When a friend came to ask why, Lincoln said, "I don't like his looks." 」
The friend said, "How can you judge a book by its cover? This is too harsh, and naturally he can't be responsible for his face. 」
Lincoln replied, "no, a person is responsible for his face after he is 40 years old." 」
Is the president also willful, judging a person directly by his feelings?
Let's look at another example.
194 1 year, the Germans carried out fierce air strikes on the British mainland, and British Prime Minister Churchill often went to air defense positions by car at night. One night, he checked a position and was ready to leave. When the assistant was ready to open the door for him, Churchill went around to the other side of the car, opened another door and got in. In a short time, a bomb fell from the sky and exploded near the car, almost overturning Churchill's car; If Churchill got on the bus through the door opened by his assistant, he might have died. Afterwards, his wife asked Churchill why he was sitting on the other side. Churchill replied, "I was about to get on the bus when a voice said to me,' Stop'. God seemed to tell me to open the other car door and go in, so I did it. 」
Human beings exist in the world and compete for mental thinking, but few people know that there are more advanced systems in our bodies. If we can make good use of it, we will achieve extraordinary results.
Subconscious wisdom
In order to facilitate understanding, I express rationality as consciousness and sensibility as subconscious. In fact, they are. However, there are different views on the subconscious in academic circles. For example, Freud thought that the subconscious mind was a "danger zone", which contained evil, and it would make people obey their original desires and return to barbarism; But Jung, a psychologist, believes that the subconscious is intelligent, which contains many things that reason can't touch, even the collective wisdom of human beings.
Who is right and who is wrong? Modern scientific research holds that the two are half and half. The subconscious mind has no thinking, only cares about what is in front of it, and likes immediacy, certainty, simplicity and comfort, which is part of nature. At the same time, it processes information very fast, at least reaching 65,438+065,438+0,000,000 times per second, and it can perceive a lot of imperceptible information very keenly, which is part of sensibility. Consciousness, that is, our rational thinking, processes information only 40 times per second, while the subconscious mind is 275,000 times faster, which is quite different.
It's like two people going from Beijing to Tianjin at the same time. One person walks slowly, and the other person walks by rocket (you can't tell the difference between an airplane and a high-speed train). This contrast between speed and speed will lead to "cognitive dislocation"-a lot of information has long been perceived by the subconscious, but consciousness still knows nothing. For example, when you meet someone for the first time and feel a little uncomfortable, you will soon show a polite smile, which shows that the subconscious has noticed some bad information, but the process is fleeting and the mind can't notice it at all. Instead, it gives a lot of analysis and reasons to accept each other, and the result is often counterproductive. So Churchill was not superstitious and Lincoln was not willful, but they caught a weak signal from the subconscious, which is called "feeling"-detecting information from the subconscious.
Professor Hong Lan told such an experience in the TED lecture "Brain science reveals the secrets of men and women's thinking" on 20 15.
In the 1970s, when Professor Hong Lan was studying at the University of California, a young assistant professor was robbed while withdrawing money from an ATM. Because she was so nervous, she couldn't remember the robber's face, and it didn't help to call the police. But then the assistant professor began to hate one of his graduate students inexplicably. This graduate student is chubby, has shoulder-length hair and likes to wear ripped pants ... and her own explanation is that the graduate student likes onion burgers, which stink, and so on. Later, the police caught several robbers and asked her to identify them. She recognized the criminal at a glance-the man was chubby, with shoulder-length hair and torn trousers. ...
Professor Hong Lan said that the assistant professor unconsciously remembered the criminal's face and sent a message, which made her hate the graduate student who looked like a criminal. But this information didn't enter consciousness, so rational consciousness didn't know what was going on at all, so it had to be explained separately. In fact, the bull's head is not a horse's mouth.
I didn't expect the perceptual part of our subconscious to be so powerful, did I How many people know that we have such an advanced system hidden in our bodies? It's a pity not to make good use of it! Especially in the process of learning and growth, if it helps, there may be unexpected gains.
