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RE: Thought Experiment—Don't Think, Just DO! [Day 1 of 30]

in #busy6 years ago (edited)

Funnily, I've thought and exercised this very same thing myself, shutting down the "monkey brain" when needed. When I recognize some resistance within me when I'm supposed to take on a task that I anticipate being tedious, I "zoom out" like you phrased it and don't take my own thoughts so seriously, the brain just does some farting at times and doesn't really know what it's doing or what's actually best for you.

One way for me to practice this is cold showers. Every time I take a shower I crank the water as cold as it gets (and in my mother's place it's COLD, like literally brain-freezing). Sometimes just before doing it, a thought might arise: "goch that'll be uncomfortable", but then I'm like "no monkey brain, you know nothing, I've done this numerous times, it's not like I'd suddenly die this time", and then just do it without hesitation.

The body will adapt and its nervous system will get used to sudden changes but the mental aspect is at least as important as the physical one.

I still wash myself with warm water tho to get clean but I always crank it to cold at the start and at the end.

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Welp, as you put it this "monkey brain"... of mine is running loose at all times, and you can't just shut it off without offering it some sort of counterbalance. I try to zoom out, but it has failed to work up until this point. All I can hope to do is to zoom in on a physical action to nullify the thought. Kind of like thought replacement but with an action instead, so I can keep moving.

I'm legit going to try your cold shower idea, even though I already know that my brain will somehow try to talk me out of it—but that's the point right? I could see this as working in my favor as a mental trigger to not think about the future, and by doing so not worry. I take showers so hot, I may as well live inside a volcano xD

I could see this as working in my favor as a mental trigger to not think about the future, and by doing so not worry.

Yup, I think so too that a lot of it is about the anticipation of future, which of course is inevitable for us humans when we plan on something new we haven't yet done, for example. Or evaluating a given activity that we have a big enough snapshot of data (or just practical experience) to estimate how beneficial and fulfilling it actually is in the long run.

All I can hope to do is to zoom in on a physical action to nullify the thought. Kind of like thought replacement but with an action instead, so I can keep moving.

Surely there's no one right way to do it, so do what works for you.

I'm legit going to try your cold shower idea, even though I already know that my brain will somehow try to talk me out of it—but that's the point right?

Oh yeah, avoiding coldness is probably the brain's favorite activity 😁 Of course you can do it by gradually decreasing the temperature but I like to jump head first into the dragon's nest.

"anticipation of future"

I'll give you a key example. While it normally takes me days to reply to a comment, I'm not even worrying about that shit right now. Instead of anticipating what I'll say—I'll just write it now.

Forsure, different strokes for different folks, it's just a matter of finding a system that will work out for me. Thanks for the encouragement! :3

Yeah, avoiding the cold is definitely hard-wired into us. I see movies sometimes when characters are put into ice baths as a form of mental-breaking torture. Should be interesting to see how breaking my own mind goes for me lmao

Should be interesting to see how breaking my own mind goes for me lmao

I'm looking forward to it! 😄

No thinking presents: Cold shower challenge!

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