Psychiatrist Milton Erickson liked to tell a story about the disappearing manuscript. He was struggling to finish a book. His publisher was pressuring him to turn in the manuscript, but he didn’t feel it was finished. The pressure was stressing him out.
One day he took the manuscript with him to his desk and sat down to work. But after trying to write for about an hour, he felt himself getting tired, and allowed himself to slip into a daydream. Some time later, he came to, but when he looked back down at his desk, he couldn’t find the manuscript. Remember, this was during a time when you couldn’t just open your computer and print out a new copy, so losing a manuscript was problematic.
He didn’t panic, though. Instead he tried to put the manuscript, and the stress it was causing him, out of his mind. A couple of weeks later, he came back to his desk chair, relaxed, and found the manuscript under some papers that he must have absentmindedly placed over it.
Your Unconscious Holds Solutions and Wisdom
Lots of people find lost objects sitting in plain sight, but Milton Erickson had a reason to believe that his unconscious mind might have deliberately led him to daydream and cover the manuscript. Erickson overcame numerous handicaps, including paralysis from polio, which almost killed him.
He learned to walk again by watching his baby sister learn to walk. He observed her minute muscle movements and used mental rehearsal while in trance states to stimulate his own neural muscular pathways. Erickson learned that the memory of how to walk resided in his unconscious, and after this amazing achievement, he always trusted that his unconscious mind would hold any solution or wisdom he needed.
Once Erickson became a professional psychiatrist, he’d use the story about his manuscript to illustrate that we often don’t know what we know. His unconscious mind knew he wasn’t ready to turn the book in, so it had given him the time to mentally work out the parts with which he was struggling. That’s why he didn’t panic—he was sure that once he’d shifted his attention so he could get into a more relaxed state, he would figure out what he wanted to say, and his mind would allow him to find the pages. And it did.
Mind Wandering and Daydreams Occur Naturally
Our attention is affected by the ultradian rhythm that alters our attention span every 90 to 120 minutes throughout the day. Mind Wandering naturally occurs at the end of this cycle, as well as after any intense cognitive task.
Introducing the slower alpha brain waves that allow Mind Wandering is our mind’s way of forcing us to give it a rest. Sometimes we can get so lost in our Mind Wandering that we go into a trance, otherwise known as a daydream, a more intense version of Mind Wandering.
Daydreams are wonderful for spurring problem-solving: when you’re daydreaming, you’re in a trance state that combines internally focused attention with memory and imagination. It’s a state of mind that gives you permission to connect to your own creativity free from self-criticism.
At times you may even wander into “Walter Mitty” daydreams that feel extraordinarily real and allow you to enjoy experiences that your conscious mind would normally censor or dismiss as impossible. In your daydreams, you might be visiting a foreign land when you meet your soul mate. The connection is so strong it makes you feel more alive than you have in a long time. A daydream this powerful could compel you to think hard about your inner yearnings and wonder if all of your needs are being met in your current relationship.
Exercise: The Non-Thinking Method
If worry and anxiety are blocking you from solving a problem, you could try a method suggested in 1911 by William James, known as the father of American psychology. He called it “non-thinking.” You do it like this:
Set a goal and “unclamp” from the outcome—just allow any ideas about how you might achieve the goal to surface and write them down without analyzing them, even if they seem preposterous. Then you let them simmer in the back of your mind to see if they would be the best problem-solving approaches.
The point of the exercise is not actually to achieve the goal, but to stimulate creative thought. Several important thought leaders throughout history have used a similar process to open up their minds. Einstein performed thought experiments where he daydreamed running beside a light beam to the edge of the universe. He credited this creative endeavor for helping him develop the theory of relativity.
Another thinker, Isaac Newton, found that allowing his mind to wander resulted in clear thinking and problem-solving and ultimately led him to develop the theory of gravity. Even Thomas Edison who developed more than 1,000 patents for inventions would sit in his chair holding steel balls. He relaxed deeply and when his hands dropped the balls, he woke up and wrote down his ideas.
Take a Break from Worrying
A study done at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that when people took a break from worrying about a problem and focused on something less taxing, their performance increased by 40 percent. In fact, when you are feeling stressed about an issue, stop thinking about it and do something relaxing.
There comes a time of diminishing returns to continue to try to come up with solutions. When the mind fatigues, it’s time to make a change. Take your mind completely away from a problem or take a nap. Though you change your mental state and focus of attention, your unconscious mind continues to work on the problem. This approach often triggers a eureka moment.
Take Five-Minute Breaks for Mind Wandering
You can use Mind Wandering to help you solve long-term big-picture projects, but you can also use it strategically to keep you performing your best at work every day. Give your cognitive process a five-minute break every 45 minutes by focusing on a lovely vacation or experience from your past.
