How to switch mental modes at will?

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Hello!

I'm a self-diagnosed Aspie.

Today I realized that I may have different modes of operations with different skill sets.

Most of the time, I'm in my normal state, where I'm rather calm, listen more than I talk, and prefer to be alone. I also have a speech impediment, which isn't that bad (many years ago I barely could speak), but still is a problem sometimes. Laziness is a big problem in this state, I have to pay attention to when and how much I eat, I force myself to concentrate on my work, and sometimes I simply go to bed earlier than necessary.

If an emergency arises, I can momentarily switch to a completely different mode, when I'm much more energetic, talk flawlessly, and can be quite pushy, if necessary.

I also remember a few very rare cases, when I said something aloud, people heard it, but I didn't know what I said. I just noted their face expression. One time it was in a college, when during a discussion of a project I involuntarily blurted out "what's the purpose of this whole project?" (something like that) and that was what I thought (that particular project was not useful), but didn't want to say in my normal mode (it was impolite).

On another occasion I was in a room, which I shared with several people. One night the other people were loud, and the next morning one woman (who slept in the same room) complimented me on the artistic qualities of my cursewords that I -- according to her -- directed to those loud people. But I didn't remember that I told them anything.

Finally, once I had a long talk with the practitioner of a certain spiritual tradition. During the talk he had some music running, and he told me upfront that this music influences the brain. At the beginning everything was usual. But towards the end of the talk I noticed that I started to talk without thinking.

In my normal mode, I first compose the phrase in my head, then send a command to my speech apparatus to utter it. In other words: I ALWAYS know what I'm going to say next.

However, with this guy I did not know what would come out of my mouth next. I just listened to what I'm saying while I said it. Interestingly, what I said was right, i. e. when I talked with him in that way I didn't have my speech impediment at all, I said the right words, and I felt very authentic. Maybe that's what people call talking from the heart.

Today I realized that I badly need some of the qualities that

a) I lack in my normal state, but
b) have in those "special" states.

In particular, it would be great, if I could be energetic outside of emergencies (lack of energy is one of my primary problems). I also want to be able to talk and write intuitively (like with that spiritual guy). Both abilities would allow me to earn more money and therefore be happier (sorry, if it insults you, but in my life money does make me happier).

Questions: Are there any methods that I can use to learn to switch to the emergency or the talk/write-from-heart mode at will (by a push of an imaginary button) ?

Note: Please don't tell me to see a psychiatrist. I don't want to get cured, I want to purposefully use abilities that are in me (or in my sub-personalities if it's schizophreniia) for building a legitimiate and ethical business. I never broke the law, I'm good at suppressing my emotions, and harmless for other people 99 % of the time (in the remaining 1 %, when they attack me, I usually call the police).

Thanks in advance

I can easily identify with the characteristics, traits or whatever you have described, but no, not to my knowledge...and the older I get, the more easily it strains my brain into shutdown whenever I try. I am not saying you will never find a way to do that, however, just that I never could.

You need to practice, just like athletes do drills to prepare for certain situations.
The UConn Women Huskies are really good because the coach gets basketball players that are willing to practice extreme situations.

Could you find a signal to give to yourself when you need to be in a specific state? Like, you know how people used to do the whole string around the finger thing to remind them to do something? You see the string and you remember why you put the string there.

If you know you need to stay in a certain state to complete a task, maybe you could have a word for that state (say...FOCUS...and...ENERGIZE...lol I don't know). Then you write the word on your hand or wrist. You could train yourself to get in the habit of looking at the hand or wrist and it would remind you to stay in FOCUS state or whatever. Then rub it off when you need to change states or just be natural.

I used to do a similar thing to cheat on tests. I would write the answer in shorthand in an open spot on my heavily tattooed arms.

Many thanks for your answers!

Last edited by tma25 on 17 Jan 2017, 11:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you mean anchoring, then yes, I used it many years ago. It kinda worked.

When I write or edit fiction (my first short story), I use another trick. Several authors (incl. Steven King in his autobiography and Damon Knight in "Creating Short Fiction") recommend that you imagine your intuition as a male muse (if you are a heterosexual man). The gender is important because a female muse might be distracting because of sexual allusions.

Now, whenever I am stuck, I ask this male muse, Fred, for help. I assume that he is a much better writer than I am, and knows everything. Most of the time I get a valuable response.

My subjective impression is that it's stronger than anchoring. One reason may be that when I set an anchor, I do it for my emotional state only, whereas an imaginary character can have a complex personality and touch me on more levels than just remembering, how I felt when I was resourceful.

I've used variations of this. What would my guardian angel say? What would my therapist say? What would so-and-so do?" It shifts my perspective to imagine a different mindset, and I change the person based on whatever skill or trait I'm trying to foster.

In your original post, do you mean being relaxed and off guard? Like, just speaking and acting without a filter that has you stop and think first? Or is it more than that?

Hello!

I'm a table.


RE 'switching mental modes at will' - stop thinking of 'mental modes', and just get on with whatever it is you're doing.

As others have mentioned, it can be done but will require practice and patience to do so correctly. I have the ability to do so myself when the situation calls for those skills. It is something that I can do if I try hard, so it does take energy and concentration to keep in that state. In a way, it is similar to the masking effect when dealing with the outside environment. However, you must train it to be adaptable to certain stimuli, so that it can be modified as needed/wanted. Otherwise, it will only contain a preset of functions (ie. not always the ones you want to use).

As for using music, certain songs played in series are used by me to encode data that I can only access in certain states of mind. There is a good reason why I do this. Some ideas are better left alone.

As a teacher, I have to say: shame, shame

But, I applaud your creativeness in it.

I once took an online therapy program for dealing with adhd, which is often comorbid with autism. One of the exercises was to prepare for mental activities such as schoolwork and suchlike, by running energetically in place. I assume it works by switching on stress hormones, but without the kind of debilitating stress you get from just overthinking stuff.

Worked for me, try it and see if it works for you.

I think it's more than that. I think that when I'm in this state, I not only have less fear of what others will think of me, but also think more effectively (more intuitive). It's as if I had access to more computing power and whatever I do in this state (speak or write or do) has a higher quality.

Thanks for your answer.

I already do something like this. Physical activity actually helps to think. My favorite is juggling. You can do indoors, you don't really sweat, and 5 of juggling can get me unstuck almost always.