Head- Talk - How Do You Think?

[sassafras]

Walk me through an average day inside your head.

What Do you Think About Most? What sort of subjects consume your thoughts? Is there anything you wish you thought about more instead? Why?

What Do You Tell Yourself Most Often? What does your inner voice sound like?

What's the difference between 'thinking with your gut' and 'thinking with your head?' What do you think the difference is between following your intuition and following your feelings? Are they the same?

Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[randomsomeone]

I seem to have three modes:
- business...when I am engaged in work tasks or home-related tasks
- musing...when I am twirling around ideas in my noggin. The subject of these musings varies widely.
- silence....when I intentionally shut down the inner narrative for the purpose of stillness and prayer.

I think in pictures and/or impressions, so words are seldom a factor inside my head. I just "see" things.

 

[Wyote]

Average Day -

FFFF- *hits alarm*
lalalala boring lalala dragons lala spaceships lala.
Weee I'm driving. Pretty trees.
Oh work typetypetypezzzztypetypetype.
Weee driving, damn you hot/cold weather.
Yay home. Food good. lalala infjs lalala.
I'm a tv zombie.
I'm sleepy.

zzzzzz


FFFFF- *hits alarm*

 

[Wyote]

I think a lot of what goes on in my head is an intuitive reaction to my environment. I prefer not to be in a reactive mode though, so I will influence thngs to avoid that. When I'm not doing that, a lot of my time is spent imagining relationships. I think about some person and how that relationship has gone and how it may develope. I do a fair amount of reflection and self analysis. I envision the future to a certain degree but only when it seems most poignant and has potential to create positive change. Overall I try to keep my inner dialogue positive, because I can become very negative and cynical quickly and easily.

 

[Coldspot]

An average day inside my head is like walking through an ever changing maze. My mind goes from one topic to another constantly leaving me trying to catch up.

 

[Gaze]

get up, think about what i don't want to do today *blah*
think about what would be nice if I could do it *sigh*
think about what responsibilities I have coming up in the next few weeks
Worry about those responsibilities and my inability to be successful at them - I know, yeah, I'm like the paragon of positive thinking
Think about this week, on a more pleasant note- what can I look forward to
Otherwise, I think about my thoughts and feelings, and overanalyze those to death
And if you're all lucky enough , I'll post them for all the world to see here, on a public forum
Oh, and there's also my personal anxieties, worries, fears, etc. - I love to indulge in these apparently, without this, my day just doesn't feel quite complete *ponders*

So, yeah, that's my inner world

Edit:

Is there anything you wish you thought about more instead? Why?
- Wish I thought or was less concerned with my inner world and be more useful

What Do You Tell Yourself Most Often? What does your inner voice sound like?
- My inner voice has a neutral tone with a slight monotone

What's the difference between 'thinking with your gut' and 'thinking with your head?' What do you think the difference is between following your intuition and following your feelings? Are they the same?
- I think thinking with your gut is about going with your feelings or intuition, while thinking with your head, for me at least, is about thinking through possibilities and logic of actions or thinking - it's a deliberate process in my case, while thinking with the gut feels more instinctive or natural.

-Followings feelings is not the same as following intuition because feelings are just feelings - emotional sensations about things, which are not necessarily thought through or based on fact or reality. They are impressions. But intuition goes further - it's about not just feeling but a sense of knowing that what is felt has some truth beyond your subjective feeling.

 

[sassafras]

Typical TDHT Thought Pattern:

--> Focusing on task
--> Notice some sort of environmental (psychological, social, physical, etc.) nuance
--> Why is it that Y does X and X does Z? What if it were M, N and O instead?
--> Maybe it's because of A, B or C?
-- > What does this mean for me/society/the universe?
--> [Usually, later some sort of event happens that confirms bias] OMG! TRUE!
--> No wait, maybe it's not... maybe it only appears to be true because of H, J or G
-- > Wait, why did I just assume that? What if I assumed something else? I wonder if other people assume the same thing?
-- > Maybe it's that way because of D, E and F
--> Fuck! I got distracted again.
--> Back to task.

Rinse and repeat.

Is there anything you wish you thought about more instead? Why?

Yeah, I wish I was able to stay on task more. I wish I was able not to have my brain bombarded by (often) useless insights and thoughts. I say 'useless,' because I often do not re-visit them again, even though I might have spent an entire afternoon mulling over the finer details of my own little theories. I often find myself asking ( much, much later, after I've come to some sort of earth-shattering conclusion about some pointless aspect or another about people or the world or the entire universe, etc.) why do I even care? This isn't helping me now. This isn't going to help me today, or tomorrow or even, quite possibly, ever.

My brain is a constant tug of war of practical action versus theoretical thought If you throw people and their problems into the mix, than that's just a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

What Do You Tell Yourself Most Often? What does your inner voice sound like?