Learn by feeling
So how should we use this advanced system in the process of learning and growing? Cheng Jia, the author of Study Hard, gave us a good demonstration. He mentioned a very interesting learning method-learning by feeling [2] in two articles: The simplest method of not reading in history and the invisible key: the ability more important than knowledge.
For example, in the first article, he invented a "fuze not reading method". The so-called "reading without fuse" means that once you see inspiring content while reading, it will trigger the fuse and stop reading immediately. What do you do after you stop reading? Ask yourself questions around this trigger point.
Why did this just inspire me?
Can I use this inspiration for three different things?
Is there any other similar knowledge about this inspiration point?
In another article, he also pointed out that whenever you are hit by something, you should consciously remind yourself to ask why, whether in life or in study.
Why did this movie scene move me? What happened?
Why do I like this product so much? What is the difference?
Why can't I help but indulge in this plot?
A master learns this way: first, help him choose with perceptual ability, and then help him think with rational ability. The touch in the text comes from sensibility, and the problem comes from rationality. Perception comes first, reason comes last. The principle behind this is to perceive by capturing subconscious signals.
Coincidentally, Li, a learning expert, also mentioned a similar method in the book Troika of Learning Masters. When his niece Zhao Lu, who was in middle school, asked him the secret of learning, he only said three words: by feeling.
Zhao Lu couldn't believe the answer. In this regard, he explained: "No matter what level you are now, this trick works-just by feeling! Don't pay attention to those questions whose answers can be seen at a glance; If you have a headache at first sight and don't know what you are talking about, don't pay attention to it; Only those topics that can give you a general idea, but require some brains, must be done more. This is the middle ground where you can make the fastest progress. 」
See the clue? The reason why "feeling" is called the top method is because it can help us perceive what really suits us and needs, and put ourselves in the "stretching zone" of learning. If we simply use reason, we usually look at the top students, focus on the most difficult topics and think about how to catch up with them; If we obey nature, we will turn around on the simplest topic (see Figure 2- 1).
Figure 2- 1 Rationality, Perception and Natural Selection Tendency
The same is true of reading. If we simply use reason, we usually spend a lot of time combing the author's framework and ideas after reading the whole book, so as to show that we understand and thoroughly read the book. If we obey nature, we may put down our books and play with our mobile phones. In view of this, a better way to read may be to ask yourself after reading the whole book for a few days: what is your most impressive contact point now? Grasp this contact point firmly, contact with it, practice, and gain the most. Other contents can be put aside first. This is also my own reading method-just take the most touching point in the whole book and practice and change it as much as possible. Reading in this way not only gains more, but also avoids anxiety.
Subconscious sensibility can always help us find something that really suits us, thus guiding our energy input and improving ourselves quickly, because the stretching area is the least difficult to learn, the most suitable for demand, the fastest to get results, and easy to generate traffic. It can be seen that although learning is not an easy task, we can still experience relaxation and fun in a suitable area. If you always feel pain and boredom, nine times out of ten you feel wrong-either in a difficult area or in a comfortable area.
Find the purpose of life by feeling
Learning is only the tip of the iceberg, and the power of sensibility applies to all aspects of life, especially when facing major issues in life, such as choosing a partner, determining a career and finding a goal in life. For growth, many readers' biggest distress is that they can't find their own goals in life.
If a person has no goal in life, even if he eats, drinks, has books and classes every day, he will be like a lost person, with no joy in his heart, no passion in life, and even hate himself, because the goal is where our enthusiasm and energy are stored.
In order to find their own goals in life, many people try their best to analyze what is most worth doing, and the final answer is often "to become rich" or "to be worshipped by others". Such a goal can't be said to be wrong, but it often can't last long, and it can't give people real motivation, because it is the result of rational thinking to weigh the pros and cons and consider the gains and losses. Its motivation often comes from "self-seeking and external evaluation". Over time, it is easy for people to get lost and dry up their motivation.
The real awakening is often with perception, rather than conscious or unconscious thinking. For example, Yi Jia, the author of A Good Life Operation Guide, put forward six suggestions for finding the mission of life.
