Stimulus-Response…
…describes what’s going on within and without, in the wordless and the wordy worlds alike.
Had you failed to respond to your most pressing stimuli even just once — breathing, staying alive, social media, fire, distractions, and the smell of fresh bread — you wouldn’t be here.
The ability to respond to stimuli kicked in as depicted above, before you even had a brain. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying response-ability is a no-brainer. All I’m saying is if it weren’t, we wouldn’t be here.
Had the grass you walked on yesterday failed to respond, it wouldn’t be here today either. It seems in the wordless and the wordy worlds alike, stimulus-response reigns supreme. When you improve your response-ability, every other ability follows suit. No other ability even comes close and stimulus happens asleep and awake, 100% of the time.
I have no clue why that is. Nevertheless, I think it’s important because words play a part in it.
WORDLESS
In the wordless world, words don’t exist for self-evident reasons.
WORDY
In the wordy world, we respond not only to every wordless stimuli, but also to words, at the same time which is more than anyone could handle. However, meditating on serenity can help you get you there.
“The serenity to accept the the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” — The serenity prayer
The stimulus you cannot control. You may call the weather anything you want, severe, mild, or boring, it is still only a word.
But how you respond to weather is all up to you. There is no weather or third party involved.
That’s where freedom gets in, but there is more. Seeing the difference between stimulus and response allows you to decide your response ahead of time, and when you do, many decisions are already made.