In Hindsight

This week on the WarriorU Podcast, Bram talks to Patryjcia Slawuta, Social Psychologist and founder of SelfHackathon.

Patryjcia defines herself as a ‘mind-hacker’, rather than a psychologist, and completed her PHD in shame. She is an expert when it comes to re-wiring the human brain. That being, our ability to control, connect with and change our thoughts.

During this episode we discuss identity and the impact our habits play on how we see ourselves, and how others see us. We unlock our ‘inner-code’ and learn how to ‘hack ourselves’ by understanding and shifting our attention. And finally, Patryjcia gives us her tips on how we can control our very own nervous system.

Episode Highlights:

• Patryjcia’s her research has been based around the dark side of the human nature – shame, guilt, humiliation, torcher, terrorism and greed.
• Are humans born bad, or is it nature or nature?
• Patryjcia explains it as a spectrum of human experience and compares us to an inchworm.
• Habits are the most underappreciated tools of human identity.
• Veterans have a connotation of someone who has ‘finished’, and re-framing our thoughts to fit out identity.
• Words create worlds, and the brain organises things based on the language we give it.
• Patryjcia defines herself as a ‘mind-hacker’ rather than a psychologist, so she can define her own identity.
• At a Facebook talk, Patryjcia presented the topic of code in the human mind, being Math vs Magic. Math is the algorithms that predict our lives as 90% of our past responses overlap. Magic is the quality of the human spirit – those who have the capacity to move beyond their past.
• Habits and change come when we cross persistence with passion and patience.
• The brain’s biggest fear is the unknown, but nothing exciting or great comes from a space of known.
• Can poker (game theory) help a leader make decisions, under pressure, while not knowing all the information?
• We have the ability to ‘hack ourselves’ when we understand our code – that being survival.
• If you want the good things (in life) you have to step into the unknown and step out of the boundaries of society’s labels of identity.
• Attention is our most scarce resource – but when you turn the attention on yourself you can inspect your own code.
• Neurons that fire together wire together. Wherever you focus your attention will become your habit and your identity.
• Negativity Bias is when we focus and learn from something negative.
• Mental toughness - how do you frame your thinking vs resilience - how stable is your heart.
• The ‘If, Then’ theory - injecting self-directed evolution.
• Is benevolent manipulation lying?
• Human attention heals – Patryjcia refers to this as ‘inter-be’ and see’s it as the most powerful gift we can give another human.
• Religious radicalisation encapsulates our human desire for need, network and narrative.
• Hope, as opposed to optimism, requires real work.
• We, as homosapien’s, are one of the only beings that have the capacity to control our nervous system – all through our breath!

3 Key Points:

1. Our identity is not defined by others, but by our habits.
2. We have the ability to ‘hack ourselves’ when we understand our code – that being survival.
3. Take ownership of your attention – who you give it too and what you focus it on. 

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Habits are the most underappreciated tools of human identity.” – Patryjcia Slawuta
• “Words create worlds. The brain organises things based on the language we give it.” – Patryjcia Slawuta
• “Hope, as opposed to optimism, requires real work.” - Patryjcia Slawuta
• “There is so much noise out there - take ownership of your attention.” - Patryjcia...