I actually don't know what I tell myself most often, to be honest. I don't really talk to myself in my head so much as there's a voice that talks about stuff in my head. And it sounds/looks like a bunch of imagery with a voice-over narrator that sounds like I think I do when I speak aloud in real life.

As for my inner voice as a conscience, well, let me put it this way: my inner voice like one of those people who hangs around, but who doesn't offer up any helpful advice or input until you're already knee-deep in shit.Then it starts berating me like a banshee. Usually right when I want to go to sleep and I really, really need it.

What's the difference between 'thinking with your gut' and 'thinking with your head?' What do you think the difference is between following your intuition and following your feelings? Are they the same?

I actually don't know the answer to this question. That's why I asked.

I guess I approximate intuition with 'impressions.' They're not quite the same as feelings, as feelings (to me) appear to be more closely related to physical sensations than impressions. Impressions are more like images or snatches of sudden insight. You just know someone isn't telling you the truth. You can't explain how you've arrived at the conclusion or why it's suddenly occurred to you; it doesn't come attached with feelings; it's neutral, it's there and there's nothing else to say or describe about it other than you just know. It's like a miniature an a-ha! epiphany. It's... there. No preamble.

Thinking with your gut, on the other hand, is more like responding to things that you feel. Happiness. Anger. Resentment. Sadness. And then attributing those feelings to the stimuli and using it to justify something about it. I feel uncomfortable therefore this is bad; I feel calm and at peace, therefore that is good. But I find that discomfort/comfortable feelings are sometimes a catch-all. You don't really recognize the emotion (discomfort may mask jealousy, for example) at first blush and by reacting to it without examining it first perpetuates an inaccurate bias.

Lastly, thinking with your head is the easiest to describe, as it is linear and/or cause-and-effect thinking. This happens because of this, and you immediately follow up with giving plausible justification for it that you've derived from a previously gleaned solid set of data. You either take things apart, bit by bit, to see how it all works individually, or you acknowledge how each piece fits and behaves within a logical whole. It's like semi-conscious pattern recognition that comes with mini-footnotes attached that you can expand upon if asked.

 

[Nixie]

Average Day inside my head....scary stuff that

Wake up
Run thru list of things I need to accomplish. Examine all relevant tasks and prioritize--simutaneoulsy getting ready for work

Leave for work--Develop plan to accomplish relevant tasks--make necessary detours on way to work if needed
Note: 40 minute drive to work--autopilot or thinking Usually thinking and speeding, speeding, speeding to work in my car

Work: Wander in my mind or stay focused and get alot accomplished. Normally my job takes very little mental effort and I am very familiar with what I need to do and accomplished at doing it. I am normally terribly bored and will put stuff off just to have a busy day later on in the week. Sometimes I just meander around and get very little done and my mind is elsewhere, thinking about stuff. Otherwise I am totally focused on a set of tasks and oblivious to whatever else is going on. Somedays my job requires a tremendous amount of interpersonal contact which blows my whole day.

Go home. Wander around. Read or watch a movie. Perhaps go out. Perhaps bead. Some kind of mindless activity to shut my brain down. Typically I do not get to sleep until after 1 am and up at 6 am (If I am lucky)

Subjects that consume my thoughts? Varied. Lately I have been reading about Chakras. I also found a book about critical thinking. I picked up Kant but couldn't focus on it so I will have to try again later. I think about world affairs but also attempt to stop looking at/reading the news in order to not focus on such things so much. No recent fiction has caught my eye. I will also think about my inner self and emotions, as well as, other's emotions. I will plan and strategize out my entire week of actvities sometimes. I tend to pick up something and turn it around in my head all day long. So it really depends on what catches my fancy. I will think very hard about that particular thing all day and strategize, plot, analyze, hypothesize--on and off all day.

What do I tell myself most often? Don't know. It depends on what I am feeling. My inner voice is a cold hard bitch most of the time. I am extremely harsh with myself. I have learned to ignore or tamp down my anxiety about my own sense of failure and my perfectionism streak quite a bit though.

Thinking with my gut vs. Thinking with my head Hum. I tend to think of myself as a bit "out of control" when I just go with my gut. I tend to be in a "who gives a f*ck" mood when I am just doing something I want to do with no concern for anything else. I associate that with "my gut'. I also tend to just "know" things--like when I should be somewhere, or say something to someone, or do something RIGHT NOW. I associate that with "my gut" as well. So thinking with my gut takes on two aspects: Negative: Just doing what I want with no regard to anything Positive: Doing things without knowing why but feeling they are important.

Most of the time I am thinking with my head. It is a normal place for me.

 

[jyrffw54]

I will give you a typical school day.

