“Zen Body-Being” says: “Skill and grace require real intelligence which is far superior to brute force…”

“We take action only after the brain perceives something, interprets what it is, and decides what to do with it. In familiar activities like walking this works very well since the process of interpretation generally takes place unconsciously, with little or no interference from emotions or intellect.”

But in my recovery, I walk with a lot of conscious decision-making. This has a down sid because such brings in the intellect and the emotions, both with the power of distorting my perceptions.

“The two activities that routinely interfere with direct perception-action response are intellectual deliberation and emotional reaction.”

“Changing mind states or increasing feeling-awareness will have th most significant effect on our ability to respond, but understand how we process perceptions and make decisions for action can help us learn new and more effective ways to do it.”

” Data we receive through the stimulation of our organs of perception undergo the process of interpretation.” Here is my personal problem. In my recovery,when I walk I go through a lot of “memory, comparison, association, categorization” These put up a lot of filters in the interpretation of my walking which could have otherwise been unconscious, more of a product of “skill and intelligence.”