Health and Wellbeing
I Believe Everything Is “Figureoutable” and How I Proved It In My Life Using 7 Cognitive Tools
Practical tips to tap into the subconscious mind naturally and improve creativity, productivity, health, and happiness backed up by science.
From Doubt to Certainty: How I Discovered That Everything was “Figureoutable”
Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
If you tend towards pessimism, it’s time to consider the benefits of shifting to a more positive outlook. I urge you to consider the benefits of shifting towards a more optimistic perspective and make an effort to cultivate a positive and growth mindset within realistic boundaries.
In this article, we’ll explore how realistic optimism is the secret source of happiness, health, and wealth and why it’s worth striving for by sharing my decades of experience introducing seven practical ways to enter the subconscious mind and use its power to solve your physical and mental problems.
Your mindset plays a crucial role in determining the quality of your life. Optimism has the power to transform your life for the better.
For example, optimism has been shown to be correlated with increased happiness and longevity in numerous studies, as I previously detailed in my article titled Here’s Why Optimists Live Longer and Happier than Pessimists.
This is not a baseless or biased claim but rather a well-established scientific fact. Realistic optimists can handle stress more effectively, improving physical and mental well-being. When I chose optimism over pessimism, I had a more positive outlook on life.
By adopting a positive perspective with realistic optimism and refraining from perfection, I have experienced multiple benefits, including healthier behaviors, more robust social connections, a positive attitude toward aging, increased gratitude, heightened empathy and compassion, lower levels of the stress hormone (cortisol), a better immune system, greater resilience, and a better economic position.
Why do I emphasize these points, and what is optimism got to do with figuring out things in life? The short answer is everything.
The principles of optimism can help us better understand and figure out things in our lives. I will elaborate on this idea in the following sections.
I encourage you to approach this story with an open mind and consider the potential benefits of applying its principles to your own life. Our mindset plays a critical role in our success, health, and happiness. With an optimistic outlook, you might find that the information contained in this story has the power to transform your life.
In fact, had I been given such valuable insights 50 years ago, I believe my struggles may have been lessened, and my personal growth accelerated. I urge you to take the time to truly consider how these principles may be tailored to meet your unique needs and, in doing so, potentially lead to a life-changing experience. My ambitious goal is to unleash your potential.
Like genuine scientists, I cannot offer definite solutions, but I can show you many possibilities that you might explore and experiment with sensibly, as Marie Forleo did in her best-selling book “Everything is Figureoutable” which received 13,104 ratings on Goodreads.
The most critical point is choosing optimism in realistic boundaries. Toxic optimism can be harmful. We must acknowledge the negative, unpleasant, and painful feelings and express them healthily. However, refraining from pessimism and focusing on positive outcomes can produce better results.
What is the subconscious mind, and why does it matter?
First, I’d like to define the subconscious mind for mutual understanding. While the concept of the subconscious mind has not been scientifically proven and technically demonstrated yet, it offers helpful ways to explain our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences.
Experiential studies in psychology indicate the existence of the subconscious mind, but scientists haven’t reached a consensus yet. For example, with the contribution of thought leaders like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl Jung, many modern psychologists created convincing hypotheses.
In fact, Jung, my favorite psychologist so far, created the hypothesis of the collective unconscious. Collective unconscious refers to a shared pool of archetypes and symbols that were inherited from our ancestors and that played a significant role in shaping our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
I see the subconscious mind as an inherent force that operates below the surface of our conscious awareness. It controls our reflexive and intuitive behaviors and processes and stores memories and experiences that influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
By leveraging the power of the subconscious mind, we can gain better self-awareness, improve creativity, enhance working memory, solve problems faster, and gain self-confidence.
Seven Practical Tips to Leverage the Power of the Subconscious Mind
In this section, I summarize the critical points of seven practical tools and techniques that helped me to enter the subconscious mind and leverage its power to improve my creativity, productivity, health, well-being, and happiness.
1 — Lucid Dreaming
I start with lucid dreaming as it has the most significant effect in utilizing the subconscious mind effectively and effortlessly in my sleep. I documented some of my experiences and will link the articles at the end of this section to give you an idea.
Lucid dreaming is a state of awareness in which the dreamer is conscious of the fact that they are dreaming and has some control over the content and direction of the dream.
Since I practiced this many times, the key mechanism for me to leverage the power of the subconscious mind is the questioning technique, as I elaborated in my sample stories.
Many artists and scientists are interested in lucid dreaming. One of my favorite books was Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, and Howard Rheingold was published in 1989.
I admire Dr. LaBerge’s work as he is a psychophysiologist and a leader in the scientific study of lucid dreaming. He researched lucid dreaming as part of his Ph.D. in Psychophysiology at Stanford University.
In 2020, “The International Lucid Dream Induction Study investigated and compared the effectiveness of five different combinations of lucid dream induction techniques, including reality testing, Wake Back to Bed, the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams technique, the Senses Initiated Lucid Dream technique, and a hybrid technique combining elements of both MILD and SSILD.”
