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Stanford University School of Medicine blog

Mind this: Research reveals the power of the mind

From that tangle of cells in our heads arises the elusive, but uber-powerful, mind -- the swirl of thoughts and perceptions that forms our sense of self.

Researchers are homing in on the mind by learning ever more about what it can do and how it can change.

"Our minds aren't passive observers, simply perceiving reality as it is. Our minds actually change reality," said Alia Crum , PhD, who directs the Stanford Mind and Body Lab in a recent Stanford News feature .

Her work is revealing how the mind can shape perceptions and health, as described in the piece:

People who believe doing physical work in a job counts as exercise  live longer lives , independent of how much exercise they actually get. Likewise, telling people a milkshake they drank was 'indulgent' made them feel more full . Telling them a drink they were consuming had caffeine  raised their blood pressure .

The mind also plays a critical role in the perception of pain, as research by clinical psychologist  Beth Darnall , PhD, has shown. More from the piece:

'Pain is highly responsive to each person's psychology and mindset,' Darnall said. Those who expect worse pain, ruminate on it and feel helpless about it - what's called pain catastrophizing - feel more intense pain, stay longer in hospitals after surgery and often require more painkillers. On the other hand, those who shift to a positive mindset feel less pain, spend less time in hospitals and require fewer pain medications.

Darnall's team is develop methods to intervene and reduce the need for opioid use, as well as pain experienced by both those with chronic pain and people recovering from surgery.

Curious about what else the mind can do? The features dives into its effects on learning, life, social belonging and more.

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Power of Mind

“The power of the mind” The Human Mind is a very unique gift Heavenly Father has given us. It is the most powerful and precious gift ever given to any living thing that have ever walked and that will yet to walk the earth in the years ahead. The mind alone stands out from anything. It has the power to make the invisible visible and the undoable doable. 100 years back, human kind would never believed nor willing to entertain the idea of traveling from one country to another using the sky as the highway.

Fortunately the Wright Brothers envisioned and perceived in their minds the idea of people traveling by air using a different form of transportation known to us today as aeroplanes. The power of their minds made it possible for them to make their idea a reality which of course has contributed so much to the betterment of the lives of people living in their times onwards to this very day. We are very blessed to have minds given to us by our creator to enable us to think and do the things that our minds are capable of doing.

There is no limit to how much we can do when we use our minds to their fullest capacity to make big dreams that seem to be unreachable come to reality. One of the problems that prevents human kind to excel and do extremely well in life is the lack of understanding of the power and capability of their minds. To ensure one does extremely well in life, it is very imperative that there is clear understanding of how mind functions. The mind somehow is very powerful. Whatever accomplishments and achievements some people have made in life were all initiated in the minds as thoughts and ideas.

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These thoughts and ideas will only come to reality if we allow our minds to entertain such thoughts and ideas for the purpose of achieving positive results that will contribute to the improving of our lives. The mind is just like a plot of land where it does not care what type of plant you plant on. The mind is divided into two parts one is known as the conscious mind and the other is the unconscious mind. The conscious mind’s function is to gather information and ideas. It does not care what comes in and out.

However, once we know exactly what to do to allow our conscious minds to gather and process only ideas that will provide countless benefits and advantages to our lives, we will be well on our way to a successful future. The conscious mind picks up ideas and turns them into meaningful ones which then goes to the next phase of the mind known as the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind somehow is the part of our brains that controls ideas and process them in such a way that these ideas and thoughts turn into energy or vibrations connecting to the rest of our body.

These vibrations are too strong that they will always force us to perform tasks that will lead to the accomplishment or achievement of the thoughts and ideas we initially conceived in our minds. Mostly what we have in our subconscious minds become our habits. They become paradigms that control every movement and actions we do in our lives. The conscious mind will work day and night to solidify the thoughts and ideas we once have and recognise them as sound ideas and thoughts that we accept as part of our daily living.

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The Power of the Mind

Usually, we pay little attention to our thoughts. They emerge, pass through our minds and are never to be seen again. Thoughts are also immaterial, which is why we often forget that they are even there. As a result, we underestimate the powerful impact thoughts can have on our lives. However, the human mind holds a great potency. It holds one of the strongest powers accessible to us. Unfortunately, its powers are largely ignored/unknown, which is why many of its abilities have become dormant. Still, the power of the mind is one of the greatest powers you can tap into. In the following we’ll discuss the amazing power of the mind and what you can do to use your mind’s power.

