Soon, we will begin a new year and all the weight loss ads will appear. Some
will ask you to join a gym while others will promise amazing results with little
or no effort on your part. Since inactivity is part of the cause of weight gain,
I would hope that people would approach such claims with great skepticism.
However, there is a way you can improve yourself that takes little to no
physical exertion whatsoever. In fact, to improve you will have to limit your
activity quite stringently. You need to practice doing nothing.
As many have
noted, we live in an age of distraction. Our world is a noisy one, with video
screens and always-connected capabilities robbing us of any time alone with our
thoughts. We have become more and more dependent on such distractions, as one
study found "Ninety five percent of American adults reported that they did at
least one leisure activity in the past 24 hours, such as watching television,
socializing, or reading for pleasure, but 83% reported they spent no time
whatsoever 'relaxing or thinking.'"
1 So it's no
wonder that the researchers found that most people found sitting in a chair and
thinking for ten to fifteen minutes was not an enjoyable experience and a
significant number chose to administer small, painful electric shocks to
themselves rather than simply think about something.
2,
3
Deep Thinking Versus Distracted Thinking
You may jump to the conclusion that it's the younger generations that are
more incapable of uninterrupted thinking, but in "Just think: The challenges of
the disengaged mind", Timothy Wilson and his co-authors found that the age of
the participant (ranging from 18 to 77) or whether they performed the test at
home or in a lab setting made no difference. The only real difference in helping
people "gain better control of their thoughts with meditation and other
techniques, with clear benefits."
4
I agree that deeply
thinking about a particular problem or issue is a lost skill and one that every
believer should seek to cultivate. The Psalms are replete with commands for us
to meditate on the Scriptures and the works of God
5 to
help us better understand Him and our place in the world. Therefore, I want to
offer some tips on ways you can practice thinking about an issue more deeply.
These are just ways I try to approach certain problems I mull over as I work
through them.
1. Ensure You're Exposed to Rich Ideas
The first step in thinking well requires you to get in the habit of taking in
ideas that you may not have previously been exposed to. The best way to do this
is to develop a habit of reading. You don't have to read for huge chunks
of time, but simply read regularly. Plan in getting ready for bed and spend the
last 30 minutes every evening reading. This will help you wind down from the day
and it will also improve your sleep. You should read actively, with a pencil in
hand and marking up your books. If you disagree with the author, write it in the
margin. If you think a point is confusing, note that too. You don't have to look
up a word or reference at this point, just read. Choose some classic works of
fiction and choose some non-fiction. Mix it up. You'll find that there are many
different ways people approach certain issues. All of this helps you to think
about ideas in different contexts.
2. Mull over the ideas to which you've
been exposed.
Next, pick a particularly intriguing or difficult idea and start thinking
through it. You should do this at a different time than your reading.
Morning is always good. In my devotional time, I try to meditate on a different
aspect of God's character each morning. I've taken a list of the different names
of God and use it to contemplate that aspect of his character. I really try to
think about what it means for God to be the Lord Our Banner. What aspects of God
does such a title reflect? How do those aspect impact me in my walk? This is my
very first action in my morning prayer time.
With other ideas, I usually try
to find a time where I will have limited distractions to think over an issue.
The key is to focus on one thing. How does that idea fit in with your
understanding of the world? Does it have implications for other beliefs that you
hold? What are three reasons to reject such an idea? Would such a concept be
true under any circumstance? Can you outline an argument in your head for or
against that view? Who else would be considered an expert in that topic and
have you looked at what they would say? All of these questions will help you
explore that topic much more deeply than simply taking the author's word for a
particular point of view.
3. See how your previous ideas work with
your new thoughts.
Lastly, as you take in new ideas, you'll want to see how well those mesh with
previous ideas you have. Are there any points of connection? Sometimes, new
insight will be gained by taking two ideas that seem disparate and trying to
connect them in some way. For example, I was once reading an opinion piece
lamenting the fact that the candidates for the various offices in the city of
Los Angeles were almost exclusively male. The pundits were decrying this as a
travesty, making the point that women add a voice and an influence that men
cannot replicate. I was also working on some questions about same-sex marriage
and it really struck me how if each sex offers unique views that are necessary
to the well-being of governance, then it should be more true that two parents of
different sexes offer unique views that are necessary to the well-being of any
children that are raised, which prompted
this post. However, that's just one example of how new ideas can form when
you think about an issue more deeply and carefully.
References
Convincing Christianity
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