Читать книгу Beyond Emotional Intelligence - S. Michele Nevarez - Страница 16

As you've likely already begun to glean, our awareness, conscious action, and habits of mind play a far greater and more central role than we typically give them credit for relative to what we habitually think, say, and do. They are the variables we have most readily available and at our disposal to work with. Our goal will be to operationalize our insights about each and the profound implications they hold for the quality of our lives, our relationships, and our outcomes. To this end, the value stream map of perception (VSM) is meant to orient us, to provide both a framework and an anchor for our inquiry into our own habits of mind and where we have options for conscious choice within it. It is by no means meant to be an anatomically correct depiction of all that is presently known or studied about the brain, the body, or the human mind. It's simply meant to be a highly accessible, understandable, and practical working model that gives us a starting point. Since I've not yet met a model or framework that has this as its scope or aim, while not perfect, the VSM just needs to serve its intended purpose as a visual representation of perception and the cognitive and sensory processes that accompany it.

You'll be introduced to each of the 12 Self-Discoveries, which serve as both a diagnostic and tool for you to examine the paradigms of thought either hindering or helping you, along with the practices you'll need to reappraise and shift your outlook and mental approach. As we look at each segment of the VSM that sketches out the primary ingredients of perception, we will see where we have the least and greatest possibility for direct influence. We will train in observing where within our own habits of mind we have the opportunity to influence our own beliefs and concepts, if not directly then indirectly. In fact, you are expanding your knowledge base and conceptual frameworks available to you simply by reading this book, or anything else capable of conveying knowledge, and even more so when you apply what's in it. We'll find out what happens at the stage of conscious interpretation, which is where our opportunity is the greatest to work with our mental models using the 12 Self-Discoveries and awareness practices. You'll be invited to notice your patterns of response, to examine what you think, say, or do again and again, and the implications each has for your own life and those around you. With each segment of the VSM and each of the 12 Self-Discoveries we'll see where we have the best chances to impact our own outcomes and how we can go about cultivating the optimal conditions within ourselves to do so. Finally, we'll explore our natural tendencies and where we have a higher propensity to derail or flourish depending on our present relationship with our own habits of mind.