Mindfulness of thinking. Conscious thinking. Engage in more active self-development

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THINKING

The origin of consciousness and its essence is one of the most complex philosophical problems. Suffice it to say that discussions about the secondary or primacy of consciousness in relation to the material world are still ongoing. Quite a lot is already known about human mental activity (the neurophysiology of thinking, the laws of logic, the connection between consciousness and language, etc.), but there is still a lot of mystery and mystery left.

For example, a person is able to control many functions of his body: he can not breathe for some time, do without water and food; There are unique people who can, through an effort of will, even change the frequency of their own heartbeat. But none of us can stop even for a short time the process of thinking, which continues continuously, day and night, throughout our lives. Try not to think about anything, and you will immediately find yourself at least thinking about not thinking about anything.

The closely related concepts of “thinking,” “consciousness,” and “intelligence” are sometimes unjustifiably identified; I think it's the same thing. This is acceptable in everyday life, but in scientific terms they should be distinguished.

Thinking is the ability to perform logical operations, that is, the ability to deduce one thing from another using words or images. Any living creature has this ability from birth if its nervous system has reached a certain development and complexity. Anyone who has observed the behavior of animals will remember more than one case when an animal demonstrates logical behavior, which is not always genetically programmed. Animals are capable of learning new things and inventing actions that are not in the genetic code.

The author of these lines was once almost late for work, watching a crow place walnuts on the tram rails. It has been established, for example, that many animals are capable of even such a complex logical operation as counting. True, their counting is carried out not on an abstract level (with words or numbers), but on a figurative one. Birds can “count” to three, ants - to twelve, dogs - to twenty, dolphins - to sixty. I will give a description of a classic experiment with ants that confirms this skill.

Not far from the anthill, the researchers placed a board covered with pegs (see figure)

anthill;

board with pegs;

3 – delicacy;

4 – ant trajectory-

scout.

Experiment on ants' ability to count

A treat was placed on one of the pegs, say the fifth one from the anthill. A scout ant, having stumbled upon a board, begins to examine the pegs, climbing onto them one by one. Having reached the fifth and finding food, he descends and rushes along the board into the anthill. After a while, loader ants run out of it and confidently and busily head straight to the fifth peg, bypassing the first four.

It is not entirely clear how exactly the “scout” conveyed information about the location of the delicacy to his colleagues, but there is an assumption that there is an account involved. The objection follows that the “loaders” run in the opposite footsteps of the “scout”, or are guided by the smell of food, and the score has nothing to do with it. To check this, researchers pull out the first peg while the “scout” is hiding in the anthill. And what? The “loaders” run to the sixth peg, which has now become the fifth, and, naturally, do not find food. You can imagine their disappointment.

To remove all doubts, in the next experiment, at the moment when the “scout” is hiding in the anthill, they generally replace the board with a new board with pegs, but without any delicacy. Thus, traces and odors are now completely absent. However, the “loaders” still run straight to the fifth peg.

When in the experiment the treat was placed at 7,8,9, etc. pegs, until the twelfth, the “loaders” acted very confidently; but as soon as they placed food on the thirteenth peg or further, they found themselves unable to find it.

Consciousness is the ability of thinking to analyze itself. Only a person has the ability to think about how exactly he thinks. At least, other cases are not known to science. And this skill gives rise to the concept of “I”, that is, the awareness of one’s own existence, which underlies all other human qualities.

Consciousness is not given at birth, but is developed in a child through communication with people around him through upbringing and training. Outside of this communication, consciousness does not arise. Cases when babies, by force of circumstances, end up in a pack of monkeys or wolves for a long time and, because of this, forever lose the opportunity to become people in the strict sense of the word, once again confirm what has been said. Consequently, consciousness is not a natural, not a biological, but a social, socio-historical product.

The presence of consciousness in a person (and only in a person!) has a strong influence on his thinking, that is, on the very process of implementing logical operations, on the level of their complexity and efficiency. Thinking that is aware of itself, becomes capable of purposeful development and improvement, becomes what we call human intelligence. We can say that a person’s intellect is his thinking, ennobled by consciousness. In this case, intelligence contains two components; natural, given, as they say, from God, and acquired through the introduction of a disabled person to civilizational culture.

There is also a more strict definition of intelligence: this is a concept that expresses a person’s ability to quickly make the right decisions in conditions of scarcity or excess of information. It highlights three key aspects: quick thinking; its correctness in relation to the goal; The flow of information or its lack equally makes it difficult to find the right solution or its options. The faster the thought process proceeds, the fewer mistakes are made, and the less interference there is from a lack or excess of information, the higher the level of a person’s intelligence.