The paper published in Frontier’s Psychology concluded that “successful lucid dream induction had no adverse effect on sleep quality. Findings indicated that the techniques were effective regardless of baseline lucid dreaming frequency or prior experience with lucid dreaming techniques.”
Here are my three stories documenting my lucid dreaming experiences for futuristic studies in my discipline.
Here’s a Glimpse of the 33rd Century Altering My Perspective on Life.
Here’s How I Perceive the 50th Century.
Insights Into the Future from a Lucid Dream
2— Meditation, Contemplation, and Introspection
Meditation has been another easy and effective way for me to tap into my subconscious mind and leverage its power to realize my dreams. Many cultures, religions, and philosophies used meditation, contemplation, and introspection throughout history.
These practices involve focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to train attention and awareness and achieve a calm and stable state with empathy and self-compassion.
Even though the relationship between meditation and the subconscious mind is not fully understood and demonstrated yet, observational and experimental studies on brain imaging give us clues.
From my experience and reviews, meditation is a helpful tool for entering the subconscious mind because it provides a practical way to remove the distractions of the conscious mind and allow the unconscious mind to surface.
The beneficial effects of meditation for reducing stress, strengthening the thinking brain, and calming the primitive and emotional brain are well documented in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience literature.
I documented my experience with meditation in a story titled Here’s Why and How I Meditate Every Eight Hours for Decades.
I also documented my perspectives on mindfulness as mindful living can help us leverage the power of the subconscious mind using awareness, acceptance, empathy, and compassion principles. Here’s Why We Need Mindfulness More Than Ever.
Fortunately, scientists recently got interested and started researching it intensely. Unfortunately, it was a taboo topic until the early 2000s.
For example, when I posted an article about my meditative experiences and observations to a bulletin board in the UK in the late 1990s, the site banned me from posting for a lifetime. Even recently, a Reddit group banned my meditation articles within the transhumanism context and throw me out of the community which I adored.
If you want to learn how to meditate, you might try resources on YouTube by eminent meditators and read articles from meditation teachers like David Gerken, who posts insightful and educative articles on this platform, followed by 150K readers.
3 — Self-Hypnosis and Self-Talk
Similar to meditation, self-hypnosis also remove distractions from the conscious mind, allowing access to the subconscious mind easily and quickly.
We can create self-hypnosis by relaxing the body in a trance-like state, meditating, visualization, and using mantras. I cover the last two in the next section.
Self-hypnosis, if done correctly, might help us lower stress and anxiety, improve creativity and productivity, reduce the effects of phobias and change our habits effectively. Some athletes use it as a performance improvement tool.
Even though scientific studies demonstrate mixed results, many people benefit from hypnotherapy which is considered an alternative treatment method. Some hypnotherapists successfully made behavioral changes, such as removing phobias and helping people stop smoking.
I use self-hypnosis while talking with myself. As I posted two articles about them, I will not repeat the details. You might check my perspectives and experiences in these two stories.
Here’s Why Talking to Myself Is Not Crazy But Clever.
Here’s How I Talk to Myself for Self-Therapy.
You might take a hypnotherapy course and learn various techniques. If you can hypnotize others with techniques you learn, you can use self-hypnosis effectively.
4 — Visualization
Visualization is also known as mental imagery or imagination. It is the ability to create mental images using sight and other senses, such as sound and touch. Like meditation and self-hypnosis, it can open a path to the subconscious mind.
Visualization can be used as a tool for creating mental models and simulations to understand and process information, solve problems, and plan our goals. It can increase creativity and productivity.
However, visualization might require significant self-discipline, mental power, and persistence to achieve desired goals.
Interestingly, successful athletes have been using visualization for a long time. For example, a 2020 study published in Frontier found that “Competitive athletes showed higher scores on mental imagery skills than non-athletes.”
I use visualization to enhance my intellectual and intuitive powers for work and hobbies. You might find many resources on the Internet, including books and videos providing guided visualization.
5 — Affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements repeated to help change thought patterns and beliefs. Self-affirmation theory asserts that we can be motivated to maintain a positive self-view and improve our performance.
A 2016 study published in Oxford’s Academics Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience examined the neural mechanisms of self-affirmation with a task developed for use in a functional magnetic resonance imaging environment. The study found that:
“Participants who were affirmed (compared with unaffirmed participants) showed increased activity in key regions of the brain’s self-processing (medial prefrontal cortex + posterior cingulate cortex) and valuation (ventral striatum + ventral medial prefrontal cortex) systems when reflecting on future-oriented core values (compared with everyday activities).”
As these brain regions are highly complex and involved, I plan to write an informative article on how they relate to the subconscious mind and cognitive abilities and performance.
In the meantime, the key mechanism by which affirmations may work is through the concept of “self-perception theory” in psychology developed by psychologist Daryl Bem in the 1960s.
The self-perception theory suggests that “people’s attitudes and behaviors are influenced by their beliefs about themselves.
Bem asserts that “people develop their attitudes when there is no previous attitude due to a lack of experience.” By repeating affirmations, we might be able to change our self-perceptions and, in turn, our attitudes and behaviors.