6AM-Wake up time, I wonder what my dream last night means/What do I want to accomplish today/wear/eat for breakfast. Do the morning motions in autopilot.

Driving-I wonder why the light reflects in such a way to give such a beautiful sunrise, I also pray during this time.

At school-"When is this class going to end, "I wish this class wouldn't end", "I hope that I don't spill anything", "Why is he phrasing it like that...wouldn't it make more sense to everyone to just say...."

Driving home- "hmm, I think I have figured out why Enoch got so upset that Gershom said that him", "Mom needs to chill out, we are grown up and have proved ourselves responsible many times over, why can't she trust us?", "So, if you were to take the integral here, and THEN find the other equation...."

At home-Doing hw/eating dinner/some foruming/Reading/Muddling over random things in my head or forum posts.

Pray/fall asleep around 12-1AM

What Do you Think About Most? What sort of subjects consume your thoughts? Is there anything you wish you thought about more instead? Why?

I think about anything and everything. I think about what's going on in the News, How to make my Church a better place, good music suggestions for choir, Story Ideas, Sketch Ideas, Song Ideas, Where I am going to be in 5 years or ten. I think about the people in my life, what they are going through and ways I can help them. I think about what truly falling in love will feel like, what sex will feel like, what certain positions would feel like

 

[heiots]

Mine probably isn't that far off from [MENTION=2873]Serenity[/MENTION]'s post.

I have to mention this: It gets noisy, so music helps mute outside sounds, which can agitate me, and quietens the head space. It helps me express what I can't, what I'm repressing subconsciously, and it gives language to my emotions. Sometimes I deliberately choose certain music to manipulate my emotions, which in turn affects my thoughts. Probably not unfamiliar for those who do creative arts. I let myself feel, then it gives rise to the thoughts. I'm plugged in the majority of my waking hours from the time I leave home till I get home. (Talk about having a soundtrack for life.)

All this to let you know a lot of my thoughts are dependent on the kind of music I listen to. That's how my inner life works: music, moods, thoughts.

Sometimes I indulge in melancholic moods without actually thinking anything, and that's pretty relaxing for me. That's probably how I relax, to be honest. It's only then I don't worry about the subjects that often consume me or drain me of energy: thoughts of the future, of when I'll reach my goals, figuring out how I should do this or that to improve, how I should try harder and how I should stop trying so hard simultaneously, how to just have fun, how to find that place of contentment because it exists out there. Nature occupies my thoughts as well. The different colours of morning skies, the feel of rain, the pleasant cold, the therapeutic sounds of storms. How my suspicions of blackbirds building a nest outside the office were true when the hatchlings began chirping.

And the random 'head-in-the-clouds' thoughts. I think I've posted plenty of them on this site.

I wish I thought more about the present, treasuring what I do have right now before I lose it, and more about how to make a bigger impact on people's lives in a positive manner. More outward-focused than so often inward-searching.

What do I tell myself most often? I tell myself that there's a purpose for everything that happens, that life has a purpose. Everything you do is connected to something else, affects something else, like ripples on a lake. It's never meaningless.

I've never separated thinking with my gut and thinking with my head. I'm not sure what the difference is. I like to think every gut feeling materializes as thoughts that pass through the head, gets the analysis treatment, and is scrutinized carefully before showing up as an action. Does gut feeling mean acting on a whim? Following intuition and following feelings are similar to me. It's all comes in the form of an impression.

 

[barbad0s]

Wake up
omfg where am I
Awesome, I am still alive

assess physical status
god now what
think of all the crap I have to get through today =.= also think of positive things to look forward to
Get up and think of random things pertinent to my recent life while getting ready and commuting
continue to think and daydream about those things during the day (I also think about the universe and "connections" etc)
get through the day and feel emotional ups and downs
feel super sleepy
zzz
repeat

 

[Oscillation]

Am I awake? Yes, you are. Do I need to be awake? Yes you do. Okey... why? You have chores be taken care of and you have to study. Class starts in... *open my eyes, look at the watch* ...in about 45 minutes. Okej, right. I need do get up. Let's get started then! *Autopilot* Did I lock the door? Yes I did. How do the human brain work? What is 'thoughts'? Hmmm. I wonder if you ever would be able to know... what is knowledge? Hmmm. What does knowledge stand for? Is this car going left? No, he's wheels point right. Okey, I'll go first! The brain is somewhat like the nature overall, like our sociaty, like roads and cars and bicycles. One goes left, another goes right, in an orderly fashion. But our thoughs are much greater than our roads. We all have our own universes inside of us, and noone are able of seing them, even not ourself. To bad. Oh! What's the time?! *picks up phone while bicycling along* 08:03, okey, so I have to speed up.