Understanding consciousness is fraught with difficulties. The fact is that consciousness is not directly given to us. The images that arise in the brain are not externally observable. We can observe a person’s behavior, his emotions, his speech; When examining the brain, one can observe the physiological processes occurring in it. But it is impossible to observe, even with the help of instruments, consciousness. Images in consciousness do not have the same material properties that the objects reflected by these images have (for example, fire burns, but the image of fire in consciousness does not have this property). Therefore, it turns out that when studying the physiological activity of the brain, human behavior, emotions, speech, it is not consciousness itself that is studied, but its material basis and its materialization in human activity. In this case, consciousness can be judged indirectly, indirectly.

A special way of studying consciousness is observation (introspection) of one’s own spiritual life. In this case, however, a specific difficulty arises. So, for example, if we begin to analyze our emotions or thoughts, then during the course of this analysis they begin to disappear (the thought of the thought displaces the thought itself).

However, with all the difficulties in understanding consciousness, in order to further talk about it and its origin, we must try to give at least a working definition of consciousness. In philosophy, the definition of consciousness includes the indication of its two main functions: reflecting and controlling. Concretizing this approach, we can offer the following definition: consciousness is a person’s ability to display material objects in ideal images and purposefully regulate their relationships with these objects.

In the second half of the 19th century. In the European scientific world, there were quite passionate discussions about the nature of thinking, the echoes of which are heard to this day. Not only philosophers took part in them, but also natural scientists, mainly physiologists. The dispute revolved around the question: is thought as such material, or immaterial (ideal)?

Some scientists believed that thought is a special kind of substance released during its work (in our time, it is suggested that the materiality of thought has not a material, but a field basis). Others objected, believing that although thought is connected with material processes in the brain (physical, chemical), but nothing more; the thought itself is ideal, that is, it does not possess any of the properties inherent in matter or the physical field.

In fairness, it must be said that this discussion began even earlier in the 17th century. German philosopher and mathematician Leibniz. He formulated a paradox, the essence of which, in modern language, can be expressed as follows.

Let's imagine that the human brain has expanded to the size of a large industrial enterprise. And we can, walking through its “shops,” observe the operation of the equipment and the entire progress of production. At the same time, however, we would not be able to understand from our observations what kind of products are produced at this plant. Machines hum, conveyors move, parts and assemblies flash, but it is unclear what the final product is. Being intrigued, we ask to show us the warehouse for finished products, to which we receive a stunning answer that there is none at the plant at all. Thus, the paradox is that the brain is like a factory where everything is spinning and turning, but the product of this amazing factory is not something tangible, but this very twisting and turning.

Proponents of the materiality of thought cited as an argument an experiment (physiologists demonstrated such experiments to students at their university lectures) in which a student was placed on a horizontal board with an axis of rotation in the middle and balanced. Then he was asked the question: “What is 14x17?” He began to think, and his balance was disturbed towards his head. “You see,” the professor exclaimed, “the brain began to secrete thoughts, just as the liver secretes bile, and the head became heavier!” To this, supporters of the ideality of thought objected that with intense thinking, blood flow to the brain increases, and experience, thus, does not prove anything.

We can conclude that the dispute essentially boiled down to the question: is thought a PRODUCT of the brain, or a FUNCTION of the brain? If the first is true, then thought is material; if the second is true, then the thought is ideal. The discussion is not over, although it should be noted that most scientists are inclined to believe that thought is a function of the brain; and this function is information analysis. The brain does not generate information, but processes it, transforming it into a new quality. Information does not have the properties of a material object, that is, it is ideal.

Like everything else in the world, consciousness is the result of development.

Any material object has a property that can be considered as a prerequisite for consciousness. This property is reflection (display). The word “reflection” in the usual sense means the throwing, bouncing of something from any obstacle, just as rays of light are reflected from a mirror surface. In philosophy, this term is filled with a different meaning.

When things interact with each other, some changes certainly occur in them. At the same time, for some time - short or significant - traces of the impact remain, from which quite often one can guess, restoring the picture, what exactly was affected and how.

