Page Contents:
Thinking: The Master Skill
Passive Thinking
Emotional "Reasoning"
Effective Thinking
Right Thinking
Practicing And Development Of The "Muscle"
Use Of Thinking In Creating Psychological Well-Being
You'll See This In Every Area Of Your Life
___________________________________________________________________________________
THINKING: THE MASTER SKILL (You might consider using it more...)
Go beyond low level use of the mind, to skillful and easy use of our key ability that allows us to do and conquer anything.
The brain is capable of great reasoning and systematic thinking. We need only harvest it and learn how to "ride the horse". Proper use of the brain is the path to making the right life decisions, which in turn is also the point of acquiring wisdom in life.
PASSIVE THINKING
Passive thinking is something we are capable of doing and many people have the impression it is enough. It is not even close to being enough. The "mind", by itself, generates unuseful thoughts and recycles concerns ineffectively - wasting one's time and life and being unproductive. Use the wonderful functions of the "mind" but don't depend on "Dumb and Dumber" to make effective decisions. (See The Mind, to see how it developed and why it works as it does.)
EMOTIONAL "REASONING"
Emotional reasoning is one of the key modes of distorted thinking. An example, from David D. Burns, M.D.'s top seller Feeling Good: "You reason from how you feel: 'I feel like an idiot, so I must be one.'"
The key thing to do here is to use "straight talk" (languaging) where you use accurate wording. The term "I feel" is often used to justify that something is right, because, "after all, I do feel it and I learned that my feelings and intuition are accurate." However, this is a false belief.
You actually "think" that "I believe I am an idiot" and the feeling (emotion) you have is "fear" (and there is usually some belief that one derives that from such as "people won't like me and therefore..."). This is where we would use the worksheets for looking at one's beliefs, in order to straighten out one's thinking.
"GUT FEELINGS" AND "INTUITION
One huge error in beliefs about thinking and feelings lies in the "magical" thinking area where we get a full blown answer from our gut, intuition, or our heart - many of those are just useful metaphors.
But the fact is that you can "feel" that murder is wrong and you'll be correct, but that is really a knowing/belief that is correct - it is a thought with an accompanying feeling. Since the thoughts (even though you aren't aware of them) come up and evoke a feeling, that does not mean that all thoughts or intuitions are correct - they are only indicators of the possibility of something being right, which you should pay attention to and then determine if it is true through rational thinking.
It is time to drop this romantic, superstitious belief, so that you will not be blocked for the benefits of rational thinking - and you'll be much happier once you drop this nonsensical, non-provable belief.
Note that this area often involves metaprograms, which are complex combinations of thought/belief programs, so you should be familiar with those, so that you don't believe in magical explanations, such as "consulting your heart" for advice - it can't give advice though the thought that the advice is good can be felt in the body because it evokes an emotion.
EFFECTIVE THINKING
It is only directed, on-purpose, systematic thinking that pays off at the highest level and gives us the greatest rewards, creating a life that is many, many times more happy and fulfilled. This type of thinking gives us
1. MORE PAYOFF for each ounce of effort than anything else, plus
2. It SAVES US a lot of mistakes and unnecessary pain.
The reasoning capability provided by the higher brain (prefrontal cortex) is what had us survive evolution better, as it provided us the most powerful tool of anything known in this universe. I think it is a good idea to use that tool. (Duh!)
RIGHT THINKING
"Right Thinking" is one of the major precepts of Buddhism (see Philosophy section, which is a great source of principles that work in life, far greater, in my opinion, than religions). If you want to live an effective life you would make the commitment, in writing: Commitment To Develop Right Thinking.
It is also absolutely and profoundly necessary for a sound psychological foundation and for developing peace of mind.
One form of "Right Thinking" is called "Rational Analysis", where one focuses on seeing "what is so" through the filter of noise and flak that gets in the way of effective decision making. This is a key means of improving one's psychological well-being (eliminating one of the greatest malfunctions of pschology that we as humans indulge ourselves in, to our detriment).
distorted lenses!!
living a good life and having psychological well-being.
DISTORTED THINKING
Lazy thinking, irrational thinking, not thinking, reacting, etc., are all opportunities for distorted thinking, where reality is not really duplicated at all. In cognitive behavior disciplines they identify 10 basic types of distorted thinking that one should use when one is testing out thoughts and beliefs for validity.
They are exaggerating, black and white thinking, all or nothing thinking, emotional reasoning (oxymoron!), catastrophizing, assuming, reading minds, negative biasing, etc. See Cognitive Distortion.
PRACTICING AND DEVELOPMENT OF "THE MUSCLE"
Thinking is a skill that can be practiced to further develop and strengthen in a way that is similar to muscle development, where we practice and use bigger and bigger weights. However, we are not trying here to become rocket scientists, but only to become masters of creating a hugely happy life.
Useful to read, even if you think you are not in this category (you might might be, when compared to where you could be):
greater impact on life than one would think. Not somethng to be
minimized in importance.
Learning how to make "distinctions" (telling the difference between things, going deeper) is a function of using this muscle, as is using Powerful Languaging.
THE "INTELLIGENCES" OF LIFE
Intelligence = The ability to respond quickly and successfully to a new situation and learn from exposure to similar situations.
In life, there are intelligences that are different than the standard overall I.Q. Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman, helped define a new way of looking at intelligence in terms of psychological health and relationships. What are the intelligence and what level are you at? To find out, read The Intelligences Main Page.
USE OF THINKING IN CREATING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
We know that insane thinking is irrational thinking with some element of incorrect beliefs and not being in touch with reality. Well, we need to create the opposite - and that can be done best through using the "right-thinking process," which does better and better with inputs of learned life-knowledge.
Use the thinking process to unravel the mess of thoughts that roam through the brain, often doing harm and serving few useful functions.
Being able to think without an emotional fog bank or unclear viewpoint is vital to mental health. Here is one way of eliciting the use of thinking that will benefit you greatly in terms of psychological well-being: Objective: Objective: Operating In The Loving, Rational Adult, Allowing The Play Of A Child (Live in this role or persona and your life cannot help but be magnificent. It is also great for relationships.)
LOGIC IS THE ONLY WAY TO ANY KIND OF PROBLEM-SOLVING
When one is experiencing difficulties or a gap between where one wants to be and where one is, then logic and reason must be used to get to a solution. When one is operating off of an illogical conclusion (which you can spot, because it produces an undesired result), then the only solution to unraveling the illogic is to take it throught the use of a logical process. Read about this in The Use Of Logic and apply the process.
YOU'LL SEE THIS IN EVERY AREA OF LIFE
You'll see throughout various sections of this site how to use "Right Thinking" rather than letting the dumb, primitive, caveperson brain sections run your life. Success in the other areas of life is dependent on your developing and sticking to "Right Thinking".
