Lisa Arie on Taming The Unconscious Mind To Find Freedom

If you have seen (or read) A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, you already know the answer to "life, the universe, and everything" has been calculated by a supercomputer (named Deep Thought) and is an unequivocal "42." Now, I could go down a rabbit hole about how much I love the answer 42, but for now, it's fair to say that nobody really knows the answer, and at best, it's completely subjective anyhow. In my humble opinion, "42" is no more obscure than the other answers produced by religion and science. 

Some thinkers have aspired to find a common thread through all the various answers. "To love God," "to find happiness," "to serve others." While they're all great answers and pursuits, they seem to be the means, not the end, and don't bring much more satisfaction than "42". In other words, this answer centers worth around what you do and accomplish. 

In modern society, the meaning of life, purpose, and what we do often get conflated. We worry so much about what we are accomplishing instead of how and why we are achieving it. When we get stuck in this rut of achievement-oriented success, there is no end between where one achievement ends and the next begins, as if we're operating on autopilot.

Lisa Arie experienced something similar. After constructing a successful, achievement-driven career in advertising, she was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She realized she was fueled by over-achieving in an attempt to run away from the more profound questions held about her life, as she would say, driven by fear and surviving life instead of living it. 

So how do you change that? 

In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, NYU professor of Ethical Leadership writes about all the behaviors that unconsciously dictate our decisions. He describes them as the rider and the elephant. The rider can rationalize, see potential threats, and construct a plan to navigate obstacles. But, he is small compared to the elephant, much like our conscious mind has a minimal influence on our actions compared to our unconscious mind. The elephant is massive and works primarily on instincts. You can't rationalize with an elephant. You have to learn how the conscious mind, or the rider, can communicate with the unconscious mind in a symbiotic way. If the unconscious mind feels threatened, it will react like an untrained elephant and resort to instinct. 

I can't think of a better analogy for how Lisa has confronted the problem of meaning with her work and in her life. She helps leaders understand their unconscious minds, biases, and mental models to make better decisions for their lives and employees. 

At Vista Caballo, her work primarily centers around horses. She describes the experience as a simulation that puts individuals at the edge where they see themselves without the constructs of society, roles, and achievement-driven goals. And it makes perfect sense. Just like the rider and the elephant at Vista Caballo, you learn the subtle shifts in mood, emotion, and movement that animals pick up on and have to understand yourself to interact with them in a new way. Her app, The Stillpoint Experience, trains the five thinking styles that influence how we function and make decisions.