The Mind Is Our Best Ally In Difficult Situations

It is the most powerful tool we have and it is on our shoulders, dispersed within our brain. We speak of course from our mind. Its operation is so powerful and at the same time so peculiar that it is the main pen with which we actually write our destiny.

A few years ago the idea that we only use 10% of its potential became famous . Later we have seen that everything is more complex than this simple headline since, although we have limited processes, such as the ability to maintain attention or short-term memory, we also have other processes that seem to know no borders, such as the ability to imagine or learn.

Our mind seeks to save resources

Thus, we are clear that what we can do with our mind is asymptotically infinite. However, if we observe most of our behaviors, we will realize that what is most involved in them are routines or mental programming. Some routines in which there is a disconnection between the action and the conscious part. We talk about hanging clothes, cooking and driving on a familiar road. The action that we free our mind to go to work with ideas disconnected from that present is so well known.

In addition, something else happens and that is that our mind is usually intelligent in its self-regulation and by default always tries to work minimizing energy consumption. Let’s think about our ancestors and the difficulty in accessing certain types of essential nutrients.

You might think why the hell they needed a mental energy economy that was so selective for our species if they spent their days hunting and running after prey. Well, it has been proven, for example, that the best endurance athletes share a common characteristic and that is that their cerebral oxygenation during long and intense efforts is greater.

Once we are clear that our mind does not like wasting energy because it fears running out of it and that many of the activities we do are in automatic mode, we will understand that perhaps we do not use 10% of our capacity, but it is true that there is a good part that we do not use. Limiting it in percentage is the least, the really important thing is to know what repercussions this has.

The part of our mind that we do not use – as a rule, there are always exceptions – has to do above all with creativity and the search for novel solutions. Much of the resistance to change has this biological reason and that is that it goes against the economizing tendency of the brain. Perhaps our way of doing things is not the best, but changing the one we already have adapted for a new one to adapt supposes, apart from uncertainty, an extra energy expenditure at the beginning for sure.

Why is ingenuity important?

Let’s take a trip to the Middle Ages and attend the trial of a defendant. In this trial, the judge wanted to convict the defendant at all costs, but neither did he want his attitude to be manifest, so he proposed to the defendant to draw lots. Supposedly he would introduce two equal envelopes in a box, one would contain a paper with the word “innocent” and another with the word “guilty”.

Of course, the judge wrote in the two guilty. Of course, the defendant assumed it since the quarrels with the judge came from afar. What do you think the accused did? He could have denounced him, but if his hypothesis was found to be uncertain he would be condemned. On the other hand, if it was true, they would probably remove the judge but nothing assured him that the next one would be better.

Well, what he did was eat one of the two ballots. Then he said that they could know which one he had chosen because it would be the opposite of the one in the box. Of course, the one in the box put guilty and he was released to the anger of the judge, who had to swallow his own ruse.

Returning to the present, we cannot forget that we all have a tool similar to that of the clever accused and that we can use it to save or improve our lives: we talk about our minds. It is true that we cannot control everything, but it is also true that this control often goes beyond what we estimate. Thus, in this difference between estimation and reality, between ingenuity and repetition, is where our true potential lies.