And so on...
Later on I'll probably look up the etymology of the word "knowledge" and become surprised that it has something to do with "sexual intercourse" (yeah, strange). And I'll also return to the thought over and over again, from multiple perspectives, untill something else caught my attention or I'll have to focus on other external factors prompted by school or alike.

To give an extensive (yesterday I thought about the difference between the word 'extensive' and 'intensive', and I'll keep on bringing it to my brain untill I'll get something interesting out from it. Right now I only got a feeling that extensive has something to do with the actual external world, and intensive internal world. But then, to be 'intense', what would that mean?) report on my thoughts through out the whole day would take two days to write down, if not even more.

 

[Radiantshadow]

Walk me through an average day inside your head.

It's been pretty peaceful in there lately. Thank goodness. At the beginning of this semester, I wanted to unwrap my brain tissue and strangle myself with it.

What Do you Think About Most? What sort of subjects consume your thoughts? Is there anything you wish you thought about more instead? Why?

Nothing consumes me in that I obsess about it, but two thought strands tickle my mind more than others: performance at work and manifesting the life I desire. To these ends, I check in with myself frequently to see how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, what I'm doing, and if there's anything I need to be doing differently, or, if I'm working, should have done better. Blessedly, I don't crucify myself with guilt and perfectionism much anymore, so this process has more breadth and depth than it used it; I'm more open to my own success and strengths, and set-backs don't shake me up too badly.

However, I must say that the rhythm and pitch of my thoughts are frenetically analytical when I'm working. I must constantly be open to and actively monitor human-environment interactions to design interventions that produce meaningful behavior change. All while engaging and guiding my clients. My thought processes, therefore, are more akin to @atree 's - constantly analyzing, reanalyzing, and reconstructing reality. But outside of work, I'm much more focused on the present moment and let myself off the hook of needing to do anything other than be. It's a humorous and sometimes frustrating contrast.

What Do You Tell Yourself Most Often? What does your inner voice sound like?

Unless I feel unsafe or one of my flashback triggers are present, there's little I repeat to myself. My answer is similar to [MENTION=1360]atree[/MENTION] 's. My inner voice is actually a small army of voices which encompass dozens of mythological & psychological roles, and they love to talk to each other about things. Often with great enthusiasm. It's fun to sit back and just listen ^.^

What's the difference between 'thinking with your gut' and 'thinking with your head?'

"Thinking with your gut" could mean a few things, depending on context. It could mean impulsively reacting to an event and the emotions it stirs up, and giving reason no room to breathe. It could mean following one's sense of intuition/just knowingness or automatic response to something. "Thinking with your head" is more deliberate, detailed, and detached, usually entailing step-by-step analysis of a thing and the application of goals and reasoning.

What do you think the difference is between following your intuition and following your feelings? Are they the same?

I don't think they're the same. Intuition is a sense of just knowing something, despite no immediately evident database. Feelings, on the other hand, encompass one's emotional and physical reactions to an event, and can be more complicated and difficult to navigate. When I first start working with a child in their home and catch myself watching the parents more than the child, I'm usually following my intuition because I get a sense that something's up that they're not revealing or aware of. It's a snap insight that always uncovers another pattern - in this case, of behavior. When I cringe and offer critical feedback on how a parent is structuring their child's environment, usually related to over-reliance on punishment, I'm following my feelings because of the anxiety, concern, and disdain for punishment that I feel.

 

[Erlian]

Walk me through an average day inside your head.

Each day would be a few hundred pages.

What Do you Think About Most? What sort of subjects consume your thoughts? Is there anything you wish you thought about more instead? Why?

Everything. Perfect angle to walk so I save one meter on my route. The people that pass me. What happened within the last day. Planning what I will do. Thinking about how I feel and why I feel that way. And most of the time basically any subject that somehow comes to mind, because it's triggered by something I perceive.
No, I do not wish to think more. I don't think it would be physically possible. Also if I want to think about something, I'll do exactly that. Nothing has ever stopped me to think about something, maybe postponed because I'm busy with something else.

What Do You Tell Yourself Most Often? What does your inner voice sound like?

Sound? My thoughts are much faster than speech. There's not really any sound involved.
The few thoughts that could be classified as "telling myself" would be either encouragment to start something, relativation and explanation of feeling bad. That is the only time I see myself telling another entity (myself) to do something.

What's the difference between 'thinking with your gut' and 'thinking with your head?' What do you think the difference is between following your intuition and following your feelings? Are they the same?

I thought "with your gut" implied not thinking. Thinking is done by the head in the first place.

My intuition tells me something about my environment. How is someone else feeling. What do I notice? What do I see? This information of my surroundings comes to me intuitively and allows me to make a better decision.
My feelings motivate a decision. They do not tell me anything about my surroundings or situation, but they tell me what I want.