I’ve been thinking about thinking. It’s something that we humans are good at. We are remarkable thinkers who, over thousands of years of evolution, have become quite the experts.
In particular, we have a special ability to create relationships in our minds between things such as events in the past and what might happen in the future. We can make comparative connections such as better than, worse than, bigger than, smaller than, more than, less than etc, and this wonderful attribute has conferred on us a huge advantage over all the other animals that we share our world with. In fact I would go as far as to say that the ability to think in this way is the reason why a not particularly strong and not particularly fast animal (us) has come to utterly dominate the planet.
So what’s so special about human thinking? Well, to answer my own question, this way of thinking allows us to learn about stuff without having direct experience of it. For example, right now as you read this, there are two spacecrafts, Voyager 1 and Voyager II, hurtling through interstellar space, beyond the Solar System, at 17KM/Sec. Built by people just like you and me, both are sending back to Earth, data which will be studied, interpreted and analysed, again by people like you and me. In other words, humans will learn about interstellar space, even though no human has ever been there.
We have created a technologically advanced world that is forever pushing the boundaries of science and engineering and Mother Nature in her wisdom has decreed that overall this is a good thing because thus far these advances have increased our chances of survival. And as we know, anything that gives a species this type of survival advantage is likely to be favoured in evolutionary terms.
So far so good. 100,000 years of human evolution means that we are now expert thinkers. But (and it’s a big but), I’m afraid Mother Nature has also priced in one or two disadvantages that she thinks on balance is a price worth paying.
Specifically, what’s included in the deal, is that we get things like doubt, fear, uncertainly and anxiety showing up for us as our super developed thinking machine of a mind presents us with all sorts of possibilities about ourselves, other people, how the world works, the future and the potential traps and pitfalls that it has in store for us.
This can be a useful perspective on thinking and overthinking for that matter. It’s not the fact that our minds think up a lot stuff, that’s it’s job and that’s what it has evolved to do. However, problems often arise when we get caught up in this thinking because getting tangled up in it can get in the way of us doing the things in life that we really want to do.
If you are curious about this idea then take a look at Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) skills and techniques. And, for more detailed reading I would recommend The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris or Get Out Of Your Mind And Into Your Life by Dr Steven Hayes.
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