DISRUPT THE LOOPS
- TELOS&today
- Mar 23
- 3 min read
Season One | Post Five
Ok.... but what if me and my algorithms have developed some strong loops that have deeply informed what I pay attention to? What do I do?
Step one:
I need to disrupt the loops that me and my algorithms have created.
But how?
How can I/we disrupt the unhelpful loops that are created between us and our tech?
Well, this entire site is focused on helping us do that.
What is important to remember, is that we can't simply stop the unhelpful loops that we have mindlessly created over the years and instantly establish new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that better align with the TELOS of living wisdom, contributing to the common good, and embodying love. This will be a journey. Both mind and habits will need to be transformed, changed, renewed.
"Do not conform to the patterns of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."*
This idea was written thousands of years ago, before anyone knew anything about neuroscience, by a guy who had no idea how profound this idea would be today.
There is a need to stop mindlessly aligning with or allowing the patterns of this world to shape the mind. Transformation or change will come about when the mind is renewed - reshaped - reformed ... when new neural networks are created and strengthened over time. We can't expect our brains and bodies to instantly do something different when they have been conditioned by the world and supported by our tech to think, feel, and behave in certain ways.
Since the world and technology does not always direct us to live wisdom, contribute to the common good, and embody love, how can we help ourselves become more closely aligned with the TELOS, this way of life that was modeled by Jesus?
I'm so glad you asked.
The Journey of Spiritual Formation
The next number of posts will focus on this concept of spiritual formation. The essence of a human is sometimes called soul, sometimes called spirit. We'll parse this a bit in the future but for now I'd like us to simply consider that the spirit or essence of a human being is constantly being formed and shaped by something.
When we wake up to what we are allowing to form or shape us,
we can begin to understand why we are the person we are.
Waking up to an understanding of ourselves can be uncomfortable. However, I have found there to be very good news baked into the cellular level of who we are IF we don't like what we notice about ourselves - we can change. We can be renewed and transformed. It does require an intentional journey through life, paying attention to specific, important things and then acting on those things. But change is possible.
Landing the plane
I'm at a turning point, a new chapter so to speak, in this blog. You'll notice a shift to talking more and more about this "journey of spiritual formation." I'm still going to keep alive the discussion of neuroscience and technology since that is one of the primary reasons I'm creating this site. And ... more of my faith will begin to pop up here and there.
Please know this now: I'm not going to try to convert you to my faith background. I am going to wrestle with mindfully using technology to help me move toward the TELOS of living wisdom, contributing to the common good, and embodying love. The tricky thing is, I do perceive that this TELOS is the way of living that Jesus modeled and invited us into. I will be writing about why I think this and it might be uncomfortable for you if this is not the paradigm you come from.
So... I wanted to give you a heads up about what is coming soon. As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site: I understand if my background and perspective is too limited for you. Trust yourself and journey elsewhere. Thanks for reading along this far. I wish you well as you navigate this world.
Until next time...
*Romans 12:2