POLL: Can you turn your mind off?

by Lady Lee 77 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  Men are result oriented (as a rule) while women are process oriented.

  If a man is not currently working on producing a result he is thinking: nothing. Which is to say he IS THINKING (mind is active) in the way a women

  thinks ordinarily.

  Men don't count this as thinking, however, because it produces a redundant loop without result.

  Men want to give answers which END a process.

  That is why men hate it when their significant other wants to "talk" (i.e. go over something without having an end result.)

  Men don't like to "talk through" or "think through" problems. Women require it.

  Very few functions in a human are involuntary. Heartbeat doesn't require active conscious awareness, for example.

  Both sexes must think continuously to sustain life.

  Studies have demonstrated to researchers that multi-tasking lowers the overall results of each task performed as to quality of performance.

  Women (evolutionarily the child-rearing and homemaking sex) are hard-wired to multi-task mundane chores naturally. To do this efficiently their brains are INVOLVED in conscious consideration of the ACTUAL PROCESSES involved.

  Men, on the other hand, are end result providers. Accomplishing telelogical tasks is goal-oriented. Multi-tasking is a distraction from focus.

  Women wanting men to be more like themselves (and vice-verse) is an unnecessary obstacle to mutual understanding.

  Multi-tasking Adversely Affects Brain's Learning, UCLA ...

  ScienceDaily (July 26, 2006) — Multi-tasking affects the brain's learning systems, and as a result, we do not learn as well when we are distracted, ...
  www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060726083302.htm - Cached - Similar

  Men and Women Really Do Think Differently | LiveScience

  Jan 20, 2005 ... The topic has always been a gray matter, and now it's a white matter too.
  www.livescience.com/health/050120_brain_sex.html - Cached - Similar
• 

  Snoozy

  I had a dream last night and part of the dream was that I had to go potty. Well I found a bathroom (in my dream) and preceeded to try and do my job. I couldn't. I then told myself that it was OK that this was a dream but I managed to find a potty and I could go ahead and go. Well I couldn't. I finally told myself in the dream that I would just have to wake up and go to the bathroom for real..so I did.

  Just goes to show you can't always control your thoughts...

  I'm glad I didn't listen to me or I would be washing my sheets today!

  Snoozy..TMI?
• 

  Lady Lee

  Terry I can't believe you of all people said this:

  Men don't like to "talk through" or "think through" problems.

  For a man who has expressed a lot of what he thinks that just doesn't make sense to me. Your thoughts are always very well expressed.

  Snoozy I've had dreams like that - sometimes waking up just in time too.

  Lime I swear to gawd these men are serious - nothing is happening. I don't understand it but they can't all be lying.
• 

  tec

  But, I did learn to relax my body one limb at a time and it works

  I can do this. I learned it in Kung Fu when I was a kid. It doesn't clear my mind, per say, but it does quiet it quite a bit because of the focus needed to do it - starting with the toes, feeling the blood flowing, the muscle relaxing... and then working all the way up to the head. I haven't tried it in a long time.

  Tammy
• 

  Lady Lee

  tec I do that when I really need to relax but it doesn't quiet my head - just my body lol
• 

  dinah

  Just thinking, I used to either daydram or play the "watch the clock" game during meetings. I would try to not look at the clock for fives minutes. If I made it longer than five minutes, I added those minutes to the next time I could look at the clock without a penalty (this was all in my mind). I had to keep my mind busy to pass the time. It's weird.

  If I have trouble sleeping, sometimes I do math in my head.
• 

  HintOfLime

  Lime I swear to gawd these men are serious - nothing is happening. I don't understand it but they can't all be lying.

  99% chance that they're thinking about sex or some hot actresses.

  That or they are thinking something they know better than to say out loud, like "This food is terrible. I wish she'd take cooking lessons from my mom."

  - Lime
• 

  TD

  Lady Lee,

  A lot of the discussion probably revolves around the different ways individuals define, "Thinking" and "Thought."

  I think even dreams would qualify is "Thoughts" but I wouldn't describe dreaming as "Thinking"

  I would define "Thinking" as the purposeful direction of thought, especially in regard to the accomplishment of a specific goal.

  One of the female participants here, (I think it was Leolaia) when describing the boredom of JW conventions once said she would sometimes just stare at the pattern of the coliseum lights on the lenses of her glasses. That to me is exactly what I would describe as "Thinking of nothing." (I think this stuck in my head because I've done the exact same thing myself.)

  How does the process of falling asleep work for you? How would you describe it?

  I'd expect the experience would vary greatly by individual. For me, somewhere between the state of being fully awake and being fully asleep, whatever part of the brain is responsible for purposefully directing thoughts seems to disengage.

  I'd describe the change as similar to the difference between driving a car versus riding in the car as a passenger. When you're thinking, your mind does what you want and goes where you want it to go. When you're dreaming, you don't usually control the direction your thoughts take.

  I wonder if "Thinking of nothing" is really one of the early stages of falling asleep? A point somewhere between the purposeful direction of thought and the randomness of dreaming where not much is going on?

  When you fall asleep, is it something you "make" happen, or is it something you "let" happen?