Wouldn't that be great if I knew how our brains worked? Well, I do have one experience that is worth analyzing. While speaking with a friend today, we both tried to remember the name of a person we had both met at an event. I could picture the mysterious person in my head but I could not recall her name. However, I knew that I knew her name. I felt confident that the name would surface if only I "forgot about it" and let my brain work. Our conversation continued and I never did think of the name.
But, several hours later while simply walking in my house, the name popped into my head. I had just completed my computer work for the night and was very relaxed as I made my way to my bedroom to change clothes. Was it the relaxed frame of mind? Why then, at that moment, did the answer come? I also know that sometimes I am pretty confident that I won't remember the name. But, today, I knew that I had the information stored.. I just couldn't make it surface. This experience, which happens both with recalling names and with solving problems, very much intrigues me. It makes me wonder: "What else can my brain do?" What other powers does my brain behold. It apparently was fully capable of digging up that name and not only could it do it without my conscious help, but it seemed to prefer to do it without my conscious help. The more I tried to become engaged, perhaps the less likely my brain would be to find the name. I liken this experience to having to let you computer finish a task that it gets stalled on. You'd like to click the icon 20 more times..but after a few bad experiences with that move, you realize you just have to wait. Eventually the file is opened.
The feeling of the name popping into my head was quite exciting. It gave me thoughts of other possibilities. But, it also made me wonder..why doesn't my mind give me the solutions to other questions that I ask it..such as "how do I make 10 million dollars tomorrow?" Obviously I have a bit more faith that I will recall an acquaintances name, and the information was already stored. But, I think there are other criteria for determining what the brain can do easily on its own.
I know that many website coding solutions come to me in the same manner...after walking away and calling it quits for awhile...But, why..why then does the brain actually do the task that you wanted it to do so badly before. I have also experienced this with disagreements with people, and physical projects around the house. I recently had a leak near the tank in one of our toilets. At first glance, I only wanted to call a plumber or handy man and never think about the problem again. I figured the cost would be worth it because if I started the project it would involve at least 2 trips to Home Depot, a few mistakes and 4 total hours of my life.
But, a few hours later..an idea about how to troubleshoot the problem popped into my head. A quick trip to Google led me to a step by step instruction of what I should do next to locate the problem. As soon as I read the description, I immediately felt that now it made more sense to do the work myself than to call a plumber. I felt it might be cheaper and faster to do it myself. But why...why did my mind solve this problem? I actually kind of decided on my own to not solve the problem..to outsource it...but my brain seemed to think that was a hogwash idea and went to work solving the problem anyway. But, I was consciously just talking with my wife and playing with the kids. I was in no way even pondering the problem...but my sub conscious was busy working.
It seems that some types of problems are almost always solved by the mind. What I wish to ponder now (of course, I"ll likely not get my answer now :) ) is what criteria must be met for the mind to decide if a problem is worth working on. As I mentioned..it seems some problems are "too large" or unworthy of the subconscious effort. On the other hand..the sub conscious seems so methodic..so unthinking...it won't really listen to me..it goes and solves problems I don't even care to solve. So, the first criteria seems to be that the mind is presented with a problem.
1. A problem is presented.
It seems the next criteria is that the conscious mind must believe that the sub conscious mind can solve the problem.
2. Conscious mind must believe solution is possible
When I envisioned myself going to home depot 2x and spending 4 hours fixing the toilet..I did in fact envision myself fixing the toilet. I didn't want to go through all the work, but I believed I could do it.
I've taught myself html/css/ and PHP...I think I can figure out a toilet. But, what I decided is that I did not wish to solve the toilet problem. I believed that I could..but did not want to. However, the sub conscious took the problem and the belief and went to work.
I think the belief element explains why some problems do not seem to be solved. It may not be due to a lack of power of the sub conscious but due to a lack of faith by the person. However, while this seems to hold true in experience..why should it be true? Why would the sub conscious mind care what the conscious mind "believed". It is almost as if the sub conscious is in fact limitless and does many things without direction...but it does limit its usage to what the boundaries imposed by the conscious mind.
The question is...can such a faith be increased on purpose. I think its great that I can fix toilets and small web development problems and remember a few names when the need arises..but what about bigger problems...how can I make my mind dig up those answers. I have a mortgage on my house...that seems like a problem I'd like to eliminate...go to work subconscious and come up with a solution by morning for paying this house off. These types of problems would be nice to solve. You might say..well..your subconscious will solve it..it will just take 3 years to do so..and perhaps that is true... But, I'd like to learn how to jumpstart that process...I'd like to jump to bigger and bigger problems...
Perhaps just like everything else..you have to start small but gradually increase the task. You can bench press a lot more weight than you currently can..but it will take small increases in the weight to builld your muslces and faith to the point where you can lift more. The same is likely true for income, health, and dieting. Maybe I can't see how to make an extra $100,000 this year..but perhaps I can believe and come up with a way to make an extra $20,000. I suppose you can ask you sub conscious for the answer to any question to which you have faith it can answer. And, after impressing you with small matters, you can gradually increase the challenge.
So, add sub conscious training to your weekly workout routine....
read books
pray
exercise
play with kids
time with wife
ask sub conscious something slightly more challenging than what I asked last week, etc.
I'll let you know what I come up with.
You let me know what you think too.
