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Reading is an incredibly important skill to have. Just about any form of education will involve reading, sometimes almost exclusively. You can often make yourself an expert on an
intellectual subject just by reading enough in that area. But despite the incredible importance of reading, most people are wildly inefficient at it. Like a child that never goes beyond a crawl, most people have enough reading skills to move around, but they are far from running. Read the rest of this entry »
PICTURES: the ‘dresses’ of your truth and your lies. The ‘now’. Now is never neutral. Do you know why? Because every person sitting next, or opposite you, has an opinion. Or at least, he should. Noone is the correct one, each one has the right to say what he thinks. The point is that… at the point where the rights of an individual begin, the rights of another individual end… Read the rest of this entry »
The subconscious mind is an important part of the complete human being. Did you know that an individual’s subconscious is responsible for most of their personal reality? Yeah, that sounds unbelievable but it is true to the letter. What you think, or more to the point, what you envision, will create your personal reality around you. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever had the experience of looking back on your week with the sinking feeling that you didn’t get as much done as you’d hoped? When building a successful career or a business of your own, your time is perhaps your most valuable asset, and your income is a direct result of how you spend your time. You cannot buy any more time than you’re given, and the clock is always ticking. A few years ago, I discovered a simple system that allowed me to nearly triple my productivity, and in this article I’ll share some very practical ideas you can apply right away to increase your effectiveness without working any harder than you do now. Read the rest of this entry »
A new study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought.
The University of British Columbia investigation, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander.
It also finds that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving – previously thought to go dormant when we daydream — are in fact highly active during these episodes
“Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness,” says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology.
“But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream — much more active than when we focus on routine tasks.”
For the study, subjects were placed inside an fMRI scanner, where they performed the simple routine task of pushing a button when numbers appear on a screen.
The researchers tracked subjects’ attentiveness moment-to-moment through brain scans, subjective reports from subjects and by tracking their performance on the task.
The findings suggest that daydreaming – which can occupy as much as one-third of our waking lives – is an important cognitive state where we may unconsciously turn our attention from immediate tasks to sort through important problems in our lives.
Until now, the brain’s “default network” – which is linked to easy, routine mental activity and includes the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), the posterior cingulate cortex and the temporoparietal junction – was the only part of the brain thought to be active when our minds wander.
However, the study finds that the brain’s “executive network” – associated with high-level, complex problem-solving and including the lateral PFC and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex – also becomes activated when we daydream.
“This is a surprising finding, that these two brain networks are activated in parallel,” says Christoff.
“Until now, scientists have thought they operated on an either-or basis – when one was activated, the other was thought to be dormant.” The less subjects were aware that their mind was wandering, the more both networks were activated.
The quantity and quality of brain activity suggests that people struggling to solve complicated problems might be better off switching to a simpler task and letting their mind wander.
“When you daydream, you may not be achieving your immediate goal – say reading a book or paying attention in class – but your mind may be taking that time to address more important questions in your life, such as advancing your career or personal relationships,” says Christoff.
By RICK NAUERT, PH.D. Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 12, 2009
A simple way to start being creative is just to be open.
Being
Ontology is ‘the metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence’. This whole field of study considers what it is to be. We don’t just exist: we exist in external contexts in the world. We also exist in internalcontexts, where our state of mind frames and changes everything else we perceive.
And the great thing about consciousness and human volition is that you can choose your ontological state. In other words, you can decide how you will be. This does not mean you can be happy 100% of the time just by deciding it. Deliberately being in any given state takes a degree of will and work. You can decide to be happy and, with enough skill and effort, be happy significantly more of the time than you would be otherwise
Being closed
Many of us live in a state of closure, where any new ideas are ignored, criticized or otherwise pushed away. Closure is a state where the doors of the mind are, literallyclosed. It is a state where defending existing ideas, beliefs, values, mental models and so on is the prime response. A good argument is one where you win and the opponents (who are always wrong) lose.
Being closed is, in some ways, comfortable. It is staying with what is seen as the tried and true. However it is also a state of embattlement, where you are constantly having to repel boarders
People who are mostly closed seek like-minded people, where there is a tacit agreement not to challenge ideas. In fact much of the conversation is spent reinforcing those ideas and scoffing at the rest of the world. Their lives are as predictable as they are comfortably numb, with emotions held at arms length and meaningless habits the sole source of sustenance.
Being open
To be open is to live with a sense of curiosity, where every moment is an opportunity for learning, where existing ideas, mental models and beliefs are temporary and flexible. What others have to say is always interesting, and a good dialogue is one where you learn something new or are persuaded to think differently in some way. Being open means seeing things both as they really are (as opposed to through the lens of fixed though) and also as how they could be. The world is seen as alive, dynamic and full of opportunity.
Being open is exciting and interesting. It can also be tiring when you have been drinking at the hosepipe of discovery for too long. Being open does need rest periods, when you can digest your new learning, integrating it into your current (though loose) models of understanding. Being open does not necessarily mean never being closed, but it does mean being open by default and being in that state for most of the time.
People who are mostly open seek new experiences and conversation with strangers. Their friends may be highly diverse and the company they frequent is likely to be others who are also open to challenging thought. Their lives do have pattern, though the patterns are of exploration and difference rather than similarity and similarity.
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