The power of the mind is largely dependent on your thoughts. What you think you become. The thoughts you choose to entertain influence heavily what happens to you in life. Your beliefs, mindsets and attitudes influence how you behave and how you respond to certain events. Even more so, your thought patterns largely decide how you interpret certain situations. And this can make quite a difference.

It can make the difference between living in a horrible, apocalyptic world designed to punish you and living in a world that confronts you with challenges designed to teach you important lessons. Two people might share exactly the same experience, but the way they interpret what happens could be totally different.

“It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.” Carl Gustav Jung

One person might use these lessons to grow stronger; the other might feel as if the universe is conspiring against them. And that’s why our thinking can make such a huge difference. In many situations, it is therefore not so important what happens to us, but how we choose to interpret and react to what happens. As you think, so will your life become.

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Henry David Thoreau

If you do wish to affect changes in the outside world, you have to change yourself and your thoughts first. Your mind is like a big movie screen. You can decide what type of video is being played on your mental screen. The kind of video that plays in your mind influences to a great extent the life you’re living.

Explore the power of the mind as you would explore the beauty of the world.

Let’s have a look at the power of the mind and what you can do to harness it.

You can use your thoughts to affect changes in the world around you. However, this process takes patience and continuous practice. It is quite similar to the way a gardener plants seeds. Just as seeds can be planted in the earth, thoughts can be planted in the mind. But it takes the same diligence and care necessary to grow a plant. Similarly to a gardener, you have to continuously water and fertilize the thoughts you wish to manifest.

As you slowly plant and nurture the thoughts you wish to manifest, they will slowly strike roots in your mind. When this happens, your thoughts will start to flow into your subconscious mind and embed themselves there. This in turn is where the power of the subconscious mind starts to kick in. Over time, it will begin to influence your behavior. By doing so it helps you to take the necessary steps for the accomplishment of your goals.

If you plant beneficial and supportive thoughts, they will assist you in the accomplishment of your goals. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of this process, so they do not pay any attention to it. As a result, many unsupportive beliefs and mindsets have grown roots in their minds, which in turn influence their behavior negatively.

The Power of the Subconscious Mind

The subconscious mind is accepted by psychologists is a great source of inspiration, intuition and creativity. It is assumed to make up approximately 92% of the entire brain. This means that the conscious mind only takes up 8% of the human brain. As you can see from these relations, it’s only natural to be curious about the power of the subconscious mind. It’s the part of your brain that is always active, even at night. The subconscious mind controls all your body functions. But it can also play a great role in your daily life.

Say for instance, you got up in the morning with a terrible mood. It’s very likely that the events throughout the cause of your day will resemble exactly this kind of mindset. That’s simply because the thought patterns of the subconscious mind affect how you interpret what happens to you and how you interact with the world. Similarly, if you get up with an excellent mood, it’s more likely that you’ll have a more beneficial attitude to the challenges that present themselves during the day. As you can see, different thinking patterns can play a huge role in the way we’re living life.

Situations might be interpreted entirely differently depending on our mindsets. It could happen that we are confronted with two perfectly similar experiences, but our subconscious mind makes us interpret these in a total different manner.

How to Use the Power of the Mind?

Use visualization.

We all know that it takes practice and a lot of repetition to master a certain skill. By means of repetition we start to strengthen the specific neural networks that are performing a certain action. While most people are aware of this, only a small proportion of them knows that the same can also be accomplished by simply visualizing an action. The same underlying principles are at work here. That’s because the brain cannot differentiate between an action that is actually performed and something you’ve simply visualized. No matter if you perform an action or if you simply visualize it, the same processes happen in the brain.

Visualization can help you to gain access to the powers of the mind. It helps you to change your attitude and behavior by visualizing the desired outcome of specific actions.

If you repeat the visualization often enough, with a lot of detail, faith and conviction, the subconscious mind will slowly start to consider what you’ve visualized as real experiences. When this happens, the things you’ve visualized will slowly start to manifest in your life. If you visualize that you are a confident and outgoing person, you will grow more confident after a certain period of time. Mind you, this will definitely not happen within a fortnight. Instead, it takes time, patience and effort. But it can be done!

