Thoughts
flow in our minds ceaselessly except only during stage III or IV NREM ,the
stages of deep sleep probably. Whether we are actively thinking or
not, thoughts just never stop, unless of course we control it actively. Thoughts
make or break our lives. Sometimes
thoughts are insurmountable and creat a virtual reality, what we call as
psychosis or madness. We as humans beings are programmed to remain connected to
reality, to think within the relm of realism with momentary allowances to hover
in the clouds of virtuosity. Our reality is personal to us. We create our own
reality and we dwell in them. So is it just a free flow of thoughts we are
controlled by? Sometimes such is the situation. People who have done good
things in life, those who have excelled in life have been able to control their
thoughts rather than being driven by thoughts and emotions.
The
central concept of the economics of thought is letting into the brain only
those thoughts and informations which are necessary for growth, development and
success and absolutely cutting off unnecessary and useless information. Like
the unstoppable flow of a river, our thoughts are unstoppable. We create dams
on river to utilize the power of water for varied purposes like irrigation,
electricity production etc. Similarly we can put a dam on the free flow of our
thoughts and channelize the energy towards better ideas hence better actions.
Ultimately our aim is to produce better action. Life is
chiseled into shape by our thoughts and actions. Act for the sake of the sole
pleasure of performing the action. If you are a student you should study for
the sole pleasure of reading, no need to worry about results. Achieve
excellence and results follow.
In today's world information is opulent: switch on the
internet and the tsunami of information follows. We encounter information worthless
to us. In such a scenario it has become even more important to apply the
principle of economics of thought. Rather than just aimlessly searching for
something good, we need to first find out what we are looking for and then to
search for it. Entirely cutoff the unneeded information. We must remember that
we can contribute to our lives and to this world only when we concentrate on
very specific goals and excel on those.
So coming back to thought economics. I will tell one
instance of mine, I am an interventional cardiologist (simply saying I am one
of those doing the angiographies and stenting). Some time back I was going to
do a complex cardiac intervention. So I called up my guru ( my teacher) and
asked for guidance. He told me to go through all the available literature on
that particular topic and I did so. The procedure went off fine. This was a
simple day to day instance of how concentrating on specific tasks leads to
success. The concept of learning and working needs to change. The concept of
extensive knowledge (knowing something of everything) needs to be replaced by
intensive knowledge (knowing everything about something). In that process of
knowing everything about something, the knowledge and insights we gather are
invaluable. Any task we face, any problems we encounter has has a solution. The
type of outcome depends on how much time energy and mental focus we have
invested in searching for a solution and what we have learned in the process.
Channelizing your energy in a more positive and focused
direction needs practice and practice. There are two phenomena in the brain to
help us with our selection of thoughts. One is called “GATING” and the other is
called “NEUROPLASTICITY”. Gating in simple terms can be explained as two
persons trying to pass through a narrow gate. Since it is a narrow gate, only
one person can pass through it. Similarly the brain regulates how impulses
reaching it. When we are concentrating on something our brain automatically
cancels out all the other impulses, otherwise we would have never been able to
concentrate on something. Putting in a straight forward way - a bad feeling or
emotion can be replaced by a good idea. The good thought has the power to “gate
off” the bad thought. Just you have to let the good thought prevail.
There is another term called neuronal plasticity. That
means every time some information passes through our brain some micro synapses
develop in our brain, and over time as the same type of information passes
repetitively, the brain connections become fixed. Flow through such fixed
connections occur preferentially to others. This is central to learning and
memory. Memory is an exquisitely complex process. Some memory are called
explicit memory (like remembering your lessons) and some memory are called
implicit (the subconscious performances e.g., skills and habits, emotional
responses, habituation, sensitization). Here we have the capacity to master our
brains to memorize the positive thoughts. Just like how we remember to balance during
bicycling through numerous repetitions and permanent changes in the brain
connections, we can train our brain to be happy, positive and to give good
response to any situation. No situation is good or bad in themselves, it’s our
reaction which makes it good or bad. If we train our brain to behave in a good
way rather than react in a bad way to a given situation, we have achieved a major
step forward for peace, stability and success in our lives. By repetitively and
consciously selecting the right thoughts and discarding the wrong thoughts, we
can train our brain to give preference to the good ones. When these thoughts
are supplemented with befitting actions we achieve success in that domain.
So remember:
-Everything starts with a thought
-Choose the right thought
-Discard whatever is unnecessary and meaningless for you
-Repeat and repeat your thoughts
-Supplement with matching actions
-Repeat thoughts and actions till becomes a habit
- Keep on doing it.
This is a general discussion on the economics of thought.
There are many more to come. Thank you for reading. Your comments are most
welcome.