Scientist studying in laboratory Various influences on the subject of research; a hunter following the trail of a taiga animal; a fingerprint operator who takes fingerprints at a crime scene, etc. - all of them, in one way or another, are busy reconstructing the picture of the events that happened in their wake. Therefore, reflection is the reaction of a material system to an impact, which is accompanied by the imprinting and preservation of traces of this impact. As a universal (universal) property of matter, reflection accompanies any interaction, regardless of its nature. If we consider the evolution of material systems, we can distinguish the simplest forms of reflection (mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc.) and more complex ones associated with the appearance of living beings. In unicellular organisms this is irritability. In multicellular organisms, a selective reaction to influences appears, sensory organs arise and, as a result, sensations appear. The psyche develops on the basis of sensations. The ability to think is formed on the basis of the psyche. Finally, consciousness appears on the foundation of thinking.

Thus, consciousness is the highest stage of development of such a universal property of matter as the property of reflecting. This conclusion allows us to make the assumption that consciousness in the most general terms is the result of the evolution of living matter, which has risen in its development to the state of social life, that is, human society. However, science cannot yet boast that there is complete clarity on the question of the origin of consciousness. On the contrary, there is much more that is unclear.

Explaining the origin of consciousness through chance is not a very serious task. The likelihood of such an event is negligible; it is much less than, say, the probability that a sudden whirlwind hitting a city landfill will accidentally “collect” a Mercedes 600 from trash and debris.

One of the most common hypotheses for the emergence of consciousness is the evolutionary-labor hypothesis, whose co-authors are Charles Darwin and F. Engels. According to it, many millennia ago, one of the subspecies of apes, through labor activity and articulate speech, evolved towards human society.

It is assumed that this process was long and gradual. The biological prerequisites for consciousness were: a large brain, a gregarious lifestyle of monkeys, and anatomical features of the forelimbs that allow them to pick up objects. This contributed to upright walking and the manufacture of simple tools (as is known, not a single animal is able to make a tool).

The transition from thinking to consciousness, which once took place on this basis, led to the appearance in ancient people of such qualities as the ability to communicate with each other through words and the ability to plan their actions (animals, figuratively speaking, live “in the moment”). A visual diagram of the evolutionary labor process can be seen in any school biology classroom, where it is shown in detail how, starting with the appearance of amoeba and ciliates, the development of living beings leads to the emergence of primates, and then human society.

Of course, this hypothesis has strengths. Firstly, all types of living beings can easily be placed on the steps of the evolutionary “ladder”, each of which is accompanied by the appearance of new properties that did not exist before; At the top level there is precisely a person with his new property - consciousness, which seems quite logical.

Secondly, it has been established that during the nine months of its intrauterine development, the human embryo briefly goes through (reproduces) the main of the mentioned stages (a tail, gill slits, fins, etc. appear, which then atrophy). This speaks of the kinship of the human race with the rest of the animal world, that is, of the natural evolutionary origin of man. However, we note that the fact of consciousness does not automatically follow from this relationship: biologically, man is a product of evolution, most likely this is so; but his consciousness cannot be explained as just a “free appendix” to this evolution.

Thirdly, it is known that the genetic codes of humans and apes coincide by 97%, which indirectly indicates the idea of ​​​​a direct relationship of people with them, and not with some other species of living organisms. An important role is also played by the external resemblance of humans to great apes, which usually gives rise to some kind of vaguely intriguing and keen curiosity about these creatures among observing people. But here it must be added that the genetic codes of cats and dogs, for example, also coincide to almost the same extent, but no one is in a hurry to claim on this basis that cats descended from dogs, or vice versa.

At the same time, the evolutionary-labor hypothesis of the origin of consciousness also has weaknesses, which in our country during the years of Soviet power were hushed up for ideological reasons (the fight against religion, the logical inviolability of Marxism-Leninism, etc.).

Firstly, so far, despite all efforts, no remains of the so-called “intermediate link” between ape and man have been found. Proponents of this hypothesis try to explain this by the fact that the transition link was not stable or stable; it supposedly was short-lived and therefore left no traces. Others say that they have not found it yet, but perhaps we will find it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I must admit that all this does not sound very convincing.

Secondly, it has been established that we humans use only 7-9% of our brain capacity on average. Nature does not create anything “for future use”; all living beings use their biological capabilities to the fullest. The presence of such a huge “reserve” in the human brain is completely inexplicable from the point of view of the evolutionary labor hypothesis. A fantastic idea arises that man may have appeared not in earthly conditions, but in other conditions that required a different use of intellectual abilities.

Thirdly, it is known that various species of animals are just disappearing (mainly due to man-made human activity); no one has ever observed the emergence of a new species, either in natural or laboratory conditions. All attempts to artificially create a new species by crossing existing ones fail. In some cases, the resulting hybrids cannot reproduce (for example, a mule - a hybrid of a horse and a donkey - is not capable of producing offspring); in others, the original species are born again in the hydrids, say, a cross between a wolf and a dog produces offspring in the form of either “pure” dogs or “pure” wolves). This suggests that humans and apes are different species, rather than subspecies of the same species.

