A new column on improving your brain power - at any age
Besides, 95-98% of these 60,000 thoughts are repeated every day. This means that there is very little room for ‘new’ thoughts.
Now each of these 60,000 thoughts consume energy. So if you can somehow work on reducing the repetitive thoughts, you make your other thoughts that much more powerful and effective.
Allow me to explain… Let’s say you have 60,000 units of energy available to cope with these 60,000 thoughts. Each thought then, gets only one unit of energy. But if you focus on reducing your thoughts, to say 5,000, then each thought can now tap into 12 units of energy and as a result your remaining thoughts become 12 times more powerful.
Most of us have experienced the power of this force when we have focused intensely on a job at hand. But if you are driven by a singular passion at a particular point, (as Yuvraj was in the recent Twenty 20 cricket series, when he struck six sixes in six balls) that ‘one’ single thought will have the power of 60,000 units of energy to back it up all the way to action and success.
What exactly is a thought? It could be an idea, an image, a sound, a smell, a touch or even an emotional feeling that arises from the brain. On a physical level, each thought releases a shower of chemicals (molecules or neuropeptides) that are released throughout the body. When thinking and feeling habits remain unchanged, the same molecular combinations of chemicals are produced over and over again. That is how negative thinking and feeling can trap and limit us. And that is why positive thinking can be so powerful.
How do you reduce the number of thoughts, de-clutter them? The only way is to identify and sort out your thoughts, including the stray unproductive ones. But there is no way we can be aware of every single thought we have. No matter how hard you try, you will find yourself falling back on autopilot.
So how do you de-clutter? I’ll deal with that next week. I also hope to answer your questions on any aspect of improving your brain power – whether it is memory, focusing power or even meditation.
Psychologists have estimated that, on an average, we have as many as 60,000 thoughts a day! That’s almost a thought every second, if we subtract the time spent in sleep, when we leave thinking to our subconscious self.
Besides, 95-98% of these 60,000 thoughts are repeated every day. This means that there is very little room for ‘new’ thoughts.
Now each of these 60,000 thoughts consume energy. So if you can somehow work on reducing the repetitive thoughts, you make your other thoughts that much more powerful and effective.
Allow me to explain… Let’s say you have 60,000 units of energy available to cope with these 60,000 thoughts. Each thought then, gets only one unit of energy. But if you focus on reducing your thoughts, to say 5,000, then each thought can now tap into 12 units of energy and as a result your remaining thoughts become 12 times more powerful.
Most of us have experienced the power of this force when we have focused intensely on a job at hand. But if you are driven by a singular passion at a particular point, (as Yuvraj was in the recent Twenty 20 cricket series, when he struck six sixes in six balls) that ‘one’ single thought will have the power of 60,000 units of energy to back it up all the way to action and success.
What exactly is a thought? It could be an idea, an image, a sound, a smell, a touch or even an emotional feeling that arises from the brain. On a physical level, each thought releases a shower of chemicals (molecules or neuropeptides) that are released throughout the body. When thinking and feeling habits remain unchanged, the same molecular combinations of chemicals are produced over and over again. That is how negative thinking and feeling can trap and limit us. And that is why positive thinking can be so powerful.
How do you reduce the number of thoughts, de-clutter them? The only way is to identify and sort out your thoughts, including the stray unproductive ones. But there is no way we can be aware of every single thought we have. No matter how hard you try, you will find yourself falling back on autopilot.
So how do you de-clutter? I’ll deal with that next week. I also hope to answer your questions on any aspect of improving your brain power – whether it is memory, focusing power or even meditation.
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Thought for the Week
“Every thought we think, is creating our future”Thought for the Week
Louise L. Hay
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times
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