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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Steve Peters
THE GUIDING MOON is your brain’s computer.
It can think and act automatically for you using programmed thoughts and behaviours. • It is a reference source for information, beliefs and values.
Potentially the Computer is more powerful than the Chimp and the Human because it is the reference source that both of them look to for help and guidance.
Female brains have many more areas than male brains, called association centres, for working with language.
The Autopilot is a constructive or helpful belief or behaviour. • The Gremlin is an unhelpful or destructive belief or behaviour that is removable. • The Goblin is an unhelpful or destructive belief or behaviour that is firmly fixed and extremely difficult to remove. • The Stone of Life contains the values and beliefs by which you live your life.
The Chimp has a very powerful troop drive that ensures our survival by being part of the troop.
If your expectations are unrealistic or unhelpful then it is almost guaranteed to lead to very strong negative emotions within you.
Consider a simple Gremlin that says, ‘I believe that I should always be on time.’ If you are late, for whatever reason, then you are likely to become stressed, as you are going on a belief that you should always be on time.
‘I would like to be on time whenever I can but sometimes this can’t happen and it is not the end of the world and I will deal with it.’
Overreacting to situations • Eating every time you feel like it but don’t need to • Beating yourself up • Worrying about decisions and not making them • Getting angry when you don’t want to
Autopilot (a truthful and helpful belief on which to base your future behaviour).
Other ways Gremlins and Autopilots appear can be by education, or by discussion with others about their experiences.
Having lots of Gremlins in the Computer is very destabilising to both the Human and the Chimp.
The Truths of Life are how you believe the world works and you can ‘prove’ they are true by examples and experience.
Values are judgement calls that you have made and reflect moral and ethical principles that you intend to uphold.
So the difference between ‘Truths’ and ‘Values’ is that ‘Truths’ are evidence-based, whereas ‘Values’ are personal judgement calls.
‘Before you die, tell me what I should do with my life?’
How do you see yourself? • How do you see others? • How do you see the world?
Mindset is the basis that we work from when dealing with ourself, others and the world.
Your Mindset greatly influences the way in which you act and portray yourself to the world.
The Computer can be thought of as being twenty times faster to act than the Human and four times faster than the Chimp.
Autopilots are constructive and helpful automatic behaviours and beliefs.
Search for the Gremlin twins of unrealistic expectation and unhelpful expectation in your day-to-day life.
Write down your Life Force statement.
Identifying and replacing Gremlins with Autopilots • Stopping any more Gremlins from going into the Computer • Perfecting the Stone of Life • Establishing your Mindset and living by it
To replace a Gremlin you must introduce an Autopilot.
What do you believe saying ‘no’ to someone will imply about you? • What are the consequences of you saying ‘no’ to someone?
Saying ‘no’ is the appropriate response of an adult who is respecting his or her own exhaustibility or boundaries.
Saying ‘no’ is a powerful thing to do by a balanced person. • People who are realistic will accept being turned down and appreciate that you have the right to say ’no’. • People respect those who can say ‘no’.
In order for it to work you have to find these truths and then continually reinforce them until they are firmly fixed in the Computer and become second nature.
There are no medals for those who continually say ‘yes’ and then get upset by it.
This example shows that we all have to decide for ourselves what we want and how we want to act and what we want to believe.
You need to replace the Gremlin with a positive Autopilot statement and you need to think about this regularly, rehearsing it until it becomes your automatic response.
Gremlins are often statements that contain rigid words such as ‘must’ and ‘should’.
The differences between the two statements are that using the word ‘should’ often evokes a sense of judgement, a command, guilt or a feeling of failure, whereas using the word ‘could’ usually evokes feelings of possibility, hope, an option, a choice, empowerment and potential for change.
Trying to do them all together is very unlikely to work, as each one needs its own answer that is based on truth and logic in order to remove it and replace it with an Autopilot (the acceptable truth).
When you have found your answers you must write them down and remind yourself of them until they become ingrained into your way of thinking.
The key here is not to listen to the Chimp but to listen to the Human and check out the facts first. This will then put Autopilots into the Computer for future reference.
whenever someone seems cold, check out the facts first before jumping to conclusions.
Humans don’t always get it right and Chimps don’t always get it wrong.
Generally, the Human puts in Autopilots and the Chimp puts in Gremlins but there are exceptions.
It is the Stone of Life that holds the key to stabilising your entire Universe.
Remember: the values you hold in yourself are likely to be far more important than what you look like or what you can achieve.
True friends like us for our values and personalities not for our achievements, position and possessions.
Let’s start with the person who believes that they own the world in which they live. They will be confident and assertive because it is their world.
Replace ‘should’ Gremlins with ‘could’
If the Chimp and the Human are relaxed and are not worried, then you will automatically work with the Computer, which means you can perform routine daily tasks without conscious effort as your Computer works according to an automatic programme. However, if any danger or unusual circumstances appear then the Chimp or Human will wake up and take over.
Whether the Chimp senses danger or threat • Whether the Human is familiar with the situation or not
The end result shows that in extreme danger the Chimp will take over.
If the Chimp is reassured then either the Human or Computer will act.