The idea of ​​crossing humans and monkeys for experimental purposes can hardly be considered ethical and humane. However, during the Second World War, German doctors, if you can call them that, also carried out such “experiments.” They gave a negative result: fertilization did not occur. All this seriously undermines the credibility of the hypothesis about the origin of man from the ape.

Fourthly, radiocarbon dating methods have established that biomass (the mass of all living things) on Earth has remained virtually unchanged for millions of years; it fluctuates in one direction or another only in connection with climate changes. Whereas, according to the evolutionary hypothesis, biomass should increase over time. This gives rise to an assumption, incredible from the point of view of traditional ideas, about the simultaneous appearance of all types of living beings on Earth.

Thus, we see that the question of the origin of consciousness remains open. There are other assumptions on this topic. This, for example, is a cosmological hypothesis according to which in the distant past there was an accidental or planned “seeding” of the Earth with DNA matrices, including the human genetic code.

This is the gravitational hypothesis, according to which the gravitational field has different frequencies, similar to the frequencies of the electromagnetic field; These frequencies correspond to various material formations, among which there are “biogravitons”. In this regard, the material basis of consciousness is a gravitational field of a special frequency.

This is the lepton-field hypothesis, according to which there are special particles - leptons, which create fields with different levels of animation and thinking (these particles have already been discovered by modern science, but their properties have not yet been sufficiently studied).

Be that as it may, we can say that three major problems for which modern science does not yet have clear answers - the origin of the Universe, the emergence of life, the emergence of consciousness - continue to excite the imagination and bother us with their unresolved nature.

Consciousness is inextricably linked with speech - the second signaling system (the first is sensations). The concept of “language” is broader than the concept of “speech”. Language is any method of transmitting information, while speech is the transmission of information using words. There is a language of sounds, gestures, facial expressions, drawings, etc.; and there is a language of words - speech - the highest form of language.

The language of animals performs only a signaling function; it is not capable of denoting things and phenomena. For example, the leader of a flock of geese, seeing a fox or a hawk, immediately gives a danger signal, but it is a signal, not a sign; his cry is the same for any threat; it does not indicate the nature of the danger: is it threatening from the ground or from the air, and what exactly is threatening. At this moment, a flock of geese interrupts what they are doing and acts as the leader does - takes off if he rises into the air, or rushes into the bushes if the leader is hiding there.

Speech, as the language of consciousness, as the material shell of thought, not only signals, but also designates, that is, it performs a sign function. In addition, the word performs the function of generalization, without which abstract thinking is impossible. In animals, even higher ones, this function is practically not developed. Here is a description of a textbook experience. The chimpanzee was trained to pour water from a jar on fire in order to get a banana from a box (the fire prevented this from happening). When a box with a banana and a fire were placed on the raft, and a jar of water was left on the shore, the chimpanzee ran along the walkway to get a jar of water, although there was a lot of water around and there was an empty jar.

What prevents the monkey from scooping up water from the lake? Low level of generalization: for chimpanzees, water in a jar and water in a lake are not the same thing. She has no concept of “water at all.” It is known that among the backward peoples of the north, the snow lying on the ground has one name; CIS on a tree – another; falling snow - third, etc. Their consciousness is not yet so developed as to rise to the general concept of “snow in general.” That is why backward peoples do not have philosophical systems, since their consciousness requires a high level of abstract thinking and the corresponding vocabulary.

Consciousness cannot directly analyze the thinking process. But what happens in itself, including during thinking, consciousness can analyze. To my awareness, the process of conscious thinking appears as follows.

The leading consciousness, in charge of speech and logical thinking (hereinafter referred to as “awareness”) asks itself (its brain) a question and waits, the person thinks. What is happening at this time - awareness does not know.

After some time, the answer appears in awareness in the form of a thought (if the result of the brain’s work does not reach awareness, then there is no thought).
Consciousness evaluates this answer, if the answer does not suit it, it asks the next question, etc.

Or the answer comes that there is not enough data to solve the problem, and the person suddenly understands, “realizes” that he does not have enough knowledge (or capabilities) to answer this question. And the solution to the problem is postponed for an indefinite period of time.

