How do we think?

Numerous studies by many scholars in neuroscience, including Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist Dr. Eric Kandel, and communication pathologist, neuroscientist and author, Dr. Caroline Leaf,  spent decades in research to answer precisely this question. “How do I think?”

Disclaimer: I am not a Scientist! I am differently qualified, but I have read extensively on the subject because it affects every single minute of our life. I am devoted to helping people with their life decisions, with renewing their minds, and with dealing with paradigm shifts.

Note that the process that I will attempt to describe below, can happen about 700 times per second while we are awake.  

Everything begins with either a previous thought, or a trigger from our five physical senses. We see, hear, taste, smell, or feel/touch something which triggers processes in our minds and physical brains. This happens while we are fully conscious. 

To be clear…

The mind and the brain are not the same thing. The brain is that physical “thing” inside our skull. While the brain consists of physical “gray matter”, the mind is defined as our “understanding”. The mind is like an “interface”, or a “tool that communicates'' with the brain, making sense of the physical complexity of the brain. The mind uses the functionality (neuron- or brain-cell networks) of the brain to think, feel, and choose. Scientists speak of the conscious mind, subconscious mind, and the nonconscious mind. It does not mean three different minds. It could be described as three different sections of one mind. (The unconscious mind that we talk about, relates to the state of someone who is knocked out in sport or a fight, or someone who is under anesthetics for surgery.)

Except when we have a reflex because the senses felt danger of for example burning on a hot surface, the trigger sense sets off a process in the nonconscious section of the mind. The nonconscious mind recalls memories of a time when this trigger sense was received before. Let’s say, in a similar situation. Along with the memories, it recalls the emotions that we experienced during those similar experiences. 

The nonconscious mind is awake and very busy all the time (24/7). When we are awake, it works on whatever we sense, feel (emotions, not touch), think, or choose. While we are asleep, the nonconscious mind does the filing, sorting and matching everything we encountered during the day to every similar sense, emotion, thought, and choice already in our “database”. 

From our unconscious minds awareness signals are sent to the subconscious mind. These signals include information memories, emotional memories, and physical memories. 

Information memories include, for example, what we have learnt in the past through repeated thoughts. Emotional memories include how we felt when for instance we saw a Mister Bean movie. It was funny! It made us happy for some time. (Now, we only have to see a drawing, or photograph of Rowan Atkinson, to feel happy again for just a moment.) Physical memories include what we have seen, heard, smelled, etc., before. Here is an example. When I was about 10 years old, I scratched around, with permission, for pieces of offcut wood in the scrap bin of a furniture factory. I smelled the characteristic smell of imbuia wood when it was sawed, sanded, or planed. Today, when I smell imbuia wood, I am immediately taken back to those days as a child. That is what is meant by physical (or sensory) memories. 

These awareness signals to the subconscious mind is the start of a thought, even before we are physically aware of what we sensed. We become aware of whatever signals the non-conscious part of our mind sends to the subconscious. We are just aware. We haven’t yet thought about what we gathered through the senses. (Remember this process happens around 700 times every second that we are awake!)

Now, in our fully awake conscious mind, we are aware of what the non-conscious sent. And we start to think about it. Technically, we first start building a thought out of the signals received. A thought is the root of words and actions. We cannot speak before we haven’t thought about what we are about to say. We cannot act unless we have built a thought about what we are about to do. Dr. Caroline Leaf writes: 

“We can live without eating for 3 weeks. We can live without drinking (water) for 3 days. We can live without breathing for 3 minutes. But we cannot live without thinking for 3 seconds.”

A thought is not just something that flies in and out of my mind. It is physically stored in the physical brain! The sensory stimulation is converted into an electrical signal in the brain. (As described above, the mind and the brain are two different entities.) The adult brain contains around 86 billion brain cells. This signal is passed on from one neuron (brain cell) to another by chemical (neurotransmitters) and electrical junctions called synapses. The average adult brain has about 150 billion synapses. All perceptions, thoughts, and behaviours result from combinations of signals among neurons. This process works with all thoughts, whether triggered by senses or not. Even when we sit still, with closed eyes and just think about something, the same process happens in the brain, over and over again. (This can help us further along to use specific thinking to manage what goes on in our minds.)

