Psychologists suggest that it is always best to use thinking first and judgment at the last step. This will result in potential creativity
Just think of the amazing dynamics of your thinking processes - of how they function collectively. You will feel blessed. When you think further, you'll also be enthused by the presence of nature's finest cognitive gift - your sense of timing. You too are endowed with the gift of 'timing' your 'strokes' in life to perfection, just like Virat Kohli with the willow. You'd also know what is the best time to organise your ideas, or judge a given, or not given, situation. Ask a politician, celebrity, corporate bigwig, or novelist - they will nonchalantly tell you that when it comes to delivering wisecracks, or a quotable one-liner, timing holds the key.
A new study suggests that two adjacent brain regions allow human beings to build new thoughts, using a sort of conceptual algebra, while 'simulating' the operations of silicon computers that represent variables and their changing values. But, how are such thoughts constructed? One possible answer is: our brain does it by representing conceptual variables, or answers, to recurring questions that encode such a mental syntax. This doctrine holds good for your complex thinking processes - especially in areas where each of us has to depend on sound judgment. Not all of us can be adept with our judgment, all right - reading of situations, or people. Yet, it is nature's best gift that most of us are able to figure whether, or not, our thinking process is right, or wrong, in a given moment - and, to the best extent possible.
The power of judgment holds a place greater than mental skills. Yet, it may also ironically cause problems - especially when prejudices rule your mind and also your heart. We all goof up in life. Gaffes are all right, when they are not damaging, or destructive. You, of course, can't misjudge things when it is a question of survival. Psychologists suggest that it is always best to use thinking first and judgment at the last step. If, for instance, you don't judge your prospects before a job interview, you'd allow your thoughts to unfold with an open mind. This will result in potential creativity. Remember, it is lop-sided 'intellectual' dogmas that get us into trouble, or distress.
Philosophers articulate that our judgments emerge from a fusion of past experiences, existing facts, feelings, intuition and collected perceptions. Judgment, they also suggest, is a fabulous tool when it is in the right form, or shape. When our judgment isn't right, our thinking processes get distorted. The outcome is something you know, or experience - judgmental failures and disappointments in the 'face' of your best efforts.
Your judgment is what you make - not what you invent by way of your predispositions, or whims. It can be your best buddy, or your worst foe. Your judgment will serve you well when you equate its identity with your own mindful mariner's compass - one that helps you plot a course over the waves of life, and its ups and downs. When you utilise it to steer your existential journey, wilfully, or instinctively, you will be able to self-assuredly decide on the role you would want it to play in your life, or career.
There's a little ploy you'd employ, when in doubt, or dilemma. If you can't judge, suspend your judgment for a while. You will be glad for it, as your mindful synchronicity and conscious thought processes now shape your judgment, slowly, but with good effect. This process leads us to understanding what we want, or wish, to be in life. This is usually dictated by the quality of being sensible, well-informed and gifted to determine the act of doing from the act of not doing things. Many of us may often have facts and figures of our domain at our fingertips. Yet, not all of us reach the crescendo of being aware and conscious of separating facts from their fundamental quality. Or, discern between facts and measure them with unbiased inference, if not judgment. The reason being: we have a certain tendency to 'hit upon' famously with assumptions based on personal, not collective experience. This is simply mystifying - of events shaping our behaviour and our behaviour shaping events. It is like a flower that blossoms to the warmth of the sun.
What does this connote? That we all need to articulate and fathom the real meaning of life and the source of knowledge. As Rabindranath Tagore articulated, "Let noble thoughts come from all sides." This should ideally be an ongoing process, provided we learn at each step along the way. Events, small or big, activate a new experience, even when the incident is identical to the one we have experienced before. However, the best part of it all is we are endowed with the ability to process our emotions from our experience, or repel it if it does not generate fruitful outcomes.
All events have positive, or negative nuances - they are modelled on our levels of conscious awareness and not merely intellectual attributes. Intelligence isn't everything in evaluating our emotional responses. However, being consciously aware of our emotional responses will most likely help us to express our feelings than 'mastering' it at a two-day 'awareness' retreat. The reason? When you are aware, you will be better able to discern events at an elevated level. It helps, because even when you are extremely hurt after an event long gone by, you no longer experience the angst, or despair. This, again, bids fair to a mature mind that nurtures the nature of relationships and the art of living in harmony with oneself and with others around. Call it your personalised, or bespoke, nurturing milieu that aids you to deal with your emotions with a holistic intent, or what you may. The best thing you'd now do is - listen and be listened to, while connecting seamlessly to your thought dynamics, also timing.
Nidamboor is a wellness physician, independent researcher and author