Thinking: A Process

THINKING

'A man's greatness lies in the power of thought'

Humans are said to be the only species to receive the gift of 'Thinking'. Anything and everything can lead to thinking. Thinking is the first step towards expression. Like I mentioned in my first post, 'Everything great that has ever happened to humanity has begun as nothing more than a simple thought in someone's mind, and if anyone is capable of that thought then we all possess the same compassion, ability to conceive the thought's because we're all the same, we're all humans.' It's a fundamental & empirical nature of humans to think & come up with new constructive & innovative ideas. However someone's construction is another's destruction, hence it depends on the perspective of other's.

Dreams, ideas, thoughts, plan are all but sub-names of 'Thinking'. So how do we initiate thinking? To answer that, a person needs to completely empty his mind. Yeah it may sound odd but that's true. When your mind is empty, different thoughts start to pop out in your head. In the movie 'The Sixth Sense', Bruce Willis(Dr Malcolm Crowe) shares his idea of expression with Haley Joel Osment(Cole) by asking him to exercise 'Free Association Writing'. He further elaborates that, "Free association writing is when you take a pencil/pen in your hand, and you put it to a piece of paper & you start writing. And you don't look at what you're writing or think about what you're writing, you just keep moving your hand moving. And after a while if you keep your hand moving long enough, words & thoughts start coming out that you didn't even know you had in you." Now according to psychology, it could be something that the person heard or read somewhere else or mere the feelings the person has deep inside. Cool isn't it but the brazen truth is when a person thinks, he enters into a world where only the people he chooses are allowed & every thing happens on his wish. This is what I like to call the '4th Dimension'. Even dreaming is considered to be 'thinking'. And, as per data, a person usually spends 5-7 years of his life - dreaming. That's a lot of thinking..!! Generally people try to visualize 'how things should be' instead of 'what should I DO to achieve it'. Most thoughts are in the sub-conscious state while the conscious one's show prompt reaction.

Also the most common problem during adolescence & teens is 'thinking too much'. To be frank, even I'm not virgin of it. But the worst part of it is the person loses the control of his mind leading to distorted thoughts, provocation, sleeplessness, loneliness, feeling of hopelessness etc. During thinking, the formation of pleasure inducing neuro-transmitter 'Dopamine' depends solely on the thought. But during the process if the person get's excited in someway or the other - increased heart-rate, perspiration(especially in the palms), delusion, hallucination & a swift rush of adrenaline/epinephrine is felt in the body. Clearly the person cannot concentrate on anything else. When there's absolutely nothing to do for the mind, it starts to wander around resulting in excessive thinking usually ending nowhere. It mostly ends with another idea to think more. To know whether a person is thinking or not, he/she must be moving some part of their body most common being legs, hands. So why does this happen? The answer is not so simple. When a person is thinking, tension is created inside the body especially in the head so it needs to release that 'pressure-cooker' instinct, which is why usually people shake their legs or hands or simply walk. However recent researches have shown that a person can think even without moving any part of their body, like a cadaver but that usually happens when the person is lying in supine condition on the bed or standing un-naturally still. For excessive thinkers - it is generally advised to get involved in some sort of curricular activity as the brain won't work when the energy is focused elsewhere. But brain is smart too, it would convince the person that the activity is of no personal use to him. So then starts the battle between the brain & the will of the person. If the person is dedicated to his work, nothing can stop him.

'An idle mind is devil's workshop' - this is what we've been taught since kindergarten.

Dreams are our gateway to our future. It sometimes leads to some unexplainable phenomenons. Like Albert Einstein dream't about his world renowned theory of relativity, Thomas Alva Edison dream't about the light bulb & successfully imitated it. So it isn't that thinking is useless and besides that, there is no such thing as good-thinking or bad-thinking. Like I said thinking is involuntary, there are exceptions though. Whatever mind thinks, it thinks & we have to deal with it. Now, the general perception of 'good-thinking' is when the thought is useful for someone. But when it is of no use or logically impossible or leading to anti-social activities, it is considered 'bad-thinking'. So is thinking a selfish thing? How can it be! I mentioned above that its involuntary, so you can't blame a person if he's thinking of looting someone.

The ultimate goal of everyone's life should be controlling & disciplining their mind's & not getting controlled by it. For that, as I said, strong will power is needed and it needs a lot of courage, determination & dedication to do it or else there's an apocalypse in-waiting. Try not to think much. Get involved socially, meet new people in short keep the mind busy.

Happy Thinking