Thus, the ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE THOUGHT PROCESS IS GUIDING AND EVALUATING, EXPERT. If consciousness is an expert, it means that it thinks, analyzes, but differently than the part of the brain whose work it evaluates. We can say that awareness is the operator of the computing center (cerebral cortex).

Obviously, awareness neurons work on a DIFFERENT PRINCIPLE than neurons in the cerebral cortex (since doing the same work twice is pointless). For example, according to the “like it - don’t like it” type.

I like what suits the requirement best. What fits is suitable, and this can be determined by overlaying it on a finished sample or by butting it together. But evaluation by superimposing on a ready-made sample (“standard”), which was once determined by trial and error, is the work of instincts, where the “like-dislike” principle is also used (for example, searching for food, avoiding danger). Probably, checking with awareness of a ready-made thought also occurs according to this principle.

This process can take varying amounts of time. But ready-made thoughts that come to consciousness, NO MATTER THE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION THEY CONTAIN, arise so quickly that a feeling of instantaneity is created.

The movement of proteins, ions and mediators is relatively slow; it is doubtful that it causes a feeling of instantaneousness with any large amount of information. Only the occurrence of a potential difference on the membranes of neurons, and the electromagnetic wave accompanying this process, can be instantaneous.

But if ready-made thoughts came to consciousness through electromagnetic radiation, then with separate hemispheres, one half of the brain would know what the other was thinking. But this is not the case.

This can be schematically represented as follows. For example, when consciousness asks itself a question, a potential difference arises on the membranes of its neurons, and the calculating neurons of the cortex receive an impulse that forces them to work. And when the answer is ready, a response impulse comes and the potential difference disappears. Consciousness senses this as an instantaneous arrival of a thought. And if the potential difference disappears completely, he feels relief and joy (the answer is - I like it). If the answer is incorrect, the potential difference does not disappear (the answer is “I don’t like it”).

Or if the answer is logically correct, but in general it is not, the potential difference disappears only in one of the consciousnesses, for example, the logically thinking one. The man is happy. But something inside him - the SECOND CONSCIOUSNESS - feels that something is wrong in this answer, it does not know what exactly, but the second consciousness clearly does not like the answer.

Then the logically thinking consciousness clarifies the task, the ions on its membranes are rearranged differently, and again an impulse goes to the calculating cells, forcing them to look for the correct answer. This whole process requires a lot of energy, the consciousness feels tired, the solution to the problem is postponed, the task to the brain is canceled, the potential difference disappears.

Or, with a strong desire to solve a problem, a feeling of dissatisfaction and even suffering, the energy of these emotions at the “subconscious” level forces the cells of the cortex to continue to search for an answer even when awareness is resting (sleeping). And in the morning (or at night, if the question is extremely important) it gives him the answer.

But THOUGHTS APPEAR in awareness not in the form of words, but in the form of an instant wordless concept, i.e. IN THE FORM OF CODE. This INTERNAL code is the same for all nations, in contrast to the external code - words. And when communicating, this code is the same as the code of animals. It is thanks to this internal code that animals understand us quite well (telepathically).

In order to convey your thought to other people, it must be formalized in the form of an EXTERNAL code - expressed in words (or other signs). If a thought is not expressed accurately and clearly enough, a person may not be understood or misunderstood. Expressing a thought-concept in words as accurately as possible is not always easy, and often quite difficult, and it takes time and energy.

UNCONSCIOUS THINKING

Human unconscious thinking is similar to that of all animals, but naturally at a higher level. Here the role of awareness is only in the feeling of desire to achieve a goal. Everything that is needed is calculated by the brain at the request of awareness, but without its participation. In such cases, the brain communicates its conclusion to awareness in the form of “intuitive” advice (without logical explanation), a sensation, or an emotion. The above example of "automatically" going down a cliff demonstrates unconscious thinking.

Another famous example. When a person wants to cross the street, he stops, looks in one direction, then another, sees a car, immediately understands that it is far away, and he will have time to calmly cross the street. Or he realizes that the car is going too fast, and with his poor health he will not be able to reach the required speed to cross the road in time.

What happens? In a second, the brain calculates the distance to the other side of the street, the distance to the nearest car, its speed, the possible speed of its body and the need to cross right here and now. Consciousness knows nothing about these calculations, they are not conscious, only one thought appeared in it, which the brain gave it: stand, walk or run.

Many everyday issues are resolved at the level of unconscious thinking. One might say, everything that does not require conscious thinking. Solving everything at the level of conscious thinking is difficult, time-consuming and irrational. Unnecessary waste of energy. Awareness receives a ready-made assessment or recommendation for action, which is easily accepted on faith and easily obeyed (as in the automatic descent from a cliff described above). And indeed, there is no reason for doubt in these cases; unconscious thinking is based on direct knowledge.

