Fast, Happy, Thinking
Yes, researchers at both Harvard and Princeton Universities confirm that rapid-fire thinking can help you feel "more elated, creative, and to a lesser degree, energetic and powerful." Need a Happiness Boost? Try an easy crossword puzzle or brainstorming quickly about an idea.
The best way to super-charge your mood is with fast and varied thinking. The varied part is very important because if the task is just fast and repetitive, it's likely to trigger anxiety. In contrast, slow and varied thinking can lead to a calm- and peaceful-type happiness, but slow and repetitive thinking can quickly become boring, reducing energy and often spur negative or depressive thinking.
So what makes all of this so?
The researchers concluded that thinking quickly "may unleash the brain's novelty-loving dopamine system, which is involved in sensations of pleasure and reward." Admittedly, the power-boost people can get from fast thinking may be transient, but "these little bursts of positive emotion add up."
For me, listening closely to some complex music, playing my guitar, a good game of Scrabble, watching something visually interesting -- and stuff like that -- works well for me.
What fast and varied thinking do you do that tends to improve your mood?
Labels: Getting Unstuck, Motivation
posted by Barry Zweibel at 8:22 AM
15 Comments:
I think much of this kind of work these days is derivative of Flow Theory. That is a book about the psychology of optimal experience. The point of the book was people perform and feel the best when their skills and challenges are just slightly imballanced. So people get in the zone when whatever they are doing requires an immersion of concentration where the goal is just in front of them or they are just slightly superior to it. Accordingly, you can target that parameter by adjusting the degree of challenge or skill appropriately.
So yes, activities that engage give you a boost. I find video games, believe it or not, offer this kind of stimulous. Good movies too.
Best,
Anthony
In these times this issue is particularly important. Seems to me that all my thinking is fast paced! I find that balance of work and play and sleep is critical and exercise is very beneficial.
Richard
If I'm by myself I first of all take a deep breath and bring myself to the moment, once I'm present I will pick up some upbeat and involved reading. Currently I'm reading the Audacity of Hope. Books like that get me into a positive emotional state. If I'm with other people I try to steer the conversation to a challenging, maybe even controversial topic that get's everyone involved in a stimulating conversation.
Yes, I am amazed that I do this everyday, yet never realised it!
Whenever there is a drop in the mood, thinking about a new project/task and shifting your focus definitely helps. In my numerous tasks, I simply juggle them around, and lo, there is something more interesting and challenging that boosts me up. If that fails, I normally get on to a Sudoku on my desktop - boy, is it refreshing?
For more boosts, a phone call to a friend I have not spoken to lately works!
Running a laboratory and characterizing any of tens of thousands of materials, processed in thousands of ways, and used in hundreds of thousands of ways, helps to keep a mind quite nimble.
On top of that, I am very engaged in the desperate and critical fight for the sovereignty of the individual mind, body, and life against the onslaught of the brutal socialist state.
Anthony: "Flow," yes. As its author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, says: "Optimal experience is something that we MAKE happen." And as far as your video games and good movies -- that's excellent!
Richard: Great point. I like the "balance" notion. I like how Patricia Ryan Madson said it in her wonderful little book called Improv Wisdom: “Life is all about balancing not about being balanced…Embrace the wobble.”
I, for one, tend to wobble a lot!
Jen: Getting present; getting involved; getting new synapses firing - great stuff.
Navinder: Juggling, Sudoku, calling a friend, - very nice! In fact, years ago, when I first started realizing that the job of a leader is so much about juggling (priorities, meetings, conversations, assignments, and on and on) I picked up three bean bags and a copy of "Juggling Made Easy". I didn't realize it at the time, but "fast and varied" to be sure!
Dr. Charles: You Conspiracy Therorist, you! Railing against the State is a noble form of "fast and varied", to be sure!
--
Quoting Csikszentmihalyi, again, "[Happiness] does not depend on outside events, but rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy."
The final paragraph of "Flow" (written almost 20 years ago) says it well: "Complexity consists of INTEGRATION as well as differentiation. The task of the next decades and centuries is to realize this under-developed component of the mind. Just as we have learned to separate ourselves from each other and from the environment, we now need to learn how to reunite ourselves with other entities around us without losing our hard-won individuality."
Thanks all for your individual contributions to this thread. A nice merging of individual, small group, and Universal Flow, indeed!
