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Blog Post
Making Space for Eureka Moments
Stacey WIilloughby Hannington • 5 October 2020
Shared by Deborah Pearce Hypnotherapy
Have you ever noticed that you have a clearer perspective on things after a good night’s sleep? Or that you have more clarity and insight into issues at work after you’ve returned from a two week holiday?
Well, it’s no coincidence.
Cognitive neuroscientist John Kounios studies what goes on in our brains when we experience a moment of insight. He put it nicely: ‘Almost everyone has creative insights from time to time. But it is possible to cultivate these moments, too. People tend to have more creative insights when they are in a happy, relaxed mood.’
One way to solve a problem is to focus on the issue and use analytical thinking to come up with an answer. This can of course be very productive.
But what about those times when the answer just won’t come, no matter how hard we try?
This is when we need an Aha!
moment, that flash of inspiration when a novel solution pops into our heads.
It turns out that these moments rarely arise through applying our conscious minds to the problem. They are much more likely to happen when we are out for a walk, or washing our hair or weeding the garden. When we are relaxed and not consciously thinking about the issue.
So, here are my top 3 tips for solving a difficult problem:
1. Build some downtime into your day.
There is a tendency in our culture to value hard work, even to glorify overwork. I see it in clients who are on the go from 6am to 10pm. They have no downtime.
If your brain is continually focused on the task at hand you are not accessing the background neural network that allows us to daydream and gain perspective. It can even impact on your ability to form memories.
Aha! moments don’t come from grinding work schedules, so cut yourself some slack and build some downtime into your life.
2. Get a good night’s sleep
Life is so much better when we get a good night’s sleep. If we sleep for 7 to 8 hours we go through several periods of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.
REM sleep is really important for processing the events of the day and clearing your mind so you wake up with a clearer perspective. It’s when we have those really bizarre dreams when people and events from our past crop up in weird circumstances. They make no sense and are illogical when we think about them with our conscious minds.
But these illogical connections can serve a very useful purpose.
It seems that REM sleep helps us to make leaps of understanding that we couldn’t achieve with analytical cause-and-effect thinking. That mishmash of random thoughts can lead to incredible insights and there are plenty of examples of important scientific breakthroughs arising from dreams.
So, make sleep a priority. It is so important for our mental well-being.
3. Stop thinking about the problem
It sounds counter intuitive, but if you keep thinking about what’s wrong, how can you hope to find a solution?
It’s far better to take your mind off the problem and do something completely different. Your subconscious mind will continue to search for solutions, but you need to give it some space to be creative.
often a solution will come to you when you are distracted by other things. Just give your self a break.
As a client, you have a crucial part to play in your own treatment. Following a few simple steps can help to maximise the treatment potential. Listen to what is said during the sessions. Often your words will provide the answer to your situation. The solutions themselves don’t have to be something dramatic – it can be as simple as going for a walk, getting everything ready for work the night before or reacting calmly rather than angrily when the children play up. Emphasise the positive. Concentrating on what is good in our lives means we are in the right frame of mind to appreciate when something good happens. It can also work as a self-fulfilling prophecy, ie happy thoughts leading to positive actions leading to happy thoughts, and so on. This article from the BBC shows how being optimistic may have health benefits. Attend sessions – on time. This is a key element of you taking control of your life. Play the MP3 provided. Make it part of your routine. It reinforces what goes on in sessions and can speed up the whole process. Many clients find it most beneficial to play at a time when they feel relaxed. Seize the day. Now is the time to sort your life out. Remember: The world of the happy is very different from that of the unhappy.
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SWH
Therapy
Creating a better future one step at a time
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