Overcome the “confirmation bias”

Various studies found evidence for a phenomenon called “ confirmation bias .” It’s an interesting facet of the human brain that we can easily fall prey to. It is therefore all the more important to be aware of its influence over our brains. But what is the confirmation bias exactly? To put simply, it’s the human minds tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms existing beliefs. The brain tends to use a biased interpretation of information not to trick or fool you, but simply to save energy. It’s far easier for the brain to link information with already existing beliefs than it is to expend large amounts of energy for the continuous analysis and interpretation of new information. It’s simply the path of least resistance, so the brain will gladly take it.

Say for instance, a person has a negative outlook on life. The confirmation bias will increase their tendency to interpret the events in their lives according to their existing (negative) mindsets. In fact, any kind of new information they are confronted with is quickly connected to their negative beliefs. This in turn does only provide even further “proof” of the person’s worldview. If you believe you live in a hellish world, you will definitely find evidence for that all over the place.

It goes without saying that it’s tremendously important to overcome the confirmation bias if you want to make use of the power of your mind. Once you are able to prevent this kind of bias from interpreting information, you will be more in control of the power of your mind. Similarly, if you grow healthy and beneficial beliefs, the world around you will start to reflect these. If you sincerely believe the world is full of abundance, you’ll inevitably act accordingly, which in turn will draw many other unselfish people into your life. It is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just imagine what happens if you remind yourself each morning about all the kind and loving individuals you’ve ever met in your life. After a certain while, you will be more likely to meet kind spirited people everywhere you go.

Be consciously aware of your thoughts

Besides the ability of being able to identify the mind’s confirmation bias, it’s similarly important to be consciously aware of the thoughts you entertain. All too often, we spend the day without taking much notice of our thoughts. It’s understandable, as we are confronted with a great number of challenges in the outside world. However, it can prove to be beneficial to pay close attention to your thought processes. Observe how random thoughts enter and leave your mind. Watch what the mind fears and what it is excited about. By paying attention to how you think, you can get in touch with one of the most powerful forces accessible to you: your thinking processes.

Learn to focus

A focused mind helps you to direct all your actions towards a given outcome. But if there’s little to no focus as a result of uncontrolled thinking patterns, then it is less likely that you will ever accomplish the desired result. By focusing the power of your mind, you can direct your thoughts and actions on your aims. Everything you intensely focus on, you will attract in one way or the other.

If a person’s attention is heavily concentrated on their fears and anxieties, they will attract these things into their life. Similarly, the person who is focusing on abundance, success, joy and happiness will be more likely to attract these things into their life. Or rather, they will be more likely to find joy and happiness in the situations they are confronted with.

By understanding these universal laws, you can use the power of your thoughts to your own benefit.

Stop the mind from wandering around and learn to control it. Not every thought that arises should be mulled about. Not every idea should be granted access to your mind. Just because a thought emerges does not mean you have to entertain it. Let go of unjust, unbeneficial and toxic thoughts. They have no value. All they do is to drag you down and impose limits upon you.

Identify self-doubting thinking

Self-limiting or self-doubting thoughts are learned thinking patterns. It’s quite possible that we’ve picked them up during childhood and never became fully aware of these. These thinking patterns make us doubt ourselves and our abilities. Often times, we’re not even consciously aware of this process. Instead, we simply accept these self-imposed limits. Even worse, we slowly start to accept these thought patterns as real.

To make more use of the power of your mind, it’s necessary to break free from self-limiting beliefs. So whenever you are confronted with self-doubting or limiting thoughts, watch closely where exactly these beliefs stem from. Take a step back and question if these thinking patterns hold any legitimacy to them. See if there is any proof to these kinds of thoughts. Mostly there’s no evidence that would legitimate their existence. In many cases, these thinking patterns are simply self-restrictive limitations we impose upon ourselves. They are not founded in reality, which is why you should start to challenge them.

Rid your mind of toxic thoughts

We’re all confronted with extremely toxic thoughts. These thought patterns are extremely poisonous and can cause us to subconsciously sabotage our progress. Toxic and unbeneficial thinking patterns must therefore be dealt with accordingly. Otherwise they will slowly take roots until they predominantly control our behaviors.

Rid your mind of these kinds of thought patterns. Eliminate all thoughts that prevent you from making progress in life. Whenever such a toxic thought starts to emerge, try to replace it with a thought that is more beneficial and supportive.

