|
Tap into your subconscious
Tuesday, 2 May 2006
When I was at school, I used to get in trouble for “daydreaming”. It was seen as an unproductive activity, interrupting my sharper “conscious” learning. It was something I had little control over. My mind just seemed to want to drift off sometimes.
I'd to get top marks for subjects requiring “imagination”. My teachers grudgingly accepted that this was at least partly because of my tendency to “daydream”. What they didn’t accept, but I suspected, was that allowing my mind to drift was also helping me do well at math and science.
In my experience, having a strong connection to my subconscious mind has given me a big advantage over many of my peers. It allows me to come up with original ideas, make connections between information that others had missed, and learn quickly.
I read a lot of technical books, and often feel as if I’m just going through the motions – reading the sentences, but not taking the information in. Sometimes, I’ll read a whole chapter and feel that I haven’t understood any of it. Yet days, or even weeks later, a situation arises where I need to recall the concept I’d read about, and somewhere out of the depths of my mind the knowledge will appear.
I seem to be able to feed my subconscious with material that my conscious mind doesn’t understand at first. My inner-mind will then turn over that information and make sense of it. It’s a powerful method for learning, that you can benefit from too.
Simply force yourself to read that difficult text you’d like to understand, no matter how little sense it makes or how much difficulty you’re having concentrating. Then, let your mind drift away. Lie down, close your eyes, and simply let random images and thoughts swim through your head for a while.
Often, your understanding of the topic won’t appear straight away. It can take days or more. But if you practice this regularly, you'll find yourself surprised at just how much you’ve taken in. Of course, the more information you feed your subconscious with, the better this technique will work.
I’ve also found daydreaming is a wonderful way of solving problems creatively. From the most worldly concern – “How am I going to make up my mortgage payments?” – to the most fantastic – “What would be a great children’s story?” – you can use the power of daydreaming.
Clearly define the question you'd like answered and then ask it to yourself over a period of time. Allow your mind to drift for a few moments during the day, and eventually you’ll likely find the answer will just pop into your head. Again, it might take days or weeks, but the power of being inattentive will likely provide you with an answer.
One problem with the modern world that detracts from this power is over-stimulation. Sure, you need to feed your mind information, but sometimes it can be overdone.
Constantly being bombarded with messages, noise, and other stimulus, reduces the opportunities for daydreaming. If you don’t spend some time letting your mind wander, it won’t provide you with the rewards.
Perhaps this is why the great geniuses of the past seem to outdo us today. Think of Shakespeare, Einstein, and Michelangelo. Without the constant crash of stimulation around them, these men had time to think and piece their works together.
Take some time out from the world to daydream. I promise you, the rewards will make it worthwhile.
 | Sometimes, irrational behavior can be explained by attention-seeking | | Why do people do so many things that are so obviously stupid? Why do they take drugs, commit crimes, ruin good relationships, and spend money they don't have? |  | Science is the closest thing to verifiable truth that we have | | Wait! If you're the type of person who reads the word "science" in a title then moves quickly on, then this is an article you need to read. I promise it won't be boring. | | Most people start with a conclusion and then search for the facts to support it | | Most of us realise that the people we deal with in everyday life often aren't rational. They behave in ways that bewilder. They do things that seem immoral, stupid and not in their own interests. They hold beliefs that just seem crazy. |  | The world is filled with opportunity | | A few years back, I was doing some computer contracting for one of the biggest banks in the world. One day, an email was sent around by management requesting the entire information technology department attend a meeting in the conference room. |  | The secret of wealth is working easier, not harder | | Want to get rich? Just work hard and you will is the conventional wisdom. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. Since the dawn of humanity, the road to wealth has been through working easier, not harder. | | Get over your fear of failure | | Nothing stings quite like failing. This is especially true when it happens in front of people we like and admire. Our ears go red, our face feels hot, and we swear "I'll never do that again". | | Cut all your credit-cards in half | | I've never owned a credit-card. Most people are pretty surprised when I tell them that. They look at me like I've just said I've never had a glass of Coke or made a phone-call. | | Understand the true nature of reality | | Your life will never be perfect, but you can certainly make it better than it is now. The first step to achieving this is learning to understand the true nature of reality. It’s only by understanding the situation we find ourselves in, that we can do something about it. In fact, many of the great scientific and technical achievements of humanity prove this point. | | We all have moments of worry and doubt | | Let's face it, everyone wakes up sometimes and just feels down. The world loses its shine and you wonder why you even bother with it all. Worry and doubt lays itself over your psyche like a heavy snowfall. | | Be willing to crash and burn sometimes | | We all have trouble dealing with failure. We play so many mental tricks on ourselves in order to pretend we aren't avoiding it, that they can sometimes become all consuming. At night, while asleep, we have terrible nightmares of others disapproval, or the world rejecting us. |
New articles are being added all the time, so make sure you bookmark Paul's Tips and come back.
|
|