Banana Pudding

DeAnna Willman photo Nicole Winchel Brayton @unsplash

1 Chronicles 29:18 “O YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts (and thoughts) toward you.”

How many times did you have a “tip of the tongue” or “here after” moment that was later resolved, most likely in the wee hours of the morning? Was being mindful of what was happening helpful to remembering sooner? Just curious!

Today let’s take a closer look at how the non-conscious and conscious work together. Let’s say that you are a toddler and you have never before encountered banana pudding. One day your granddad gives you a bowl of banana pudding. You see something that is yellow, white, and has a cookie on top. Grandpa is smiling and telling you that this unknown stuff is good tasting.

Hmmm… You cannot detect a smell from this new thing. The colors look lovely, and your non-conscious suggests to the conscious that Grandpa has been trustworthy to this point. So you stick your finger in it and find it to be cool and wiggly. It seems to have form, but easily loses any shape with a push of your finger or spoon. That’s still not enough information for you to make a decision regarding this new thing. You then decide to put the bit that is stuck to your finger into your mouth. The taste buds that detect sweet flavor light up rapidly! You also detect a taste of bananas, and your non-conscious reminds you that you like bananas. Your non-conscious also tells you the cookie looks familiar to the kind mom has given you when your gums hurt. So, between what your non-conscious tells you and the joyful explosion within your mouth your conscious mind decides that you like banana pudding! Yay! You eat every bite. Later, your granddad asks you if you liked the banana pudding. You nod your head vigorously and the memory is further explored for a moment.

After a few pleasant experiences with banana pudding, the memory of the pudding and your enjoyment of it become a permanent part of your non-conscious. So, soon it gets to the point when you see banana pudding, you don’t have to explore it and consider the information coming to you from your five senses. You simply see it and the non-conscious mind will send forward to the conscious mind the pleasant memory that was made from the time you decided you liked banana pudding and every experience with it after that. You choose much faster now to have some of the pudding! The conscious mind created a thought (I like this pudding) and sent it to the non-conscious mind to be stored. Then, when the pudding is seen, the non-conscious immediately reminds the conscious of that memory/thought (I like this pudding), and it will influence the conscious mind in choosing whether to eat the pudding.

Let’s say that you are a few years older and have had multiple enjoyable experiences with banana pudding. Perhaps it has even come to symbolize one on one time with your granddad. So, this time granddad offers you some pudding. The usual message from the non-conscious mind is sent to the conscious mind. So, the choice would normally come very easy. However, this time, the brain is also receiving a message from the stomach that the stomach does not feel good. In fact, it is nauseous. You have had several experiences with nausea and vomiting, and the non-conscious has stored the memory of those experiences. Now, the conscious mind must consider the probabilities presented by the information coming from the non-conscious (this is yummy, we like it!) and the information coming from the stomach (I feel like throwing up) with more information from the non-conscious (vomiting is yucky). After consideration, the conscious mind must make a choice. Will you eat the pudding, or not? Either choice has a consequence. (Information, consideration, choice, consequence). If the conscious mind decides that the pleasure of the pudding is greater than the possibility of throwing up, you will eat the pudding. If the conscious mind decides that the possibility of throwing up is worse than not enjoying the pleasure of the pudding, you will not eat the pudding. Either one becomes a physical reality within the brain sending out chemicals and energy connected with that thought, and it influences your actions.

Now, if you chose to eat the pudding and then threw up, the consequence may go farther than simply experiencing an episode of vomiting. The conscious mind may tell your non-conscious that vomiting is now connected to banana pudding. The consequence to that may then be that each time you see banana pudding you associate it with vomiting and therefore stop liking it. The thought/memory of banana pudding has been changed! Isn’t that amazing?!

Your thoughts/memories can be changed. Neuroplasticity is at work in your brain! Whether an experience, or new information, or with a mindful determination and work at it, you can change your thoughts. Have any thoughts you would like to change? I bet you could list a few. Try it. Ask the Father what He would suggest you change. He will lovingly help you with this, as it is His loving desire that you be healthy in mind, body, and spirit. Next week we will talk more about the actual doing of changing a thought.

Until next time:

Psalm 139:2 “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.”