The brain rattles on, humming and
ticking, as much as the heart automatically keeps beating. If you’re alive
and stirring, your brain is active. It’s one cog in the continuum we call
“being alive.”
People name this activity in the
brain “thinking” or “daydreaming” or “worrying” or “imagining.” But it’s
hardly so grand as all that. It’s physical activity that perchance takes
place in your head, but at its automatic mode of operating it’s no better
and no worse than any other humming and ticking. It’s brain activity: automatic
neural burbling.
On the one hand, it’s miraculous that the automatic process occurs day in and day out for a lifetime. You’re born, you grow up, your heart beats, your liver filters, and your brain tosses off these so-called “thoughts,” like so many repetitious moltings…
On the other hand, a more complex and more delightful level of function can be attained. In fact, people will agree that the brain may sometimes be – shall we say – more capable; and sometimes, less. But ever-finer degrees of “more” remain possible. You can become more of a captain and a navigator of your brain – just as you can enhance your physical gifts by creative, sensible and vigorous stewardship of your body. And it’s only from that vantage point of more that you may even begin to comprehend the pedestrian, automatic nature of activity rumbling around in your head.
Comprehending the automatic is, in fact, is the first step. It’s the beginning from which you may then really begin.
Let’s call the automatic process “IT.” IT seems to run along whether you want it to or not. The proof of this is exceedingly simple: try to stop it. Try to think nothing. It sounds simple but try it. In a matter of seconds, you’ll see that thinking nothing requires effort and concentration and is very difficult to sustain for even half a minute. The rest of the time when you are not trying to think nothing – your whole life – you will keep on “thinking” whether you want to or not. “It” runs of its own accord, just like your heart does.
If you’ll try this test, you’ll see – it’s provable. This is not a theory.
And the best indicator of whether
or not you might proceed somewhere new with this information is this: intentionally
arresting the automatic flow should feel pleasurable, pleasurable enough
so you DO IT OFTEN.