There are many things to do in this world. Who do you want to help most?
What made you forget to eat and sleep?
What moved you the most?
What was your most touching moment?
How would you spend the rest of your life without any financial pressure?
What kind of information do you pay most attention to in your spare time?
We need to feel what touches us most with our hearts, rather than thinking about what is most beneficial with our brains. Rational analysis and calculation can't solve the real needs of the heart, only perceptual awareness and insight can make the answer surface. The correct answer is often altruistic, because the real long-term meaning and happiness of life can only be obtained from other people's feedback.
Carolyn Adams Miller, the author of Perseverance, raised three similar questions.
Imagine that you are about to leave this world. Looking back on life, what will you regret?
Think about who your favorite character is.
How did you spend your leisure time when you were young?
Answering these three questions also requires us to use perception instead of thinking, because looking directly at death can simplify everything and let us focus on what is really important; For your favorite characters, whether fictional or real, as long as you are deeply fascinated, you can reflect your inner ideal self from these characters; When I was young, I had no family and work burden. At that time, my pursuit was more in line with my own heart and would not be disturbed by external pressure.
Perhaps the seeds of life goals have been planted in each of us for a long time, but after adulthood, forced by the pressure of life, rational thinking began to weigh all kinds of advantages and disadvantages, unwilling to admit or deliberately ignore our original dreams, while perceptual power has been helping us protect and cherish those ideals. If you don't have a goal in life, you might as well try the above methods, and there may be unexpected surprises.
To sum up, we can find that although rational thinking is very advanced, it may not have an advantage in judgment and choice, and its poor performance is not as good as sensitive and quick sensibility. So it may be a better strategy to use perceptual choice first and then rational thinking, especially when making those important choices. Just as Professor Hong Lan suggested: Listen to your brain for small things, and listen to your heart for big things. This is not unreasonable.
How to capture sensibility
Although the perception is very powerful, it looks illusory. How can we capture it? The following practices may wish to refer to.
(1) "Drunk" method. Pay attention to those points that touch you most: people and things that shine at the moment, stir up waves in your heart, ideas you think, pains you encounter, etc. Learn to catch them, and in-depth analysis and excavation, often will have rich harvest.
(2) the word "altogether". Usually, some repetitive thoughts that always jump out of our minds unconsciously, or things that always linger in our hearts, are usually the most persistent things in our hearts and the source of emotional fluctuations. When we consciously examine and eliminate it, we will become more peaceful.
(3) the unconscious first reaction. Pay attention to the immediate reaction or first thought that comes to your mind when you meet a person, walk into a room or do something for the first time. Psychologists often say when they understand patients: don't think, tell me the first thought that comes to your mind. Because the first thing that comes to mind is often the real information from the subconscious. However, the process of generating the first thought is very short. If you don't practice it deliberately, you may not feel it, because rational thinking will soon take over from the subconscious.
(4) dreams. Dreams are a way for the subconscious to transmit information, which may be a display of inner true thoughts or an inspiration. German chemist Kekule dreamed of a snake biting from beginning to end in a very tired situation, which became a clue for him to discover the molecular structure of benzene. The clever subconscious has already found the answer, and then reminds him with dreams. Luckily, Kekule caught it.
(5) the body. Yi Jia, the author of A Good Life Operation Guide, used to like high-intensity exercise because reason told her that "no pains, no gains". However, every four months, she will be seriously ill for no reason, until a Chinese doctor tells her, "This is your body on strike, telling you that it doesn't like the way you exercise. You should learn to listen to your body's feedback more. It suddenly dawned on her that she chose softer exercise and never got sick for no reason. The body can't talk, but it is the most honest. No matter physical or psychological discomfort, it will be reflected truthfully through the body. Remember to pay more attention to these feedbacks.
(6) intuition. Give a green light to some unknown and unexplained information, just like Churchill.
[1] The specific method will be elaborated in the first section of Chapter VI.
[2] This passage is quoted from the official account of WeChat "Family" and has been deleted. -Editor's note
Record number: yx1112yn72d.