© Copyright: Larisa Viktorovna Svetlichnaya, 2009
02.22.2009, certificate of publication No. 1902220412
(the idea of ​​a conscious thinking mechanism was first published on the forum

Sometimes in life you may feel that you are systematically bumping into the same obstacle, overcoming which deprives you of strength and energy. Problems and difficult situations look like clones, and you cannot break out of a persistent vicious circle. Try to destroy this destructive pattern and start improving your own life. And this should not be a desire for material wealth, but rather a desire for freedom (emotional and physical). Look for sensations, not things.

One of the most important things you begin to understand once you start down the path of change is the realization that you have the power to make your life better. Right now, at this very moment. Not with more money, a new house, car or a better figure, but with a change in thinking. You begin to see that no matter what happens on the outside, you can choose what you think and feel on the inside, and when we appreciate the power of that self-awareness, we can dramatically change not only our day, but our future.

You probably know the phrase “getting out of bed on the wrong foot”? If you believe in it, then you will spend your entire day feeling like an unhappy and unlucky person for whom everything is falling out of hand. Who is guilty? But it all started with a thought directing actions that brought the wrong results. Being able to be self-aware is a powerful way to give direction to your actions, resulting in happiness and success.

Use these five tips to become more self-aware. This power can help you achieve more personally, professionally and emotionally.

1. Stop underestimating yourself and feeling like a victim.

Many people sin with this attitude towards themselves. Have you noticed how you are confident around some people, but around others you feel like a loser or a profane? Pay attention to these feelings. It is now your responsibility to change the way you perceive people and how you feel around them. You may doubt whether people are your friends, and this affects your choices of actions and level of trust. You may have had strict parents and teachers who instilled fear in you. Just become aware of your feelings that have been “living” with you for a very long time.

2. Respect, accept and value yourself

If you don't respect and value yourself, how can you get what will make you happy and self-sufficient? That's right: by not perceiving yourself as an individual and not understanding your own emotional and intellectual potential, you deprive yourself of the chances of progress.

3. Realize your own worth

Even if you learn to respect, accept and value yourself, you may still find that you have some emotionally negative hooks in relation to yourself. Now you need to learn to hear and listen to your personal value in order to know yourself even more and do only what is truly important to you. If you overcome your negative way of thinking, you will win in life. Explore on a subconscious level what is valuable to you and how valuable you are.

4. Reframe your negative thoughts

Once you have learned to accept yourself and understand your worth, you may still find that negativity noticeably impacts your ability to be self-aware. When you habitually do not have particularly high self-esteem, it is difficult to analyze the stream of thoughts swarming in your head. Now your task is to engage in their global restructuring. Listen carefully to your negative thoughts, beliefs and feelings. Don't try to change them, just acknowledge them. What will happen next? You will learn to recognize them and snatch them from the general flow, and then transform them into positive ones.

5. Engage in more active self-development

So, we know that mindset influences our success, but most of the time we use this tool at a very superficial level. While any level is better than nothing, it's still worth exploring this science a little deeper and becoming more self-aware. Expecting results by reading motivational affirmations is clearly not enough. Yes, with the help of conscious thinking you can achieve true happiness, creativity and success, but all this must be supported by active actions.

Have you ever thought that the life of each of us depends on our thoughts? Ours, which attack consciousness purposefully and relentlessly, have enormous potential. It turns out that only conscious thinking will allow us to maintain mental and physical health...

Think as if you can be heard...

Get your thoughts in order

Conscious thinking

According to experts, in order to balance a person’s neurophysical state, one should develop the ability to think consciously and purposefully.

Conscious thinking helps a person to put things in order, and also to ensure that they are not destructive.

Unfortunately, most people don’t even think about the fact that their thoughts can be controlled.

Usually, these are people who give preference to the factor of violence, using which they can get rid of all their problems forever.

It turns out that the aggression aimed at others, which they secretly harbor, returns to them, to their own body.

To stop the recurring facts of accidents (cuts, bruises, scalds, broken bones and other injuries), psychologists, first of all, recommend that a person get rid of the aggression that overwhelms his soul and create peace and tranquility in his soul.

4. Alcoholism has a reason - the purposelessness of existence. A person who suffers from this vice should restore the sense of the lost values ​​of life, and re-learn to distinguish the unique colors and joys of the moments of life.

