We all get stuck in the thinking mind from time to time, and it can really seem super compelling, like we just need to think a little harder in order to figure something out. Sometimes we do figure things out, of course, but consider this: when we’re stuck in the mind, it becomes a closed system that can only cogitate and compute on the data it already has. It just cycles and recycles whatever information is already in there, and it can feel like we’re lost in a whirlpool, a maze, or a funhouse.
What’s often needed is to reestablish the mind as an open system so that it can regain access to new and novel sources of data. We do this primarily by bringing attention back into the body, into the present moment, so that the mind can make contact with reality. For some folks, quiet meditation will do the trick. But if you’re anything like me, the mind will just use that as a big, wide expanse to run wild with its ruminative cogitating. So it takes stuff like trail running, white water rafting, or any form of super vigorous exercise to pop me out of the closed system and plug me back into a fresh stream of data.
And as it happens, what we feel in our bodies isn’t just information about the body itself, such as the status of your digestion or your joints. The unconscious mind (which is ENORMOUSLY more powerful than the conscious mind) speaks to us and gives us information through our feelings, sensations, and emotions.
According to information theory, the brain is receiving an processing somewhere in the ballpark of 11 million bits of sensory data per second. Contrast that with our conscious thought process (the thoughts we’re aware of thinking): that part of the mind can only process 50 bits per second. What does this mean? Well, it seems to indicate that the vast majority of information processing happens in the unconscious.
Those who study creativity and insight call this phenomenon “incubation.” We work really hard (consciously) on a problem, only to frustrate ourselves. It’s not until we give up and go for a walk or take a shower (often days later) that we’re finally struck by insight. What’s happening there is that the problem submerged back down in the unconscious, but the unconscious kept chewing on it (on your behalf) while your conscious mind was elsewhere. Once it riddles something out, it punts it back to the conscious mind, and we shout, “Eureka!”
Daniel Siegel in his book “Mindsight” points out that the conscious mind is the “bottleneck” of consciousness. It can only pay attention to one thing at a time, and conscious, working memory is extremely limited in the amount of data it can hold. But the unconscious mind can pay attention to everything all at once, and it is absorbing (and remembering!) every single experience you’ve ever had. And it’s not just remembering events, but also remembering what things tend to lead to what outcomes. In this way it is also a magnificent PREDICTION machine.
In his book, “The Art of Learning,” Josh Waitzkin shares his wisdom about the process of learning itself, which he cultivated as he became first a grandmaster chess player and then a world champion push hands competitor. He points out that in the 10 years and 10,000 hours that it takes to truly master an art or a discipline, what you’re really doing with all those repetitions is moving certain tasks and choices from the conscious mind to the unconscious. Because the more stuff that can happen automatically and unconsciously, the better. Remember, the conscious mind is extremely limited, like a T-Rex attempting to learn sign language with its wimpy little arms.
The unconscious mind has been learning and remembering, not just for 10,000 hours, but for your entire LIFE. This means that it has an enormous storehouse of data about EVERYTHING, and further, it is creating predictions about what is likely to happen next. And through the language of sensation and emotion, it is trying to tell you things about whatever you’re currently facing in life.
Also in “Mindsight,” I read about a cardiologist who sat next to the bride’s father at a wedding and, without knowing why, immediately told him that he must rush himself to the hospital. He did so, and was able to avert a massive heart catastrophe. How did the cardiologist know? Or rather, WHAT did she know? Turns out that just before the kind of heart event that the bride’s father was about to endure, the pattern of blood flow changes in the face, but this change is nearly imperceptible to the naked eye. This cardiologist, however, had seen that minuscule change so many times (or rather, her unconscious had seen it so many times), that her own heart started racing when she saw his face and out of seemingly nowhere felt intensely compelled to send him to the ER.
So when the thinking mind has gotten stuck inside itself, when it has become a closed system, it is cut off from the incredible data stream that’s available in the sensations and emotions of the body, which issue directly from the magnificent supercomputer of your unconscious mind.
This has a lot of implications for how we go about making choices in our lives. Do you make your choices purely from the thinking mind, from what reason and logic can derive out of the information that’s already in there? Or do you know how to slip out of the mind and into the body, into the present moment, where you can get all kinds of “non-rational” data straight from the unconscious? How do you relate to those seemingly inchoate feelings, those murky emotions, those cryptic sensations that prickle along your hairline or race up your spine?
