Self-Monitoring

Have you ever messed up, made a mistake, or forgotten something, and have you then thought "boy that was dumb of me!"

Wouldn't it be handy if you could have your own personal assistant to help you to remember to do what you are supposed to do? Or to warn you when you are just about to mess up and not follow one of your own Life-Rules? You can. I am going to teach you how.

You can set up monitors inside your own brain. You can tell them what to look for, and what to do if your brain sees the thing it is monitoring for. This is not something I dreamed up on my own. Some scientists and doctors know that these monitors are real, and can help us. I use them, and they work.

If they make the effort, humans can install into their minds special agents, or monitors. Sometimes they are called "Self-Monitors."

You can tell your mind to look for some trigger event or kinds of events, and if it occurs, to focus your attention upon it. Once such an agent or monitor is in place, it operates without your conscious awareness or effort. Mothers often do this automatically, and to such an extent that they will wake from a sound sleep if they hear even a weak sound of discomfort from their child. This is VERY common!

Such a monitor can be created to help you be aware of specific things happening that you would not normally notice. They can be used to overcome bad habits. It is really quite simple to do, but may take some practice and rework before it is working reliably. They can be useful when we have the same problem occurring over and over.

Here is how to do it. Talk to yourself something like this:

"<YourName> inside, no matter what I am doing at the time, and no matter how focused I am on what I am doing, I want you to watch for ... (Whatever it is). If it happens, immediately focus my attention upon it."

Examples of Things for which you Might Monitor

1. You keep forgetting to take home your lunch box.
2. You keep forgetting to feed your pet.
3. Being tempted to play, rather than work on schoolwork. Your monitor can detect this, and remind you of your goal to do well so you can become a very capable and respected person.
4. When you are being nasty to your brother or sister, to remind you that you don't really want to be a nasty person.
5. That you are having difficulty thinking because you have been working too long, and that you need to take a break. (But NOT during class time, please!)
6. That you are just "Doing" rather than "Thinking" to solve a problem. Your monitor, set up to detect that, can tell you, "Hey! Stop and think about this!"

Whenever you become aware that you have a problem with what you are doing, you can likely figure out a monitor to help you overcome it. A teacher or parent may be able to help you figure out what you need to monitor for, and what your monitor should do if it sees you doing that thing.

As an example, lets use # 1, ... forgetting to take lunch box home.

You talk to yourself inside your head something like this: "<your name> inside, when I leave the room to go to car line, and have just gotten to the classroom door, I want you to remind me by putting into my mind the words 'Take you lunch box!' Then, picture in your own mind that happening to you. In your imagination see yourself at the door, and imagine yourself thinking, "Take your lunch box!"

Reaching the classroom door on the way to car line is the "trigger" event the monitor looks for.

It might take a while for this to work, especially the first time. If it doesn't, don't be upset or disappointed. Just "program" yourself again.

It may not always work. Being really distracted at the time might interfere, and the monitor won't work. If that happens often, change the instructions to your monitor to "trigger" on something where you are not usually distracted. The more often you get a monitor to work, the more reliable it becomes.

Another example would be:

<Your name> inside, whenever I am about to say something as if it were true, make me think, "Is that really true? Is it just something that I feel is true, but don't really know is true?" How do I KNOW it is true? "

The steps are

1. Figure out how a monitor might be able to help you with a problem that keeps happening.
2. Program it (talk to yourself). Clearly identify the "trigger" and the ideas you want to remember.
3. Rehearse it in your imagination.

"And may the force (of your mind) be with you!"