CONTENTS
The origin of the question
Everything?
The results of better pre-programming
Child thinking
Training and learning are needed
This is what happens with no useful pre-programming
You gotta believe it!
If you practice this, an enhanced brain function takes over
The final answer is....
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THE ORIGIN OF THE QUESTION
A question that was asked by a person who was discouraged and wondering whether thinking the right thoughts are that effective. She experienced that she could not seem to be effective with intervening in situations where she experienced "upset."
Here is my answer to the statement she came up with "If my thinking controls everything, then the answer is in the thinking." It was followed by "To what extent is it physical?" and "To what extent am I being a victim of some chemistry?". The latter presumably was more about the faulting that she does of herself when she is "being a victim".
Note that her "default" method of handling upset and her thought that she can't handle it is to choose the dysfunctional strategy called "being a victim". Be perfectly clear, please, that this not a labeling of her as a victim, but simply a noting her programs are such that they have her choosing to be that. (Read and understand
IS IT TRUE THAT THINKING CONTROLS EVERYTHING?
Everything?
Of course, it is always a sign of potential erroneous thinking when we make such extreme statements - such as "controls everything" - everything is an extreme word.
If your body is slammed in a car accident, thinking will not prevent the pain - and thinking will be turned off for awhile, as the primitive brain/body automatically numbs the cognitive/sensation processes as a way to protect itself. That is a "program" (literally) that will go into effect before one has a chance to think, as it goes down a more direct route in the brain - and in an emergency, quick reaction has a premium for the primitive brain so that all unnecessary resources are ceased in order to handle the emergency.
So, one will have the "strictly physical" be the ruler for awhile, but not forever, as soon as the higher brain has sufficient time to respond.
The results of better pre-programming
The more we've programmed the brain to respond despite upsetting chemicals the more the brain has a tendency to take over more quickly. In such a case, the addition of upsetting chemicals are stopped or reduced much earlier, which also offsets the chemical effects that shut down the brain, so the brain is available earlier. A fully programmed person will regain the thinking ability relatively quickly.
Note that the chemicals emitted prior to the higher brain intervention will not yet have been cleared out of the system, so there will still be "feelings".
Giving very little importance to those feelings is part of what a highly functional person learns. (See, later, How We Create Emotional Pain.) The thinking would be something like "these are only chemicals being sensed in my body, and I know that I can stand the discomfort, as it will pass and is actually no big thing. I am capable of taking charge of all of this and producing a good result given sufficient time."
Child thinking
As a child, we think that an upset is a super emergency and something not handleable, often thinking it will lead to a dire consequence.
Of course, that thinking is nonsense, though it is the natural conclusion of not yet having the knowledge and confidence necessary to manage oneself. Consequently, one of the major ways to access being effective in life is to have people re-work the untrue beliefs into true beliefs, ones that work and correspond to reality. Holding onto the old beliefs is a primary source of suffering (or, alternatively, of not removing the sources of suffering), and one should not tolerate leaving any of those beliefs in effect!
If you look at your self-talk, you'll see that it almost exactly is like the child thinking, and, thus, it should be re-worked one sentence at a time, until the new thinking is fully believed and installed.
Training and learning are needed
Note that virtually no one becomes "highly functional" without some training. It is true that some people might have received good programming from their parents, so they'll be closer to that level of functionality, but, I think, there is no human on the planet who achieves the top level without guidance and training. Blaming oneself for not being highly functional is not appropriate!
This is what happens with no useful pre-programming
If there are no "thinking" (thoughts that address this "like don't panic! I'm in control. I can respond!") programs readily available in the brain, then it is unlikely that the reduced operability of the higher brain will come up with the necessary thoughts.
Thus the primitive brain will keep frantically trying to match recordings in the brain in order to solve the problem (though it doesn't actually hardly "think" at that level) - and those recordings have in them actions that don't work plus the instruction for an emotion to occur (so you re-experience the emotion in the recording, but an emotion that is not relevant to the "now" and only attached to what had occurred before). As more and more recordings are brought up, more and more emotions are experienced, and, if not stopped, these emotions will spiral upward to a higher and higher amount of discomfort, even a frenzy in the untrained person (who remains a "child thinker").
You gotta believe it!
Note that making those statements in the above paragraph does have some effect by itself, but actually believing those statements is the key. If there is no acceptance ahead of time of those being true and no understanding of why they are true, then the control effect is severely diminished.
If you practice it, an enhanced brain function takes over
If you meditate, your left pre-frontal cortex will become larger. If you practice thoughts that are true and useful, your left pre-frontal cortex will become larger.
If you study happiness, you'll find that the happiest people on earth, per a brain scientist, are the Tibetan Buddhist monks, who have meditated to the degree that they have a much larger pre-frontal cortex, which is the happiness center. See Why Meditation?
A larger pre-frontal cortex has an increased ability to "pre-screen" out damaging, unuseful thoughts, thereby changing the balance of the thoughts that one might presume would always be there, fired off at random by the primitive brain.
Fewer "bad" thoughts coming through, in turn makes the whole process easier and much more pleasurable.
The final answer is...
So, the answer to the question is:
No.
However, higher brain thinking (and programs produced from the higher brain) can control 99% of the "suffering" one creates.
It is, indeed, absolutely necessary that one understands how a person adds suffering onto pain, similar to the wise adage of "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional". And, if you total the two together, the unnecessary suffering we create is 99% of the total of the two.
Since we created it, we can choose to no longer continue doing that which creates that (which is what this site is about!). Read and understand How We Create Suffering and see if you agree (and if you don't, discuss that with a knowledgeable person in the area).
USEFUL TIE-INS
USEFUL, OPTIONAL FOLLOW-UP READINGS/RESOURCES
