Inverse thinking

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Recently I started policing my thoughts, by expanding how I identify things.

It seems to be giving me a greater understanding of "the big picture" and I've found I can more quickly and accurately get an overview of a situation.

In light of that, I wanted to mention it here, and ask if anyone else has tried similar, and if so what their impressions are. And if not, to offer a method that may help someone else.


The basic principle, is when identifying something, note not only what it is, but to allow the mind to roam about and ponder what it is not. For example, as I sit down for lunch and enjoy a nice ham sandwich, I ponder over the various things my ham sandwich isn't. I generally start with closely related things, such as that it isn't a turkey sandwich, or it’s not a calzone, it’s not an apple, and I expand that to flavors and texture too, it doesn't taste like pineapples, doesn’t feel like a cracker. And after a bit I start into the more extremes of what it isn't, I'm not eating a skateboard, or a book, it certainly doesn't taste like chalk, or feel like steel.

After I run through and get a good feel for some of the many, many things something is not, I start considering the next axis of being, that of potential...what is can be, and what it cannot be. It could be blended into a ham sandwich drink, and ponder the texture that might have, but I have serious doubts if it could be an effective rocket fuel, etc. etc.



Somehow, by doing this a few times a day, with whatever random object, idea, person, word, etc catches my attention when I have a few minutes to ponder, has seemed to help me. It’s just a random thought exercise I came up with after doing some unrelated eastern philosophy perusing (some random admixture of paradoxical statements and Taoism), and with its initial signs of benefit, I present to you for your enjoyment, or disdain.

I might be able to better understand if you tell me how you normally see and think about people, things, etc. After a better understanding, I might be able to expand more, and to try this thought exercise. Then again, it could become a compulsion.

It's always been difficult for me to police every thought of mine about any given situation. When I do, though, I usually ask myself, "where else could I be right now? how could it be better?" Then I start fantasizing. Of course, though, it can't be any better since I am very content with life. At times, those fantasies get to me and then I ask, "what would I change?" - and I start visualizing how every detail would be different, the shape, color, texture of couch; the paint and layout of the cupboards; the pattern of the vinyl floors. It's only recently that I have realized that when I start thinking about these details, that I am trying to live to my father's and grandmother's aesthetic and quality standards. This kind of thinking is presently incompatible with me. I guess to sum it up, I find it counter-productive to think of what things "are not". To accept things the way they are, to appreciate and embrace the present, is my best strategy to cope with my renegade thoughts.

i love it how a tree is just earth moved veritcal creat a system that mixes air with earth under the influence of solar energy and that earth just started doing that over time as in now we have tree a very long time ago there was only a round ball without trees.

When I was a kid I used to think of trees as soil pushing up into the sky. Or more precisly matter from the soil reorganized so it can push up into the sky. But then I read that most of the mass of a plant comes not from the soil but from the air.

So trees are really solidified air invading the soil and reinvading the air as solid matter.

wow tanks man seems logical now you say it..

To the OP: Sounds like a bit of a bore frankly. But you could spice it up by studying foriegn languages because different languages slice up reality a little differently.

For example in Russian there is no word for "hand". They have the word "rorca" which means the whole part of the arm from the elbow to the fingertips. So you can bend your mind a little by contemplating what something sorta is and sorta isnt if you redrew the boundries.

Likewise "Merisol" is a common girls given name in Spanish speaking countries. It means "the sun at sea". In English we have the concept "sea air", but not "sea sun".