Plant positive thoughts

The very best strategy of removing negative thoughts from your mind is to replace them with positive ones. Positive beliefs are those that support you and challenge you to live to your full potential. Usually, these beneficial beliefs do not simply appear out of nowhere. We must intentionally plant and nurture them.

That’s why it’s important to identify unhelpful beliefs in the first place. It helps you to understand which negative beliefs need to be addressed and replaced with positive ones. Challenge each and every belief that you find not helpful. If necessary, challenge your entire belief system!

As you continue to plant positive thoughts, you slowly start to restructure your mind. By getting rid of all the toxic thoughts that limit you, you can gradually build a better life. This restructuring process may be difficult at times and it is definitely time intensive. But in the end, it is well worth it as it helps you to increase the quality of your life. It also helps you to live more to your true potential.

Replace negative habits with positive ones

Habits and similar behavioral patterns are largely controlled by the unconscious mind. It simply helps the brain to avoid an excessive expenditure of energy. Therefore, the brain switches into “autopilot-mode” and allows routinized behaviors to take over. However, if one is not careful enough, negatives and unbeneficial habits start to sneak in. And once a habit has been established, it’s quite difficult to break it.

To gain more access to the power of your mind, it’s crucial to weed out negative habits. Start to break free from your old habits and routines. Make minor changes each day, until an old habit has been entirely replaced with a more beneficial one.

In conclusion

If you want to affect beneficial changes in your life, you first have to address the world within. The external conditions you’re confronted with will seldom change, if you do not change the internal.

Pay close attention to the thoughts you choose to entertain. If you carefully choose beneficial thoughts and cultivate them diligently, they will help you to affect changes in the world around you.

Make it a habit to think intensively about the things you wish to manifest (e.g. happiness, prosperity, joy and health). Do not allow your actions to be guided by fear and anxiety. Replace these with more beneficial mindsets.

Your mind creates your destiny. It will manifest the thoughts you have diligently entertained in your mind. Start using the power of the mind to create a new life!

I hope you enjoyed this article about the power of the mind. How do you utilize the dormant capacity of your mind?

Stay victorious!

About Author

Steve is the founder of Planet of Success , the #1 choice when it comes to motivation, self-growth and empowerment. This world does not need followers. What it needs is people who stand in their own sovereignty. Join us in the quest to live life to the fullest!

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Tremendous article! Mind is everything!

To be honest I am so much inspired by these lines “It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.” by Carl Gustav Jung.

Yes, this is an important part to become a success and how we look at things. If we can look at porperoly that means overview something properly we will be able to bring success.

Hello Steve Mueller, I want to commend you on your excellent article on ‘The Power Of The Mind’. I think that the truths you have revealed are really necessary for life in this world we live in.

My question to you is, however, did you find these principles in the bible? I am a ‘Born Again Christian’ and the similarities of the principles you espouse to those given to us by The Lord Jesus Christ are clear.

For example, in directing the attention to the mind you say “…the brain cannot differentiate between an action that is actually performed and something you’ve simply visualized.”

This is absolutely true and it is the reason why the Master focussed on us correcting the sins of the heart in Matt. 5:28 “…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

I also found numerous other similarities within your article hence my question to you if they were inspired by the bible. This drives me to my other question then which is; “Where does one get the inspiration to change the mindset within oneself if we are all naturally inclined to think negatively?”

If your answer is we ourselves are the ones who carry out the changes then you may be treading on dangerous ground. If, however, your answer is; “It the work of God’s Holy Spirit within you when you ask Him to come in”, then I can assure you that you have the blessing of The Father and your work will prosper.

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The Power of The Mind: Understanding the Intricacies of Psychology

One of your most potent and helpful abilities as a human is your ability to use your mind. This power can either make or mar you, create possibilities, or make more room for challenges. It all depends on how you use it.  

The primary component of this force is your thoughts, which become more potent when you combine them with focus and compassion.

Nearly everything that happens in your world has its roots in the thoughts that occupy your mind. Not every notion is the same. Stray ideas that pop up once in a while may have little effect, but your regular thoughts do. The notions you have can significantly impact how you act and see the world. Your life is what your thoughts say it is.

Your focus, mental imagery, and thoughts all come together to form what you may call your mind’s power. This can have a subtle, undetectable influence on reality. 

