The Thinker is a famous sculpture created by Rodin located
in a beautiful garden under the same name in Paris. It is among one of the best representations of the ways the human mind ruminates, processes, reviews, analyzes, turns over, unpacks, and explores a multiplicity of ideas.
The capacity of the human mind to think about things may feel endless at times. In this way, the capacity to think is both a gift and a burden.
Sometimes, you may find that you think about your problems over and over
again in a circular fashion ruminating over experiences, memories, or facts without relief. In these cases, your thinking may feel burdensome and heavy. Your thoughts may weigh you down causing mental anguish and low mood.
At other times, you may think in a more direct and linear fashion coming to
a decision or insight without any great difficulty at all. In these cases, your
thinking may inspire you to change your life personally, professionally, or
socially. All great inventions begin with a thought or idea mostly evolving in
relation to a problem or dilemma.
It is in your human capacity to think that solutions to your
problems or dilemmas come to light, or more simply stated, become
clear. In a clinical sense, the human capacity to think about
problems in new and diverse ways is the necessary first step to personal
understanding and deeper meaning about your own life.
In order to interrupt, disrupt, or break a repetitive, circular, habitualized, or patterned way of thinking, new thoughts, ideas, perspectives, views, and meanings about your problems are needed.
Even silly new ideas about persisting negative and challenging
thoughts about your problems introduce critical new energy, perspectives, hypotheses, and views that hold the promise of growth and change. Your ability to think becomes your vehicle of escape from mental imprisonment
often created by cognitive distortions familiar to most people.
One such distortion is negative filtering whereby you habitually favour
detrimental, pessimistic, and emotionally damaging interpretations of events over more positive, balanced, and realistic perspectives generated by your rational mind. The task of psychotherapy is to go deeper into your introspective journey in order to unpack the reasons that you resist, reject, or fail to accept rational explanations for events or situations in your life.
Finding the right therapist to help you with this exciting journey of self-discovery involves a process of trusted sharing with a professional who establishes clear boundaries and safety for healthy psychotherapy processes to occur. Exposing your personal thoughts to a professional and identifying your feelings associated with life experiences guarantees deeper understanding of your problems, and why you continue to think about things negatively.
Revealing your deeply-held feelings of trauma associated with emotional pain, fear, disappointment, and loss with your psychotherapist over time will ease your troubled mind and provide you with a new way to make sense of it all.
The human mind and your ability to think has fascinated scientists,
neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and philosophers for centuries. It may also fascinate you, and lead you on a journey of discovery that answers your questions about what it all means anyhow!!!!
By Dr. Lisa Romano-Dwyer
#wellness #healthy #DoThinkFeelWell