Absolutely Barry! Thanks for opening the discussion. Csikzentmihalyi said it so eloquently, and it's ever relevant.
Complexity science and its' principles offers an alternative to the rigidity of the traditional complicated hierarchical structures that much of western civilisation and business is built upon. Simple boundaries are more effective and more present when true leadership occurs.
Much of what is happening within our economies now just underlines the need for a new way of thinking that embraces the intelligence & capability of the masses of one of this planet's most complex structures (humans!). With simplicity of focus comes the magic of possibility and endless flow - if we only allow this to happen, as opposed to putting the power of regulation within the few, well the imploding banking system is sufficient example to evidence the result here! (Don't get me started, Barry! :) )
These are exciting times, and the more we can help our colleagues to be open to opportunity and collaboration, the more society as a whole can step up to the challenge of self-directed leadership.
Go well each :)
Excellent post. I'll have to try some of these out.
The idea of goal orientation coupled with visualization has been around for a long time and has proven to be effective many times over. As Earl Nightingale said, "you become what you think about" so be sure your thoughts are positive and constructive. Think as much as possible about what you want vs. what you don't want. The more you focus on something, the more likely you are to bring that thing into your life.
Following this theory, if your thinking is negative, your results will be negative and the resulting unhappiness is inevitable. But if your thinking is positive, clear and focused, you will achieve your goals and happiness will follow.
I spend time each morning rewriting my goals and I regularly schedule time for recreation which in my case includes things like sailing, skiing, and spending quality time with my family.
I do something I call Hypermodern Evolutions" to improve on just that. For me, I refer to being "on-line" vs. "off-line". When you make a commitment to accomplish some challenge, the decisions you make will be dependant on how worthwhile the desire is. From there, it is up to you to properly motivate and discipline yourself. Along the line of Flow, I train for spikes and suspension. Aren't the most worthwhile things to accomplish the most challenging or the most boring? Try challenging yourself to concentrate on something for a whole day. It is a matter of motivation to control your reactions to stress and solve problems. It is a matter of discipline to keep yourself entertained while going through the motions. However, before you can do that, I think you have to experiment with goal setting and execution strategies such that the learning includes both successes and failures.
Anyways, it's one thing to plan on getting up at 4 in the morning when you alert and have been concentrating on some course. It's another when you wake up and the first goal you have is to turn off the alarm clock. When you program yourself with a goal, you should project what kind of effort it is going to require you to put forward. So start your plan with the basic premise that you are "off-line". Then work out ways to recognize that, or otherwise automate yourself to do what you would if you were "on-line".
Stretching does have uses to help you get back "on-line". The process of essentially coaching yourself is much clearer when you actually have someone coaching you. Really, when you are reaching your limits, isn't it better to have someone there to give you a hand up, or better yet say the things you no longer try to say in your condition. After a while, Hypermodern Evolutions teaches you ways to make a game out of taking yourself to the next level. Once you get good at the game, it simply becomes a matter of building improved skills and setting ever increasing challenges.
Best,
Anthony
i may be wrong but i think a little sleep, does the trick for me, i come back better charged to take on whatever it is i was grappling with.
I like Jeni's idea about picking up a book to induce 'rapid thinking'. Of course The Leadership Challenge always generates ideas for me, but I also like "The Other 90 Percent," or "52 Projects." The website for "52 Projects" (52 projects.com ) has great links to artsy, creative thinkers and projects. For me, making a list full of ideas of things I might do for myself or others, or opportunities that I might take advantage of, definitely creates positive energy (and very often results in doing things a new way)!
Rehearsing/performing difficult and beautiful choral music always gives me a lift. Working on Mozart's Requiem right now. Lots of fast, difficult passages there!
Ah, I finally have a positive explanation for my never--ending quest for multi-tasking! I recall that my days at CWRU were my first real taste of the drunken headiness of having too much to do and, nevertheless, getting it done pretty well. As I developed my family, my career and my volunteer history, I happily continued to create my own monster. And, lo and behold, I was exponentially sought after for my ability to tackle anything and complete the task. As they say, if you really want to get something done, ask a busy person.
The benefit to me? I don't need too much chocolate... or sleep. (Sorry, Richard.)
"The drunken headiness of having too much to do and, nevertheless, getting it done pretty well." I like that, Julie! There's really some truth to the old adage that "if it wasn't for deadlines, nothing would ever get done!"
Fast...varied...happy...productive...good!
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