Your mind and your creative power

Thoughts are like movies playing uninterrupted in your mind. The life you lead is determined by what goes on there, and you must play differently if you wish to live differently.

Sure, the power of the mind can be worked on. You may strengthen it or train it to improve your life. What matters is that you’re willing and learn to grab the bull by its horn.

The law of attraction and creative visualisations heavily rely on your mind’s strength.

Thoughts are effective because of your focus, excitement, and interest. No thought will grow and become formidable if you decide to ignore it.

Your subconscious mind is impacted by the thoughts you have, and this subconscious mind guides your actions. It is also possible for your thoughts to reach other people’s minds and influence them.

As you focus on your aspirations, you’ll draw into your life those who can assist you in realising them. Strong beliefs have an impact on your life as well as the lives of others. Be mindful of your thoughts.

Now, this may strike you as odd and unbelievable. You don’t have to agree with these statements, but if you examine how you think and live, you will learn an intriguing fact: there is a connection between one’s thinking and their circumstances in life.

You represent the consciousness of everything. Your mind’s power is a component of the universe’s creative power, so your thoughts are in harmony with it.

Making improvements in your life with mental strategies is the best evidence of effectiveness.

Best practices to help your mind stay active 

Engage in cognitive training activities.

When your brain’s flexibility (or plasticity) is preserved, the mind remains sharp. Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s capacity to change continuously throughout a person’s life. And by trying out cognitive training exercises that stretch your mental faculties, you may maintain – and even enhance – this plasticity.

You can start juggling, playing chess, or picking up a new language. Also, playing board games helps improve your hand-eye coordination and reasoning skills. Learning a new driving route to work, using your opposite hand to type or browse, playing blackjack on Bodog , or combining your sensations by eating while jamming to good music may rewire your old behavioural patterns. These activities may boost your brain plasticity, as you acquire new skills, escape your comfort zone, and get familiar with unexplored territories.  For more specialised guidance on mental health and cognitive well-being, consider consulting professionals in the field of Tampa psychiatry who can provide personalised support and strategies to keep your mind active and healthy.

Meditate often

Research shows that prolonged stress can harm the brain , so you can protect your mind by meditating. For one, meditation minimizes your stress response and helps you stay sharp.

The easiest way to achieve this is by starting a daily meditation exercise ; just 10–15 minutes is enough for a start. You can engage in spiritual rituals or practices like prayer. You can also try out some breath-focused activities.

Listen intently

It is normal for your synapses to work, and your neurons to ignite whenever you are involved in communication-intensive activities. Listening, speaking, comprehending cues, and processing data become more challenging when there is brain damage or too much stress.

Get into the habit of frequently quieting your thoughts, and you’ll be sure to calm your mind. Practically, this enables your neurons to communicate more effectively and function properly.

Get your body moving to benefit your mind

Exercise improves cognitive performance, according to experts. One explanation could be that it raises brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels . This protein enhances learning and better thinking by encouraging the creation of new neurons and assisting the survival of existing neurons.

To improve your balance, take a walk outside to a completely unpredictable terrain. You can develop movement flow, coordination, balance, and the use of various muscle groups in Tai chi and yoga. You may also include some aerobic sports to improve your heart.

Final thoughts

The power of your mind is a remarkable force that shapes your reality and influences your actions. By understanding this connection, you can take charge of your thoughts and focus to create a life that aligns with your aspirations. To harness the full potential of your mind, engage in practices such as cognitive training exercises, meditation, active listening, and physical activities.

These practices not only help maintain and enhance your brain’s plasticity but also promote mental well-being and resilience. Remember, a healthy and active mind is a powerful tool for personal growth and fulfilment. Embrace your mind’s power and channel it towards creating a life that reflects your true potential.

Jordan Wayne, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.

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Stanford researchers explore how the human mind shapes reality

Search the internet for “the power of the mind,” and you’ll find some strange things: a program that promises to show you how to attract success simply by focusing on it, a great many nutritional supplements and a video purporting to show a Shaolin monk breaking things with his head. But beyond the hucksters and the hype, the mind actually can do some remarkable things, including shaping our health and well-being.

