Taking care of your mind garden

• Excessive dancing, meditation, and mind-altering plants were used in ancient civilizations to modulate the activity of the mind.
• In 1892, the term "altered states of consciousness" was used to refer to hypnosis.
• William James introduced the scientific investigation of mystical experiences and drug-induced states into the field of psychology.

• Pharmacological. These altered states include short-term changes caused by psychoactive substances, such as LSD MDMA, cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and alcohol.
• Psychological. Hypnosis, meditation, and music can lead to altered mental states.
• Physical and physiological. An altered state of consciousness is achieved through sleep, where dreams dissociate one from reality.
• Pathological. A traumatic experience causing brain damage can lead to an altered state of consciousness. Other sources include epileptic or psychotic episodes.
• Spontaneous. Daydreaming and mind wandering can cause altered states.

Personal values can be ethical, moral, ideological, social, or even aesthetic. Values are mostly transmitted through parenting, but our cultural environment also plays a role.

For instance, American parents tend to value intellectual knowledge; Swedish parents value security and happiness; and Dutch parents value independence and the ability to stick to a schedule.

There are four different personal value orientations based on our "terminal values " - our desirable states of existence, and "instrumental values" - the means by which we achieve our end goals.

1. Personal-competence. "I value wisdom (terminal), which I believe can be achieved through independent thinking (instrumental)."
2. Personal-moral: "I valued true friendship (terminal), which I believe can be achieved through honesty (instrumental)."
3. Social-competence: "I valued equality (terminal), which I think can be achieved through ambitious work (instrumental)."
4. Social-moral: "I value national security (terminal), which I believe can be achieved through obedience (instrumental)."

• Rosy retrospection bias. We often remember the past as having been better than it really was.
• Consistency bias. We wrongly remember our past attitudes and behaviour as similar to our present attitudes and behaviour.
• Mood-congruent memory bias. We better remember memories that are consistent with our current mood.
• Hindsight or knew-it-all-along bias. We consider past events as being predictable.
• Egocentric bias. We recall past events in a self-serving manner. We remember a caught fish as bigger than it was.
• Availability bias. We think the memories that come easily to mind is more representative than it really is.
• Recency effect. We best remember the most recent information.
• Choice-supportive bias. We remember chosen options as better than rejected options.
• Fading effect bias. Our emotions associated with negative memories fade faster than our feelings associated with pleasant memories.
• Confirmation bias. We tend to interpret memories in a way that confirms our prior hypotheses of personal beliefs.

The limits of our memory serve us well in many respects.

• Limited memories are useful trade-off to allow us to function and survive. We have thousands of memories, for example, of tables. If we recall all the events related to a table, it will create mass confusion with data overload.
• Flawed memories may also help us to cope with our past and navigate our future. It may give us more confidence in our past decisions or make us remember happier events.