Habitual states of mind, such as chronic stress, reshape the brain and the body, which in turn has an influence on subsequent behavior. We have all experienced this over our lives. Hopefully for most of us the changes trend towards positive outcomes.
On the one hand, these effects are simple to understand and accept because they are part of our everyday experience. On the other, the biology in detail is not something most of us generally think about.
Speaking for myself, only in the last few years of my life have I started to make the connection between my behavior and state of mind and hormones, proteins, parts of the brain and my gut health.
For many decades I had, however, been aware of ways to change my mood and state of mind. In the moment, singing a song or taking a walk or a nap can instantly turn things around.
Then there is the impact over time of positive feedback loops, such as exercising regularly and how that reshapes both the body and identity.
We all know these things from observation and experience. We may even have read or heard about some of the research. Many reading this may know a great deal about the science, having done that research.
Yet because of the pervasive view that we are making decisions in the moment which guide our behavior, we have difficulty understanding why apparently healthy persons hold obviously idiotic opinions and behave in ways demonstrably bad for them and others around them.
I know there are some of you, reading this, who understand that paradox better than others. Still, nevertheless, even you few get surprised when someone you thought you knew well does something that seems uncharacteristic.
This is the context for understanding why large groups of people can also believe and act in ways that seem to make no sense.
The simple truth is the mechanistic underpinnings of our biology and habituation, while not at all on-off switches, can be changed abruptly by things in the moment and more so by influences over time.
One weird discovery is that by changing out a mammal’s gut bacteria with another individual’s causes that mammal to have the moods and behavior of its donor.
I Dwell In Possibility 