We have been time and again told that think before you act and think a thousand times before taking a decision. But have we ever been told what to think when we are not thinking at all. There are jokes on men sitting idle and their partners inquisitive as to what deep thought they are absorbing. In reality, they are not thinking about anything. I want to shed light on what to think and how to initiate thoughts that can train our subconscious and be a preparatory ground for future decisions and actions.
We grew up believing that thinking is somewhat a deliberate and conscious effort everyone endures to avoid mistakes and make informed decisions. The effort in thinking through and the greatest discoveries man underwent were not as a result of thinking and observing all the time. It came through the long walks, showers, daydreams and sleepless nights we dread are taking away our precious time. It came through the mind when it was technically “not thinking” yet somehow thinking better than ever before. In the contemporary era, it is seen as no less than a sin to take too much time in a task or sit idle in observation and deep thought when we have capital to accumulate and overtime pay we can cash into. The opposite is true. Real thinking often begins when conscious thinking stops.
What Not Thinking Really Means
Not thinking does not equate to blankness, emptiness or passivity. It means allowing our thoughts to not be controlled and allowing flow and openness. It allows the mind to have a softer approach where ideas are allowed to come forward rather than be chased. It is not the opposite of mindfulness but definitely a prerequisite to being mindful. A free and independent thought process is the breeding ground for innovation and ideas and exactly what I would like to communicate through this article.
In this process, the brain is anything but idle. It is silently paving the way to cherished memories and past events. It gives purpose and value to the knowledge and wisdom gathered over time and makes informed and thoughtful decisions to daily questions. This place is the quiet place of the mind where deeper intelligence thrives.
The Brain’s Hidden Thinking: The Default Mode Network
According to neuroscience research, humans after they stop active thinking, activate a powerful circuit called the Default Mode Network DMN. The DMN handles creative intuition, big picture thinking, future planning, memory processing and self-reflection. It is essentially the mind’s “background processor” which continues to operate and function even when the mind shuts off during sleep. This can also be referred to as the subconscious mind and we should strive to train this DMN or subconscious brain.
We should take the example of why smokers continue smoking even though they despise it. It is due to the brainwashing that has occurred from an early age. We have seen in movies that injured soldiers are given a cigarette to calm them down, an adventure is to be undertaken and the lead actor smokes before sailing his ship or the last wish of a dying person is to smoke a cigarette. The brain might dispel this notion but the subconscious mind registers it in the system which bothers the smokers who want to quit. In order to quit smoking, the brainwashing and the subconscious mind must be retrained that the smoke does not make you tough or sophisticated. It is an addiction and no one can break it unless you make the decision to quit and retrain your subconscious into adopting a healthier and more courageous identity. All these are achieved through quiet reflection and switching on the DMN and rewiring all the useless and false pretenses attached to your habits.
The Creative Power of Stepping Away
History is full of thinkers who solved problems by not thinking about them. An example is Newton who discovered and understood gravity by sitting idle beneath a tree where an apple fell on his lap, and one of the greatest discoveries that shaped the future of science for the next century was penned down. The great Edison took “thinking naps,” letting solutions rise from the edges of sleep and trying a thousand times before finally inventing the bulb. Einstein found breakthroughs in science while playing violin.
The examples explained above are referred to as the incubation effect where ideas germinate while the conscious mind is occupied with something very simple or nothing at all. In essence, the incubation phase is the ground for all great discoveries and innovations and is practiced by entrepreneurs and government sponsored incubation centers aimed at assisting and developing startups. The breeding ground for thinkers and reformers of previous millenniums were also these quiet and reflective spaces of mind. Be it Socrates, Aristotle or Buddha, everyone encouraged solitary and deep thinking and the contemporary practices in psychology and meditation, be it mindfulness or yoga, are designed for this purpose. When we stop forcing, we stop fixating. The idea is to allow new associations to form and dissolve old assumptions. This is where insight will come in full swing.
Practices That Help You Think Without Thinking
Among the best practices, walking outside the house helps unlock mental movement. Whether it is a long walk in the park or down your block, the small act opens doors to clear thinking and unwinding old associations and thinking patterns. Simple routine tasks such as folding laundry, cleaning, cooking and driving also unlock and unweave new thinking routines. Meditation or practicing stillness is another methodology where silence reveals thoughts drowned by noise. It does not matter which religious affiliation one is associated with; practicing yoga or concentrating on the center of the heart are among the many ways. Intentional pauses in the daily hustle of work and life can help one reset the thinking process. It takes a few seconds to close the eyes and remove all distractions and the piles of pending tasks. These techniques are a solid way of engaging the deeper layers of the mind.
Listening to the Mind Beneath the Mind
The moment we quiet deliberate thoughts, another kind of intelligence wakes up which we refer to as intuition. Intuition, which appears like magic, is compressed experience speaking in a language logic cannot always access. In our daily lives, we encounter multiple people who did not always take the set path to success in life. Most of their success in business or entrepreneurial ventures came through intuition and appears unreal when one hears how they “just knew it.” Practicing and awakening one’s intuition is an essential part of our lives, and making a conscious effort to understand and sometimes overestimate it, even when it appears destructive, eventually helps in making bigger decisions. Logic and sound knowledge do not always take one far in professional life.
The Art of Allowing
To think without thinking is to allow. Ideas and insight come when we stop forcing them and allow a pathway for free thinking. Initially it appears like wandering through a maze, but slowly one begins to enjoy the ideas. Creativity and art thrive in openness and detest strain. It is an equilibrium between involvement and surrender, intention and freedom. Whenever we listen to celebrities or high performers, we come to the conclusion that the best ideas and choices were often the ones that were not chased.
When Not Thinking Is Superior to Thinking
The conscious mind is sometimes a stumbling block in the way of constructive and free thinking. We often realize that overthinking blurs clarity and rigid logic blocks creativity. Thinking too much creates anxiety loops which eventually distort judgment. Furthermore, mental pressure and stress shut down insight and intuition. In these circumstances, not thinking is more of a strategy that can be harnessed to prevent mental breakdown and illnesses. A deliberate stepping back to let the mind recalibrate allows for developing a healthy mind. The foremost aim of an individual is to analyze the thoughts and cherry pick the problems currently important and those that are of a very distant future.
The Balance Between Effort and Ease
Effective thinking can be compared to breathing where inhaling is focusing, analyzing and engaging, and exhaling is relaxing, releasing and allowing. When we focus too much, our mind becomes rigid whereas when we focus too little, we become unfocused. Both are part and parcel of thinking, and the juggle between them is where clarity thrives.
In conclusion, thinking does not always resemble what we imagine thinking to be. It appears in walking, listening to songs, staring at a wall, sitting idle, folding clothes or just silently sitting. These moments when we are essentially not thinking are the fertile ground for insight. The mind is operating and processing even when we step away and often works best when we get out of its way. The mind’s deepest insights and analyses whisper only when we stop trying to hear them. Whether one has to start a new venture, break an old habit or work on new ones that help achieve a goal, training the subconscious is the most significant step one can take to achieve the aim and realize one’s full potential.