The neurons that are concerned with the historic memories and emotions that the non-conscious mind gathered after the trigger, are linked with the current situation. This is more or less how the physical structure of the brain actually changes as we think our first thought after the trigger from our senses. This thought is the most important one in the series of thoughts about the subject “illuminated” by the senses! Every thought leads to another thought..

Hold that thought!

Think about thinking for a bit. (Yes, we are able to critically think about what we think! The scientists mentioned above proved that.) Not all of our thoughts are good thoughts. Not all of our thoughts are pure thoughts. Not all of our thoughts are healthy thoughts. Not all of our thoughts are loving thoughts. We are able to think bad, destructive, unhealthy, or toxic thoughts. The first thoughts that we think after being stimulated by our senses (in this case), directs the way the rest of the thought process will go. 

Arrest that Thought!

Yes, we can! We can decide what we want to think about, and what not. We are physically able, with practice, to take that thought captive, and to decide to steer the subsequent thought process into another direction. Here is an example of how I managed to learn how to take my thoughts captive, and to think about something completely different. (It’s a personal story, and I know I may be criticised.)   

Like most men, I “have an eye” for pretty women. If I see (trigger) a woman that catches my attention, the first thought is to look again. If I then let my thoughts take their usual way, it would let me think lustful thoughts about this woman that I do not know at all. That would be wrong since I have been married to my own wife for over forty years. So…, at least twenty years ago, I taught myself a new habit. How?

I love to watch rugby! In 1995 South African Springboks played against the New Zealand All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. After ten minutes of extra time (unheard of before) Springbok Joel Stransky managed a successful drop goal to seal South Africa’s first World Cup Victory. Hey, what has this got to do with sexy women? The picture of Stransky’s kick soon became “viral”. (As viral as was possible in pre-Facebook times.) Physical hardcopies of that picture popped up everywhere. Every shop, every pub, wherever rugby fans got together, had one up against the wall. Even to this day. Back to my lustful thoughts. I taught myself the habit of capturing that first thought, not letting it continue to become lustful, and to think about Joel Stransky’s victory kick, picturing that “viral” picture in my mind. 

It still works today! I successfully replaced toxic thoughts with healthy thoughts! I manage to arrest a thought pattern, and change the direction of my thought process.

Toxic or healthy thoughts

Some thoughts are healthy, positive, useful, happy, encouraging, comforting, loving. This list of positive thoughts can go on forever. On the other hand, some thoughts are negative, vengeful, panic, fear, hateful, depressing, upsetting. Likewise, an endless list, but we will call them toxic. Why toxic? Because they are not good for us. They have no good outcomes if we would entertain them and pursue them further.  

Apart from everyday toxic thoughts about the traffic, politics, poverty, etc., that fills our minds, I want to show an example of something REALLY toxic. Let's say someone hurt us before. Said something terrible, did something horrible. Now, When we see them, or even just a mention on social media, the thought about the incident, complete with images, emotions, even audio comes to mind. The more we entertain these thoughts without taking action, the longer we will keep getting toxic thoughts every time something triggers it. The go-to thought pattern must change. (Because every situation is different for different people, I will not give specific advice here.) The important thing to know is that we are physically able to replace toxic thought - however serious and damaging they are - with healthy thought patterns that build us up.

Neuroplasticity

What? No! Not another science lesson? Relax. It will be very short. 

“Whatever we plant in our minds and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality” Earl Nightingale (US author and speaker. Died in 1989.)

Neuroplasticity is defined as a process that involves adaptive structural and functional changes to the brain. Neuron networks - connections between neurons, involving (among other) synapses - physically changes with every thought. Thought patterns are networked together around “a theme” as discussed before. Leaf describes it like this: 

“Branches (synapses) can be pruned back, or new ones grown, depending on the frequency they are used. Each change helps the brain to adapt to changing circumstances.”

“Whatever we think about the most, grows, because we are giving it energy.” Similarly if we do not “water this toxic tree” of thought, by stopping to think these negative thoughts, the applicable physical neuron network will dwindle, and eventually be changed by new connections to build  the new positive network. We build this new network by repeatedly replacing the toxic thought pattern with a new healthy pattern. This is what physically happens in what people call a PARADIGM SHIFT.

Picture this...

This is how wonderful our brains and minds have been made.

Written by