Whirlpool

What to do when your brain has too many thoughts swimming around in it, and these are getting in the way of things you want to achieve?

Well if thinking is your problem then think a little less. But, you say, the thoughts are subconscious and you have no control over them.

Well that’s a little trickier. The female approach is to: 1.Meditate (and other related activities). These act as a sort of dampener that are meant to slow down and calm the mind by attenuating the thoughts, or offering some level of ‘control’ over them. 2. Women also love to read books on the subject – I think the rationale here is that by feeding the conscious mind with information and structure, that some control over the sub-conscious can be achieved. 3. Talk endlessly about their problems and get useless advice off their friends as to what to do about it all.

The male approach is to do one or more of the following: 1. Exercise a lot (helps empty the mind). 2. Drink a lot (further helps empty the mind but also strips away the conscious mind’s gate-keeping role so you can peek directly underneath). 3. Yak to mates in strict code (easier and more fun than reading books but it does depend on the quality of your mates). 4. Categorize one’s thoughts and excise one or more of the troublesome categories once they are described, e.g. lose the girlfriend. 5. Never meditate. 6. Never read a book on the subject because that just introduces more thoughts.

Each to their own, but I wonder if both parties could a learn a little from the other, or whether the brain function is different enough to warrant the totally different approaches?