Let all thoughts come and go. Thoughts are clouds, you are the sky, the space for all thoughts, not their enemy. Don't try to remove the thoughts or even calm them down. Embrace their glorious grunts, and know that you are not a thought. (Jeff Foster)

Health, Love and Happiness to everyone!

There are few people these days who haven't heard or read about mindfulness. They talk a lot about this, write and send wise phrases to each other on social networks. And it would seem that everyone has long understood everything on this topic. The same is true with types of thinking. We know that positive thinking makes us and the whole world around us beautiful, and negative thinking destroys us. However, it's not that simple. It turns out that knowing and understanding are two different things! These topics are already very familiar to us, and it seems that everything is very simple, and we rarely try to think about what is behind it.

For many, positive thinking, for example, is something like self-hypnosis: “Everything is great, I’m very successful, I won’t think about the bad, I’m happy with everything in my life,” and so on in the same spirit. Negativity, on the contrary, is perceived as a stream of complaints. Often this is where all explanations end. Awareness for us is something like this: “Be here and now, and then everything will immediately fall into place.” Unfortunately, these are very superficial ideas, and I will explain why.

Real understanding of any practice, and awareness and development of a positive worldview is precisely practice, is characterized by the fact that we are able to apply it and apply it in our lives. If we don’t apply it, it means we haven’t fully understood it. So what do you need to know about mindfulness to understand how it works?

First of all, let's conduct an experiment to see how aware we can be right now. Try this: pick up your watch and, while watching the minute hand, try to maintain a sense of yourself and focus on the thought: “I am so-and-so (your name), and at the moment I am here.” Just think about this, follow the arrow, continuing to be aware of who you are, what your name is and the place where you are. Perform for 2-3 minutes. The exercise seems ridiculously simple, but try to do it conscientiously and you may discover that it is not so easy to do without distraction. We may find that for even such a short period of time, our mind is not able to fully concentrate. And if we observe ourselves in everyday life, we will see that we often think, act, feel and speak automatically.

Our level of awareness is constantly changing. People, according to experts who have dedicated their lives to the study of human awareness and spiritual transformation, can have four different states of consciousness. However, an ordinary person who does not carry out any work in this direction is predominantly in the two lower states, and does not have access to the two higher ones, due to the ingrained habit of his usual state. Only sometimes bright flashes of higher consciousness are available to him, but he is not able to hold them, because he does not know what to do for this.

What are these four states?

1. The first state is our usual night sleep, in which we spend a third, or even half of our lives. The body is motionless, and consciousness is at this moment in its lowest state, we do not remember ourselves and are not aware of ourselves. Some people have lucid dreams, but this is not the case for most.
2. The second state is the one in which people spend the rest of their time, considering it active and calling it “awake” or even “clear consciousness”. But in fact, it’s easy to see that this is not the case and that basically we are not very aware of ourselves, but often behave according to the stimulus-response principle.
3. The third state is the result of working on oneself and is called self-remembering, or awareness of one’s being. Most believe that they already have this state or can be in it at will. But a simple example of struggling with some bad habit, how it is not easy, how we put off many important things for later, speak in a fit of anger or resentment, and then regret it, tells us the opposite.
4. And the fourth state of consciousness is called “objective consciousness.” This is what is called "enlightenment", that is, the ability to see oneself and the world as they are. Most religions and ancient teachings set this state as their highest goal, which is achieved through long and intensive work on oneself.

Most people are “sleeping” and are not aware of their actions, thoughts, words, and what this lifestyle is leading them to. This is the only reason why such things as bloody wars, hatred, nationalism, pollution of the environment in which we live, suicidal habits, senseless consumerism, and many other trends that are incompatible with common sense are possible. And if the fourth state of awareness is available only to those who completely devote their entire lives to it, then the third state is what we can achieve and what we should have already now. But due to the wrong way of life, this state in us is extremely unstable.

Ask yourself how easily you control your body, how easily do you control your emotions, especially in a stressful situation, how easily do you control your thoughts? The more you can do this, the greater your ability to be aware of yourself. If you have a desire to somehow move forward in this direction, then, as you probably already guess, you will need to work at all levels. That is, physically, emotionally and mentally.

It is impossible to describe all types of practices in this article, so for a more detailed study I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the works of those people who have achieved success in this, but I would like to offer some of them as exercises in mindfulness.