Inspired by how well she had used attention shifting to regain her confident mindset, Laura began to take five minutes here and there and let her mind wander to her favorite place, Maui. She loved the gentle breeze, the beauty of the islands, the blue water, and especially how relaxed she felt when she was there.
After about a week of this positive Mind Wandering, she found that she was getting better at solving problems at work. It was as though the pressure and speed of her daily existence just couldn’t rattle her anymore.
Divergent Thinking
Mind Wandering is linked to what is called “divergent thinking,” a thought process that generates many solutions to a problem. Divergent thinking allows you to see beyond self-imposed limitations and keeps you open to experience. It often occurs after a period of Mind Wandering on unrelated things or pleasant past experiences. Divergent thinkers often see connections where others cannot, and this difference in perception leads toward novel ideas.
You may feel at your most creative after a period of positive Mind Wandering. It is often at this point when we say our muse has touched us, when our inspiration and creative output accelerates.
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discovered that our natural state might be a combination of external focus followed by inward exploration. They said, “Consciousness is continuously moving with ever-changing content, but also ebbs like a breaking wave, outwardly expanding and then inwardly retreating.” Positive and constructive Mind Wandering can have many positive returns. In particular, it can teach you how to think outside your own box.
Caution: Don’t Get Lost (Mind Wanderings to Avoid)
It’s easy to get lost in our daydreams, and zoning out too often is not productive. If you’ve got a day left to complete a statistical report for work and you’re taking five-minute daydream breaks every half hour, you’re going to run into trouble. And if you zone out while driving, you may cut your future short. Time and place matter.
1. Distracted Mind Wandering. It is possible to allow your mind to wander too much. Recently society has started labeling individuals with chronically wandering minds as Attention Deficit Disorder. In the past, having ADD was an asset. Early hunters would have benefited from the ability to notice multiple small disturbances in a field or forest. Their hyper alert brains would have made it easier for them to react quickly and find their prey than their more methodical, single-track kin. Unfortunately, that kind of mind isn’t so well suited for today’s school settings, and it can be disastrous in the workplace when there are so many digital distractions to keep you from completing simple tasks.
2. Revenge Mind Wandering. Sometimes when we’re frustrated or angry we get stuck imagining the way a conversation should have gone, or we plot out every word of the conversation we will have one day if we ever get the chance. Spending time in mental fights temporarily relieves tension but is ultimately unproductive.
Mindfulness Meditation
You can overdo Mind Wandering, in which case you become so removed from life you get stuck by inertia. But Mind Wandering that never brings you new solutions is useless. Practicing mindfulness meditation, however, can interrupt the stressful loop that swings you from hyperfocus to unproductive mind wanderings and calms rumination.
Richard Davidson at University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin, discovered that meditation leads to a reduction of electrical and metabolic activity in the amygdala, which when overactivated is associated with worry. The most recent research found that meditation creates self-regulation in 11 hours of training.
The practice of meditation helps people appropriately regulate their emotions. As a result, they are less emotionally reactive and less emotionally constricted. They are better able to handle stressful situations.
The process of meditation allows you to let go of judgment and grasping after things, and to be fully aware in the here and now. Mindfulness meditation can be a tool that actually puts you in charge of your life, so you decide when to focus your attention on a problem and when you allow yourself to go into creative Mind Wandering.
©2017 by Carol Kershaw, EdD and J. William Wade, PhD.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, The Career Press.
1-800-CAREER-1 or (201) 848-0310. www.careerpress.com.
Article Source
The Worry-Free Mind: Train Your Brain, Calm the Stress Spin Cycle, and Discover a Happier, More Productive You
by Carol Kershaw, EdD and Bill Wade, PhD.
Click here for more info and/or to order this book.
About the Authors
Carol Kershaw, EdD, is a clinical psychologist and international trainer in clinical ?hypnosis and brain-based psychological transformation. She is board certified in neurofeedback and holds the status of fellow. Dr. Kershaw is the author of The Couple’s Hypnotic Dance and coauthor of Brain Change Therapy: Clinical Interventions for Self-Transformation, as well as many professional articles.
Bill Wade, PhD, is licensed in Texas as both a professional counselor and marriage and family therapist, and has maintained a therapy practice for more than 30 years. He has presented workshops throughout the United States and abroad in clinical hypnosis, brain-based transformation, and meditation. Dr. Wade is coauthor of Brain Change Therapy, and the husband of Dr. Carol Kershaw. Visit their website at http://drscarolandbill.com/
