Peter Sorgenfrei explores how your brain defaults to automatic reactions based on patterns. Drawing on Stoic philosopher Epictetus and a conversation with a neuroscientist, he argues that pausing to observe what happens before you judge it lets you choose your response instead of just reacting.
My favorite Stoic, Epictetus, said, it's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. I was going for a walk yesterday with a neuroscientist, literally, and we discussed this idea of how we react to things that happen to us. It is so easy for the brain to immediately jump into pattern recognition and deciding that I'm going to react to this like I've reacted to everything else like this in the past, because that's how we've survived. That's how we know not to touch the Hot coal or not to go too close to the tiger. And so his point was, well, the trick is actually lying in observation. How long can you observe what's happening around you? Just look at it, just experience it before you start judging and before you start jumping to conclusions and actions. Think about that next time you are experiencing something that is happening to you. Don't actually react. Think about how you're going to respond.
