Dr. Mort Orman here and this week, I started a new challenge in my private Facebook group (The League of Extraordinary Stress Eliminators) to jointly build a list of key “thinking types” that we human beings are capable of utilizing.
The premise behind this challenge is that there are a large number of thinking types or thinking styles (as opposed to specific thoughts) that we can engage in, and each type or style has its own strengths and weaknesses.
In my first blog post this week, I highlighted the difference between automatic thinking and reasoned thinking.
It turns out that a good bit of our stress comes from automatic thinking (as well as automatic patterns of behaving).
These triggered responses occur in our bodies so quickly that we don’t even realize that many of the things we automatically think (or perceive) are not really true or accurate.
That’s when we can shift over to reasoned thinking, to assess both the strengths and weakness of our automatic responses…and make better choices if we can identify them.
Unconscious Thinking.Vs Conscious Thinking
Two other related modes of thinking are unconscious and conscious thinking.
While it may appear these are just different terms to describe the same types of thinking that occurs with automatic .vs reasoned thinking, the two sets of distinctions are not identical.
Yes, much of our automatic thinking can be “unconscious” in nature—where we are not fully aware of the specific thoughts or assessments which may have become triggered inside our bodies.
But we can also be aware of some percentage of our automatic thinking.
With unconscious thinking, on the other hand, we are never aware of our unconscious thoughts, because if we were they would immediately become conscious.
Also, unconscious thoughts (ala Freud and others) can often run deeper and be more primordial in nature, whereas most of our automatic thoughts, whether we are aware of them or not, tend to be pretty superficial, like: “something bad is about to happen,” or “life should be fair.”
Identifying The Footprints…
I first became aware that I had unconscious thoughts when I voluntarily went into therapy as a medical student.
I would sometimes spend an entire 45 minute session, talking about all sorts of issues and events that seemed totally unrelated to me, only to have my therapist say something short and pithy at the tail end of the session which summed it all up and revealed a consistent theme.
These instances, of which there were many, always left me bewildered and amazed.
“Where the heck did that organizing principle come from?” I would think.
I had no conscious awareness of it, or intent, yet it retrospect, it was there all along, orchestrating and linking everything that I was consciously thinking about and focused on.
All I saw were its eventual footprints, which was enough to let me know that it had actually been there.
Boy With An Imaginary Friend
I also remember an incident (which I can never forget) that took place during my three-week Pediatrics rotation during my third year of medical school.
One of my assignments was to work with a young inner city boy who had an imaginary friend. His mother brought him to our clinic, because she felt something was seriously wrong with him.
Of course, I knew nothing about imaginary friends, so I just tried to do my best and hopefully learn something about him, his family and his “condition.”
At the end of three weeks, each of the students in this rotation had to give a full presentation about what they had learned about the condition each patient assigned to them was suffering from.
When my turn came to present, I still didn’t have a clue what was going on with this young boy.
So I organized all the information I had collected, presented it in terms of history, physical findings and social and family interactions, and then I was prepared to announce to the full group of students and professors that I had no idea at all what was really going on.
But before I could declare my complete and utter incompetence, the head Pediatrician stopped me at the end of my presentation and announced to the group that it was abundantly clear that I had full knowledge about the dynamics of imaginary friends.
Did I really? That was certainly news to me. But I didn’t break out of character, and graciously accepted his accolade.
It was then that I knew—for sure—that there had to be some type of powerful, unconscious “knowing” operating inside me.
Because this unconscious force put together a fantastic presentation, in precisely the right order, that clearly demonstrated “it” knew all about imaginary friends, even if my conscious mind didn’t have a clue.
Anyhow, this distinction between unconscious and conscious thinking may not have wide applicability to the topic of stress, at least as far as I am aware right now.
But something inside me made me write about this topic today, so it must have more to do with stress than I am giving myself credit for.
P.S. On further reflection, there have been times in my life when I’ve berated myself for doing something “stupid” or “forgetful” (a type of self-imposed stress) only to look back again and wonder if some part of my unconscious had actually caused me to do what I did…for very good and positive reasons.
To your health, happiness and success,
Dr. Mort Orman, M.D., International Speaker, Author And Founder Of The Stress Mastery Academy | http://DocOrman.com
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