So, at the level of the body, these can be any actions that are unusual for it, since the usual ones have long become automatic and put us into sleep. Try for example the following:

• Whatever you normally do with your right hand, do with your left.
• In your home, walk from one room to another with your eyes closed or backwards.
• Master dance movements of different styles, folk dances are especially good.
• Try martial arts, yoga, especially balance asanas.
• Learn to completely, one by one, consciously relax all parts of the body (shavasana and yoga nidra are good for this). And try to make sure that in everyday life you only strain those muscles that are currently involved. When writing, do not strain the muscles of your face, neck, or shoulders. You hammer in You hammer in a nail - you don’t need to strike with your whole body, spend on it only that part of the force that you need.
• Experiment with established motor habits: try changing your gait - walk faster or slower than usual; don’t sit cross-legged if that’s what you’re used to; eat food mindfully, without being distracted by conversations and gadgets.

On an emotional level, practice not expressing negative emotions without any reason. It's about observing yourself at the moment when such an emotion appears, and trying to do something about it. Don’t suppress it, because it won’t lead to anything; it will definitely pop up later, namely, find a reason not to express such an emotion.

What emotions can be considered negative? These are rude, overwhelming and destructive manifestations. Irritability, anger, fear, despondency, self-pity, hatred, envy, jealousy and the like. Emotions often arise very quickly, so in order not to give in to them, you need to prepare yourself in advance. Think about how justified their presence is for us, whether they bring us benefit, give us health, a surge of strength, or, on the contrary, destroy us. Some are proud of their explosive temperament or consider a tendency toward depression to be a beautiful sign of a refined nature. These are all facets of the acquired worldview, which would be good to reconsider and find out whether this is really so.

It will be very useful to check everything from your own experience, as Jnana yoga (the path of wisdom) recommends. Try not to allow yourself, for example, to become depressed or grumble about the weather, the situation in the country, the state of the economy, and see in which case you feel better. Will it take away your strength or add it?

Working with negative emotions at the highest level involves their transformation into positive ones. This is a special skill and is not given immediately. The practice of Ishvarapranidhana, or dedicating everything to God or the Supreme, is an effective way to achieve serenity and conscious complacency. If I devote all my actions, thoughts, feelings to the Supreme, this means that I trust him. And if I trust him, then I have no reason to experience negative emotions. Everything happens as it should. This is an example of how worldview can influence our external manifestations.

And finally, work with thinking! Awareness at this level will manifest itself in the choice of a positive or negative way of thinking, the ability to control internal dialogue, not dwell on thoughts in the past or in anticipation of a better future, and training to be in the present.

What exercises can be used here? Again, there are a lot of them, but I’ll give you some of them:

1. Try to immerse yourself mentally in every action you do. Ask yourself, how can I do this even better? Why am I doing this? Where it leads? Will this be useful or harmful to someone?
2. Stop mental dialogue about anything if possible, especially if it is grinding out past grievances, missed opportunities or fruitless dreams. Meditation with concentration on breathing is good for this. Just watch your breathing, slightly stretching your inhalation and exhalation, and do not pay attention to the thoughts that come. Also, just try to notice such moments of internal dialogue and interrupt when you catch yourself doing it.
3. Try to say and feel “I am” every hour (minute by minute) throughout the day. Try not to miss the right moment. Then examine how many times you managed to remember and do this short practice on time.
4. Examine your negative beliefs and replace them with positive ones whenever possible. Look at what, for example, a thought such as “I never succeed in anything” leads to. Does it inspire you to do something or does it justify doing nothing? Keep track of “other people’s” assessments of you, how much you need it and how much it helps you live a good life.

By studying ourselves and the content of our main thoughts, we will come to the conclusion that both positive and negative thinking are rooted in one or another view of the world. It is enough to shift your focus in one direction or another, and the picture completely changes.

Compare “The whole world is just soulless matter that has no Creator, objective purpose and meaning. Life is simply a physical process where the fittest survive. With death everything ends, which means you need to take as much pleasure from life as possible. After me there might be a flood." And “The entire universe is a rational being, spiritualized and cherished by the Supreme Spirit. All living things and all people are connected to each other, since everyone is a piece of the Higher Consciousness. If I become better, kinder, cleaner, then everything around me changes and blossoms. I will never harm anyone, neither in thought, nor in deed, nor in word, because everything is a reflection of myself, and I do not want harm to myself. Everything happens in accordance with the Higher Will, so nothing can happen to me that would not benefit me and from which I cannot learn something.”

In which case will a person feel happier and more peaceful, capable of great achievements, in the first or in the second? How will each of these beliefs affect the world around us? Which one is more conducive to the manifestation of awareness in us? As my favorite character from the movie Mahabharata says: “Think about it”!