How To Fall In Love With Your Own Mind & Intelligence? + Exercise

[r0ckyreed]

I am merely posting this to reach my ideas out there and to document my own thought processes and personal growth.  I have been contemplating self-deception and the matrix a lot this week.  I find it easier to spot self-deceptions when writing them down in my own contemplations and when sharing ideas with others.  I have an exercise here, and I would like you all to do the exercise with me.  I was wondering how does one fall in love with their own intelligence and mind?

Intro 

From contemplating the matrix, I realized that all problems in life are a matter of degree of one's own awareness of their own self-deceptions.  A person with more self-deceptions will have more suffering than one who is aware and faces them.  To live peacefully is to live truthfully, which is another way of saying that peace of mind = becoming aware and facing one's own self-deceptions.  The Devil cannot live in Heaven, and there is a great reason for that.

The purpose of self-deception is to create and maintain my sense of self/ego.  The whole topic of self-deception has made me wonder if it is possible to fall in love with my own mind and intelligence because typically self-deception is an ego defense mechanism from looking within the truth of how the mind operates and functions.  The core topic of this post is to try to understand how to cultivate a mind in such a way where it is more interesting than a video game.  Here are my top 10 ideas for how to do that.  But before I share you my list, I will first share the exercise with you that I created.

Exercise: Contemplate the following question(s) and come up with at least 10 items.  "How do I cultivate my mind in such a way where it is more interesting than a video game?" "How can I fall in love with my own mind?"

My List:

"How do I fall in love with my own mind and cultivate my mind in such a way where it is more interesting than playing a video game?"

1. Develop my imagination

- learn how to see things vividly and clearly in my mind.

2. Start thinking more humorously

- Ex. Be able to see the absurdity and humor in being remotely interested in anything but my own mind.

3. Think more existentially.

- Personal concerns will take up a lot of space in my mind. Practice thinking existentially for as long as I can. Connect the personal with the existential.

4. Think more curiously

- Notice how familiarity masks the mystery

5. Meditating and being able to have a still mind at my own will

6. Noticing when I am mindlessly thinking or dissociating and bringing it back to the other steps on the list.  Sometimes thinking too personally can kill all thinking or motivation to think.  Sometimes I avoid thinking because of anxious, paranoid thinking.  There is a reason why I dissociate and have moments where I don't think about anything.

7. Think positively

- Self-encouragement and happy thoughts reinforces my ability to love my own intellect but so does the acceptance of my shadow thoughts.

8. Develop memory through the use of repetition, meaning-making, and strange associations.  

- Create my own mind palaces as a more entertaining way to learn and hold knowledge as opposed to just brute memorization.  Silencing the mind silences developing memory associations.  There is a reason why we ruminate and think constantly.  Memory and ego are linked.

9. Think creatively/intuitively

- Notice the creativity and lack of creativity in others.  Work towards developing my own unique original ideas. No amount of listening to others will give me original ideas nor allow me to fall in love with my own mind.

10. Imaginary dialogues

- Have imaginary dialogues with my role models and my shadow.  Use these dialogues to substitute stinking thinking and other ways that I think negatively or anxiously about a situation.

 

What do you all think would help you to fall in love with your own intelligence the most?  Share your answers! I am curious! 

Edited January 24, 2023 by r0ckyreed