Dearest Friends,

Thank you for your presences and your participation in our most recent gathering.

In today’s session, we explored the fourth of the “filters” that shape our perceptions of reality, which is the filter of the schema. Like I shared in my brief reflections, this filter is deeply intertwined and often overlaps with the filter that we explored the previous week, which is the filter of predictive coding.

In a nutshell, predictive coding and schemas help explain how our brains use past experience to interpret the world. Predictive coding is the sub-personal, neurocomputational mechanism that focuses on minimizing surprise by matching incoming sensory data with expectations…while schemas are the personal-level, organized frameworks or mental blueprints that generate these expectations in the first place. When our unfolding experience deviates from our predictions, our brains use the resulting prediction error to update our schemas.

For example, many of us have a highly developed “commute schema” that maps our regular route to a familiar destination. We know the turns we need to take, the traffic lights we need to observe and the landmarks that we need to pass. Because the route is so familiar, our brains can follow it on “autopilot” using top-down predictions (which saves metabolic energy). Our brains snap out of autopilot, however, if we suddenly encounter a line of orange cones where an open thoroughfare should be. Our predictive coding system signals a prediction error because the visual input contradicts our internal map. The error forces us into conscious awareness and compels us to update our commute schema for the day.

While the above example is fairly benign, there are many instances in life where our schemas can lead to more adverse consequences, e.g., disempowering schemas we have about ourselves or frustrating schemas we have about other people. Mindfulness training helps us by fostering a healthy skepticism about schemas in the first place (we’re more aware of the fact that thoughts aren’t synonymous with reality) and by reminding us continuously of the truth of impermanence (i.e., things are always changing…even it’s easy to miss the changes).

SUGGESTED PRACTICE:

Sit quietly and attend to your breath with your gaze lowered or your eyes closed. After a minute or so, recall a situation where you knew (on hindsight) that you acted on the basis of a schema. With kindness and compassion towards yourself, try to name the mental blueprint that was the basis of your actions in that situation. Was the schema about yourself, the other person(s), the situation or all of the above? What emotions accompanied the schema? What was the experience like in your body? How did experiencing the situation through that particular schema add to your suffering and those of others?

RECOMMENDED POEM:

Amy Uyematsu’s Tea

REFLECTION PROMPTS:

1. What’s one area of your life where your schemas lead to unnecessary stress and/or anxiety?
2. How can mindfulness support you in lessening suffering in this area?