Patterns are created through repetition and repeat as programs. The more predictable life seems, the greater the evidence that a program is depended upon. The more formulaic a program, the more certain my sense of safety and accuracy is for my daily life. Instinct is one such program. The more I can predict things, however, the less creative is my mind.
In limited awareness, I experience fear as the main support of my need for certainty. When I’m in fear, I seek to replace the unpredictable with certitude. In an odd twist of mind, I’d rather entertain a certain outcome than consider an uncertain one. For example, I tend to feel better with a diagnosis, even when I don’t like it, rather than continue to imagine what it might be.
Patterns as Defense
Making predictions assumes knowing a past pattern well enough to defend it into the future. How much I need that prediction to come true affects my defense of it. My prediction allows me to prepare an automatic response as defense to a threat. Thus, I don’t jeopardize my life by analyzing potential danger without knowing the patterns.
I can’t even recognize a threat from a benefit without comparing its pattern to a pattern I already know. That association affects both prediction and memory. Thus, I can’t with 100% certainty say that I understand or know a pattern. Even though I feel certain and confident of my rightness about it. A perfect setup for defense.
What if pattern recognition is an aspect of defense? Confirmation bias! One aspect of that defense remembers with prejudice what works and doesn’t. This is the essence and evidence of learning. I project that as a pattern into the future AND the past as a biased basis for comparison. This bias affects perceptions, responses, predictions, and outcomes.
Pattern recognition makes predictability possible in a limited way. What if I asked myself a few questions about my biased predictions?
What did I intend in my past that caused the necessity to create biased behavioral and thought patterns?
- How do those patterns of defense affect my relationships?
- Why did that pattern affect my life as it did?
- How did I feel about the situation that brought on that cause to defend in that way?
- Do my patterns set myself and others up for failure?
- What do I need? (Why do I need to ask?)
Let’s make a prediction:
What will my life look like in the future if I continue my current patterns of defense? The highest likelihood is that I’ll continue to get what I’ve gotten. It’s not the only probable outcome…
