Analyzing Flow of Thoughts

Summary

The article discusses the impact of stimulus-dependent and stimulus-independent thoughts on an individual's happiness, emphasizing the importance of addressing fearful thoughts through catharsis to improve overall well-being.

Abstract

The article "Analyzing Flow of Thoughts" explores the psychological underpinnings of happiness by examining how different types of thoughts—stimulus-dependent (SDT) and stimulus-independent (SIT)—affect our emotional state. It posits that happiness is influenced by the nature of our thought processes, particularly whether they lead to fearful thoughts. The author explains that SDTs are triggered by external events, while SITs arise spontaneously, often during mundane activities. The article suggests that the presence of fear in these thoughts can lead to unhappiness, and it advocates for the practice of catharsis to neutralize the emotional charge of such thoughts. By fully engaging with and venting fearful thoughts, individuals can analyze and replace the underlying beliefs that cause fear, leading to a increased sense of happiness and peace.

Opinions

The author believes that the flow of thoughts, whether triggered by external stimuli or arising independently, plays a crucial role in determining an individual's happiness.
It is the author's opinion that fearful thoughts, if not addressed, can significantly detract from one's general sense of well-being.
The author holds that catharsis, involving full engagement with fearful thoughts and emotional venting, is an effective method for dealing with fearful thoughts.
The article suggests that by replacing fear-inducing beliefs with more positive ones after catharsis, individuals can reduce the impact of fearful thoughts on their happiness.
According to the author, regular practice of catharsis can lead to an overall increase in happiness and a sense of peace.

To get a better understanding of what makes a person happy

Some people are generally happy while others may not be. A part of the reason for this difference lies in the flow of thoughts. In this article, I shall delve deeper into this topic by explaining every piece of this puzzle one by one, hopefully leading to a better understanding of how the flow of thoughts affects our general wellbeing.

What is a stimulus?

A stimulus may be defined as any perceptual event in the external environment which creates a chain of thoughts in our mind e.g. if a person is watching a movie on the television and suddenly hears a cry from his daughter in the other room. Then this cry from the child acts as the stimulus for the person, giving rise to a chain of thoughts starting from “whether the child fell from the bed?”. The next linked thought maybe — “Did it hurt her?” And then the thought “Is the hospital open at this time?” And so on. This flow of thoughts stops upon reaching a thought that has extreme fear associated with it or the person has encountered another stimulus that starts a separate chain of thoughts.

SDT vs SIT

SDT or Stimulus Dependent Thought: It refers to the chain of thoughts that arises due to external stimulus. The example in the previous section — The chain of thoughts arising due to “A cry from the child” is an example of SDT. Normally for SDT to happen the stimulus must be strong or the person must not be deeply involved in some activity. If a person is deeply involved in a certain activity and the stimulus is weak then it may not lead to SDT.

SIT or Stimulus Independent Thought: It refers to the chain of thoughts that are not triggered by any external stimulus. Normally it happens when the mind is empty or is involved in some mundane task. In such situations, at any time a chain of thoughts may arise and it is mainly guided by the overall issue bothering the person at that time e.g. if a person is going through a divorce then if he is doing a mundane task like brushing his teeth then suddenly a chain of thoughts related to the divorce may crop up in his mind. Such thoughts are called SIT.

General happiness

If the SDT or SIT does not contain thoughts that are associated with fear then the person is generally happy. An example is as follows:

Person A may see news of job cuts in a certain company and that leads to SDT and that chain of thoughts ends with the thought that he might also lose the job and may become bankrupt making him feel uneasy and unhappy.

For Person B the SDT leads to a thought that in the worst case he may shift his job (because he knows he is capable of getting another job) and maybe that job will give better remuneration than his current job. This will lead the person B to be finally happy.

Thus based on the same stimulus entirely different end results can be obtained.

How to deal with fearful thoughts?

Be it SDT or SIT, if we encounter thoughts that are associated with fear then some inner work needs to be done. Catharsis plays a vital role in dealing with fearful thoughts. One should not neglect the fearful thought but should totally get engulfed into it and vent the fear out through various means such as fast breathing etc. This will help in removing the emotional charge associated with it. After this step, the belief responsible for the fear to happen in the first place needs to be analyzed and replaced with a better belief

An Example: If a person is doing any mundane task and his mind is empty then SIT comes over and he thinks about losing the custody of his child after divorce then he should not neglect that thought. He should embrace it fully and vent out our frustration through fast breathing etc. After this, he can objectively analyze the situation and be just happy that what he wants is the happiness of the child, and whether the child is with him or not is unimportant. After this even if he encounters the same thought of losing custody then it will not bother him. Details of catharsis have been explained in the following articles:

Conclusion

The flow of thoughts either stimulus-dependent or stimulus-independent, if it leads to fearful thoughts then we feel unhappy. The frequency of such fearful thoughts determines our general sense of happiness. If the frequency is high then we are generally unhappy otherwise we have a general sense of peace.

Upon encountering fearful thoughts we should not let it go but through catharsis work on it and remove the emotional charge associated with it so that the next time the same thought will not cause discomfort to us. Upon doing catharsis regularly we will definitely see that our general sense of happiness has increased.