MAINTAINING HIGH FUNCTIONING BALANCE
BASED ON OUR SELF-ORGANIZING SYSTEMS
WHAT IS "FITTEST" IS WHAT SURVIVES
Once one understands basic evolution, one can "back into" the understanding of "self-organizing" systems.
If you'll recall, evolution is merely the process that results in that which successfully survives improving over time to survive better. Some people call it the "survival of the fittest", but that does not mean it is from battling each other or our DNA battling some bad DNAs. It is actually due to physical reality: what is fittest is what survives. What isn't fit doesn't survive and therefore its genes tend to disappear (since we died before passing them on). This is called "natural selection".
AUTOMATICALLY, BY ITSELF
So, if we dig a bit deeper, we'll discover that "self-organizing" systems are what survive; without them we would not have evolution! Those are systems that automatically adjust from deviations away from good functioning (as it is good functioning that increases the odds of survival). Something that doesn't adjust enough, just doesn't survive or malfunctions in various degrees.
These systems function well within a range of conditions and then begin to malfunction more and more when they are outside of that range. They have evolved to automatically through an established process make efforts to return to the well-functioning range. Whenever the body does this, it spends energy and emits chemicals and electricity to get its parts back into aligned functioning. Often the chemicals from this process "feel uncomfortable", or what we might call "negative". And we interpret these "negative feelings" as being something to be unhappy about (except that some people have trained themselves to see them only for what they are: just chemicals). Plus, if we don't function well, we do less well in getting the results that help make us happier!
IT APPLIES TO ALL PARTS OF A PHYSICAL ORGANISM, INCLUDING...
Most of us can accept the idea that our body works that way. Our cells adjust, our bodies overall adjust (driving out illness, making us feel sleepy, etc.).
But we tend to believe that the brain is different, even to the extent that we believe it has some kind of mysterious entities in it (inner child, inner saboteur, critical parent, etc.).
However, there are no "mysterious entities", there is only a physical self-organizing system that happens to deal with higher levels of data than the data dealt with by the simpler parts of the body. (Since it functions so well, we make up things about it, attributing more to it than is actual. See what we do in The (Primitive) Believing Brain - Know This! Or Be The Victim Of It, For Life!.)
The brain helped us survive better and better, so it became more capable, evolving from just primitive reactiveness to an emotional system that drives us and onward to a higher functioning thinking brain (the cortex).
The last one is the most powerful, as it is the vehicle for adjusting to the more complex occurrences. In order to do that it has developed the abilities to reason, plan, analyze, and direct oneself. Other than certain physical forces, it can override many of the other systems.
If the body detects a "foreign invader" it attacks to eliminate it. If the brain detects something that threatens survival, it acts to correct the situation - not because of some mysterious entities or forces but because that is the way its wiring has evolved. It will always do that - unless we throw it too far out of functioning.
