanted to get out.

You really don't have just one brain in your head; you have multiple brains. Usually these are connected, but occasionally you can feel the difference. I experienced sleep paralysis once - the phenomenon known as "old hag," often associated with hauntings - where I woke up, sat up in the bed, got shoved back down in bed, and a feeling of utter terror took me as I was CONVINCED, emotionally, that a shadow standing over my bed was some sort of evil entity. And, at the same exact time, my rational mind was saying, "Okay, this is ridiculous. You know what this is - it's sleep paralysis. You've read about it countless times before. That shadow over there - it's no specter, it's a shadow of the upright air conditioning unit. This emotion of terror is baseless - all you've got to do is get SOME part of your body moving, and the spell will be broken." Even with these thoughts though, my emotional brain was in full-on panic mode until I was able to wiggle my fingers, and then in a snap it all went away; I was sitting up, alone, in my apartment, the sunlight was coming through my windows, and I felt totally fine. Extremely bizarre. Other times I've felt this difference have been when I was depressed in college and still training myself to switch emotional states; logically I'd want to, but emotionally I'd want to stay the same way.

Sometimes you can be totally logically, consciously aware, but some other part of your brain is what's controlling your actions and your logical brain is just shut out.

Your frontal cortex isn't really in control, in any event; they've done some studies that've shown that the brain's already made it's decision before the cortex is even aware that a decision is being made. Your conscious brain isn't really in control; it's more like a monitoring station for what's actually going on.

Chase

 

[Thinkingenigma]

I would think that too, except that I was completely wired at the time, and I was consciously thinking about asking her out before I left. It's one of the weirdest things that has happened to me recently.

That's odd. Well, could have simply been some under-the-surface anxiety that you weren't even consciously aware of. Or, could've been your brain picked up on something it didn't like about the situation and wanted to get out.

You really don't have just one brain in your head; you have multiple brains. Usually these are connected, but occasionally you can feel the difference. I experienced sleep paralysis once - the phenomenon known as "old hag," often associated with hauntings - where I woke up, sat up in the bed, got shoved back down in bed, and a feeling of utter terror took me as I was CONVINCED, emotionally, that a shadow standing over my bed was some sort of evil entity. And, at the same exact time, my rational mind was saying, "Okay, this is ridiculous. You know what this is - it's sleep paralysis. You've read about it countless times before. That shadow over there - it's no specter, it's a shadow of the upright air conditioning unit. This emotion of terror is baseless - all you've got to do is get SOME part of your body moving, and the spell will be broken." Even with these thoughts though, my emotional brain was in full-on panic mode until I was able to wiggle my fingers, and then in a snap it all went away; I was sitting up, alone, in my apartment, the sunlight was coming through my windows, and I felt totally fine. Extremely bizarre. Other times I've felt this difference have been when I was depressed in college and still training myself to switch emotional states; logically I'd want to, but emotionally I'd want to stay the same way.

Sometimes you can be totally logically, consciously aware, but some other part of your brain is what's controlling your actions and your logical brain is just shut out.

Your frontal cortex isn't really in control, in any event; they've done some studies that've shown that the brain's already made it's decision before the cortex is even aware that a decision is being made. Your conscious brain isn't really in control; it's more like a monitoring station for what's actually going on.

Chase

Good points. That sucks about the sleep paralysis man. I'll keep that in mind when I see her again. Perhaps the trick is to have the willpower to do something to snap out of the emotional side, even if it's something small?

 

[Chase]

Good points. That sucks about the sleep paralysis man. I'll keep that in mind when I see her again. Perhaps the trick is to have the willpower to do something to snap out of the emotional side, even if it's something small?

Yes... you need to be 1) aware that "you" (the logical you) is not in control, and you need to 2) take control of your motor functions from emotional "you." In the sleep paralysis example, logical me said, "Okay, emotional Chase has checked out and is nuts; let's just get our fingers moving, and go from there." In the emotional state-switching examples, logical you simply has to say to emotional you, "I know you want to keep feeling the way you're feeling right now, but... too bad, because we are doing this anyway."

Next time you're in the checkout lane, tell yourself internally, "I know you want to take the groceries and go, but we are asking this girl out anyway," and then just do it. Your mammalian (higher level emotions, like love and empathy) and reptile (lower level emotions, like fear and excitement and arousal) brains will sigh, then get out of the way.

Chase

 

[Flames]

I actually get this a lot, sleepy or not when my brain is occupied with something I find that I've driven myself home or w/e I should be heading (sometimes in the wrong direction though) and something triggers you out of it but you have absolutely no memory of it, very weird but not that unusual...

Ive also had sleepwalking, OBE's, that 'old hag' thing and sleep paralysis, so yeah some part of my brain is devote to saving my ass and it's very good at its job so I don't try a mess with it...