The lost art of thinking and how to get it back

What do YOU think?

That question is one we hear often from pretty much everyone in our sphere of influence Our spouses, parents, kids, friends, co- workers are always asking us to weigh in on our ideas about many different situations.

How does this dress look? What color should we paint the dining room? Should I invite my great aunt’s new boyfriend to the baby’s birthday party? We are constantly seeking feedback to tell us how to respond to a number of situations before WE decide how we will proceed.

In the age of social media, this process of determination is even further removed however, because often we don’t think at all- in fact, we simply choose a position to take and regurgitate it as if it were our own idea, vehemently defending it at the risk of alienating that other person.

Do you think?

Do we really THINK anymore? Have we forgotten how to use this deductive reasoning in favor instead of simply being told what we SHOULD think or what we SHOULD feel? We are constantly being bombarded with content from so many sources that we do a heck of a lot of consuming information and a whole lot less time processing it.

Our memory and attention spans are getting worse.

Our relationships are deteriorating.

Our happiness is dwindling, and we are getting sicker.

We are getting weaker.

Chances are if you ask someone what they think about a certain situation, they will at some point in the conversation betray to you where they got the position they took. Who they decided got to think for them. I know I have done it. It is just too easy to take another opinion and hitch our star to their wagon.
My fear though is that one day we will wake up, and like that password you never wrote down because it was so easy to remember, we will no longer be able to think.

Science has proven that when you stop using parts of your brain, those parts rewire and start doing something else. Use it or Lose it, they call it. Maybe that is what happened to our tails?

Kidding.

But on a serious note, if we don’t start THINKING on a regular basis, we may just wake up and find out that we can’t anymore. That our brain stalls like your first beater car that you your parents got you for your 16th birthday. We may not even know how to get back in!
So what can we do about this? Well I for one have a few ideas:

How To Practice Thinking:

1. Set aside time in your day where you consume ZERO information. Yes yes, this is a sneaky way of asking you to meditate but I know lots of people roll their eyes at this idea or worse run screaming for the hills. It sounds so pedantic, almost condescending. Someone tells you to breathe and you immediate dismiss that as patronizing. Been there for that too. But seriously, if all you do is stare at a wall and dig your fingers into your palms while your mind races, then that is a start. Let your mind race. Try this for 10 minutes, work up to 30 if you can. Give your brain a chance to process the information it is constantly consuming.

2. Choose one task that you will never do in front of a screen. Is it brushing your teeth? Is it eating? Maybe it’s exercising. Whatever you choose, make a solemn promise to yourself that you won’t do this activity unless you are phone, computer, watch, tablet free. Period.

3. Get yourself a good old-fashioned puzzle book. Crosswords, word searches, logic problems, seek and find, cryptograms. Penny Press has great ones! They are usually in the magazine section at the drug store and super market. Oh yeah, and the book store. Don’t do these things on your phone because you will just be too tempted to hop into more content. It is too easy to switch from a game to a social media platform so don’t even tempt yourself.

4. Plan a game night. Whether it is with your friends and their spouses or just you and your fam. Find some games that require thinking. Scategories is a great one because you are timed, Outburst is another one we love! Heck Battleship takes some serious thinking! Make sure it’s a game of strategy and not so much chance, you want to really take that noggin of yours for a spin!

5. Write out a list of something. Try a list of romantic comedies, recipes that have corn in them, books you read on vacation, places you want to visit, songs you want to download. The key here is to make these things that you must draw out of your own brain. You can’t mess this up whether you can think of 30 things or 300 things. The key is just to stimulate the recall center in your brain.

But That’s Not ALL…..

This is certainly not a comprehensive list of things to make you think but it is a good start! The point is to get your brain to do the dirty work without having outside influence. The ideas and the thoughts come from YOU without waiting for feedback from a site or an app, or even a book.

What are some other ideas you have about ways you can flex your thinking muscles?