any benefits from reliving the child's experience?

[SlavaOn]

Hello.

When I was a kid, I used to trout fishing with my bare hands. That was in the countryside, every time when I came to stay at my grandma's house for summer vacations. There was a creek that must have been fed from underground streams. A knee high in most of the places and about 3 meters wide it was always cool, even on hot summer days. I would be wearing a wading rubber boots to keep my feet warm, but the hands were always in and out of water, all the way to armpits sometimes, since the trout likes to hide under the overhanging banks, tree roots and stones on the bottom of the river. So, to acclimate my hands to cold water, I would splash and rub them with water for several minutes first. After being in water for longer, they would not feel any cold and the skin would be as red as if of a steamed crab :)

A few years ago, I started on taking cold showers. Usually, right in the end, I turn the cold water only and spend a minute or two spinning around under that refreshing stream of icy-cold (in winter) water. But, I noticed that I like to cool and acclimate my arms first, the way I had done as a kid. I am wondering, if there is some psychological imprint (a mental state) that I am bringing up when doing it? The 'ritual' of preparing hands for trout fishing is physically challenging (until the water is acceptable to touch) and may have left a strong "imprint" on a body. Would there be any benefits from doing it 40 years later ? I don't mean a benefit from cold water, but benefit from reliving the child's experience.

SlavaOn

 

[Phill4]

Hi SlavaOn, i think that there is an imprint at some level and to discover what it is we need to define the situation, even though you want is to relieve it, but sometimes the way to do so is to comprehend all that it is involved in the phenomena or the processing of the emotional and thinking factors , (or at least that is how i see it)

There is imprinting yes at some level, but I think that what you are looking at is an initial association from the early experience with water-temperature.
I assume the cold discomforts you so perhaps any anther early association of discomfort about something else can be connected to the thought and feeling that emerge when you enter in contact with cold water. (maybe a creature in the water) but also good associations with the time and space, that influenced you so as to also not develop an extreme phobia to water, I think you would have to observe and recapitulate a bit and see what you can find.

However to address or interact with this Imprinting (set of associations that reflect on your motor habits) in a direct manner, you would have to try a practical experiment of observation and a practical experiment at making the effort at consciously doing something different.

You can go in the shower purposefully adopting a different position and just sense your body and what crosses your mind and your feelings.


The way I see it is that the imprinting depends on the learning stage, the earlier and the intensity the more influential they are it is I think, by the time we can walk and talk other areas are evolving and influenced to with regards to the processing of abstract concepts and reason, more than the emotional imprinting that occurs in a baby. Meaning the age is a factor here.

Also i think it is important to mention that we are not set in stone in the sense that we can re-learn things and our body can re-learn things also, and it is a process of de-crystalization as described by Gurdjieff which requires some effort.

Some thoughts, hope it helps

EDIT: [included the words "at some level" to clarify and present the idea that there are different levels at which we can have imprinted associations ]

 

[SlavaOn]

Hello Felipe4.

Thank you for your reply.

My thinking and thus, the question, was beyond that particular experience with a cold water. I am curious if our happy/positive experiences as children are helping us as adults. Maybe re-living these experiences becomes a medicine of some sort. Adults are always trying to make their children to be happy - making parties with presents, bright colors, noises, cakes, etcetera so that children would remember them (these happy moments) when they become adults. The stronger the child's impressions, the easier to remember these happy moments even after so many years.... And what is remembered is not particular details, but a fleeting state of being happy. Sometime, a trigger is activated and one is flooded by sensations of the times past, happy moments are re-lived, a tired mind is re-freshed...

I love to pour cold water and feel my arms burning cold. I scream "liquid fire" and at that moment I am no longer here taking a shower, I am a boy in the river ready for trout fishing adventure.

SlavaOn