My most frequently repeated affirmations that keep my sanity amidst crisis are:
“Everything is okay, everything is under control, everything will be fine, everything is figurable, you are doing a great job, keep going, I love you more than ever, you deserve this, this is not the end of the word, does it matter in the big schema of things, and this will pass too.”
6 —Flow State
As originally documented by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow state refers to a mental state in which people are fully immersed in and focused on a particular task or activity.
The critical points of the flow state are a feeling of intense concentration, a loss of self-consciousness, and a sense of enjoyment and fulfillment.
These characteristics show that we tap into the subconscious mind when in a flow state. It is one of the best creativity and productivity tool for me.
Flow state has similarities to meditation, self-hypnosis, and visualization, but its mechanism and effects are different in the brain from my experience.
For example, even though we can enter a meditative and trance state in the flow state, we can also actively produce by using the thinking brain and the body.
However, in meditation and hypnosis, we must be less active in thinking and moving. For example, it is possible a gardener, builder, engineer, or laborer to enter a flow state while working physically.
The flow state can change the content of consciousness at a specific time to an optimally functioning mental and physical performance.
For more information about the flow state, you might check out my recent article titled 5 Tips to Enter a Flow State and Improve Work, Joy, and Health.
The flow state can change the content of consciousness at a specific time to an optimally functioning mental and physical performance.
7 — Journaling and Expressive Writing
Journaling is the practice of writing down our thoughts and feelings regularly. It is a valuable technique for tapping into the subconscious mind.
Journaling allows us to process and reflect on our thoughts, emotions, and experiences. It can assist us in identifying thought patterns and underlying beliefs that might not serve our purpose in life.
I have been journaling since age five and did not miss a day except for a few times when I had minor operations, such as the one in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2002.
I digitized my 55+ years of journal entries in a database and used it regularly to learn more about what is coded in my subconscious mind. I use data in my brain gym as described in this story titled Here’s How I Train My Brain Daily for Mental Clarity and Intellectual Productivity.
As documented by the University of Rochester Medical Center, “one of the ways to deal with any overwhelming emotion is to find a healthy way to express yourself via journaling. This makes a journal a helpful tool for managing your mental health. Journaling can help you manage anxiety, reduce stress, and cope with depression.”
Expressive writing is a therapeutic mindfulness practice. Expressive writing, particularly in raw form, can have exceptional value by allowing the writers to express their thoughts, sensations, and emotions without restrictions.
Even though I perform my professional writing via electronic devices, I particularly find handwriting more valuable for expressing my deep feelings. For example, using two hands interchangeably helped me explore issues buried in my psyche.
I ask questions with my right hand and reply by writing with my left hand during this creative process. This dexterous technique produced insights beyond my beliefs as it activates both sides of the brain, both emotional and logical allowing me to use the power of the subconscious mind.
Expressive writing can be a powerful technique to tap into the conscious mind when combined with meditation, self-hypnosis, visualization, affirmations, and self-talk.
Conclusions and Takeaways
No one still knows certainly how many memories are kept in our subconscious mind yet. However, my educative guess indicates that it might be trillions throughout our lives with consciousness which we are still incapable of defining in science communities.
The subconscious mind is a part of our psyche that operates below the level of conscious awareness and is responsible for the automatic control of bodily functions, such as breathing, temperature control, digestion, hormonal fluctuations, neurotransmission, and the unconscious processing of information and memories.
Even though scientists have not demonstrated this complex concept yet, I firmly believe that the subconscious mind store and process our memories that we are not consciously aware of and impact our thoughts, feelings, sensations, experiences, and behaviors. Therefore, I see it as a hidden treasure everyone can tap into easily.
My motto is happiness comes from the mind with the nurtured body. The human body and the brain have an enigmatic section allowing us to achieve our dreams. It is called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).
This anatomic construct in the brain stem can contribute to achieving our goals if we can use it with awareness, commitment, and persistence. Awareness of RAS and leveraging its functions can accelerate the driving power in this exciting journey.
Like Marie Forleo and millions of others throughout history found out that “Everything is Figureoutable.” Millions of people found ways to achieve health and wealth by tapping into their subconscious and using intellect and intuition wisely, creatively, and productively.
Reading biographies of scientists, geniuses, and inventors like Nicola Tesla, Benoit Mandelbrot, Mary Curie, and others, whom I connect in lucid dreams, indicates that we can find solutions to our problems by connecting our subconscious mind, which is connected to cosmic intelligence.
The key takeaway of this story is everyone with a healthy mental capacity can enter the subconscious mind using various techniques that humans have developed through centuries. However, the approach and effort might vary from person to person.
The key points are:
1 — Embrace your problems and define them.
2 — Choose optimism within realistic boundaries believing “Everything is Figureoutable.”
3 — Use the mechanism of your Reticular Activating System to tap into your subconscious mind by trying some of the seven techniques I introduced in this story.
We all have dreams and aspirations starting from our childhood. Successful people set the vision, establish goals, strategize the path, and progress the journey with flexible tactics.
Here’s How I Got Healthier and Smoother Skin via 5 Lifestyle and Holistic Health Methods.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
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As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
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