8.11.2007

Decoupling Feeling, Willing and Thinking

A lot of times i've seen people (inluding myself) struggle to make the right decisions and choices.

The confusion i believe stems from a parallelization of the 3 key mind processes - feeling, thinking and willing.

Whenever we are presented with choices , be it in the professional and personal sphere, our mind begins to race. This can be called the projection of the mind. I feel that most people have an automatic projection process, they don't ever try to monitor or control this racing motion of their minds.

When the mind projects in the face of available options, a peculiar mix of emotions, rational thought and more projections into the future happens inside our head. the mix can vary from person to person, but its a mess nevertheless.

These choices arise a few times a day in most professions. And i can say that it is due to this mismanagement of the mind motion that stress arises. The mixed projection of the mind is recipe for the emotion of stress.

A very simple antidote to stress is to systematize the projection of the mind. It is especially important to not let willing appear before thinking has completed.

At one step, we should only rationally think about our alternatives in an objective manner for as long is necessary. In case of personal decisions, the feeling motion should also be factored in at the same stage. It is very important that no will of any kind is formed by this time.

After sufficient thinking has happened, then it is time to commit, i.e. will that choice into implementation. This should be a strong and conscious will, very clearly known to oneself.

So sequential and non overlapping thinking and willing are very important to mind management. The role of feeling isn't very clear to me and i feel that thinking and willing are functionally sufficient in most cases.

Another attribute of successful mind management is to make thinking iterative and factor in as many things as possible in an iterative fashion. This specifically means to revise the content of thought as much as possible on objective criteria as demanded by the situation at hand.

Taking care of the mind projection process and keeping it neat and tidy really helps one destress and ensures productive outcomes of the effort put in.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Cool thoughts!

I second your view that willing should come only after thinking through.

Otherwise one ends up being stubborn on badly thought out decisions or backtracking on commitments.