“Our minds aren’t passive observers, simply perceiving reality as it is. Our minds actually change reality,” said Alia Crum , an assistant professor of psychology and director of the Stanford Mind and Body Lab . Crum and other Stanford researchers – including many who recently took part in a World Economic Forum IdeasLab panel and Worldview Stanford’s Power of Minds meeting, both sponsored in part by the Stanford Neurosciences Institute – are bridging medicine, psychology, education, business and more to understand not just what our minds can do, but also how they do it.

Shaping health

Probably the best known way the mind shapes reality is the placebo effect, where people get better if they simply believe they are being treated for a disease. For ages, that was viewed as just an experimental hassle – something to take into account when testing the effectiveness of a new drug, for example.

It’s essential to recognize that mindsets are not peripheral, but central to health and behavior. —Alia Crum Assistant Professor of Psychology

Yet doctors are starting to rethink placebos not as a hassle but as an actual path to better health. After all, placebo effects and the underlying mindsets and social contexts that create them have real effects on health, from reducing anxiety and blood pressure to easing pain and boosting immune systems.

Crum and colleagues have shown that those effects extend beyond medicine per se. People who believe doing physical work in a job counts as exercise live longer lives , independent of how much exercise they actually get. Likewise, telling people a milkshake they drank was “indulgent” made them feel more full . Telling them a drink they were consuming had caffeine raised their blood pressure .

“It’s essential to recognize that mindsets are not peripheral, but central to health and behavior,” Crum said. “If we truly want to tackle the diseases and crises of our time, we need to more effectively acknowledge and leverage the power of mindset.”

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Easing pain

Among the most important health care issues today is chronic pain. Although estimates vary widely, somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of all adults deal with ongoing pain of some kind, making pain more prevalent and costly than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined, said Beth Darnall , a clinical professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine.

Pain is highly responsive to each person’s psychology and mindset. —Beth Darnall Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

“Pain is highly responsive to each person’s psychology and mindset,” Darnall said. Those who expect worse pain, ruminate on it and feel helpless about it – what’s called pain catastrophizing – feel more intense pain, stay longer in hospitals after surgery and often require more painkillers. On the other hand, those who shift to a positive mindset feel less pain, spend less time in hospitals and require fewer pain medications.

“That presents an opportunity,” Darnall said. Over the last decade, she and her team have been working on relatively brief mindset interventions to help people train their brains away from pain, with lasting results. The interventions can help people with chronic pain suffer less, she said, and they can be used before or after surgery to aid in recovery. Darnall and Sean Mackey , the Redlich Professor and professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, recently received $4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study a similar intervention for patients with chronic back pain.

More recently, Darnall and colleagues turned their attention to opioid use.

“Many patients would like to reduce their opioid use but they believe and fear their pain will worsen if they do,” Darnall said. But with careful planning and support, she and colleagues showed , many patients could substantially reduce their doses without experiencing any more pain. Darnall is continuing to investigate that approach with help from a $9 million research award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

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Growing smarter

Mindset matters for more than health, of course. How people think about themselves – in particular, whether they think traits like intelligence are malleable – can have a powerful effect on their success in school and beyond.

When people are in more of a growth mindset, they believe their qualities can be developed. —Carol Dweck Professor of Psychology

“When people are in a fixed mindset, they believe that their basic qualities – their intelligence, talents, abilities – are just fixed traits,” said Carol Dweck , the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor and a professor of psychology. “But when people are in more of a growth mindset, they believe these qualities can be developed through effort, perseverance, good strategies, lots of great input from others.”

That idea has been applied most famously to education, where Dweck and colleagues have shown that children with a growth mindset do better in math and other subjects . But the same basic concepts apply to recovering from romantic breakups and even easing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians .

Most important, even whether people have a growth mindset is subject to change. In 2015, for example, Dweck and colleagues demonstrated that 45-minute online interventions could raise grades and reduce dropout risk among underperforming high school students.

Stanford research explains why some people have more difficulty recovering from romantic breakups

Stanford psychologists found that rejection’s impact lingers as “heavy baggage” when people who tend to see personality as fixed respond to the rejection by questioning their true self.

Jewish, Palestinian-Israeli teens cooperate better after learning people can change

After teaching Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli middle school students in Israel that groups of people are capable of change, Stanford researchers saw significant improvements in the teens’ cooperation.

Research shows how children can enjoy and succeed in math, Stanford expert says

Stanford Professor Jo Boaler says that research findings show how all students can learn to enjoy math and achieve at high levels without suffering from fear or failure.

Willpower is in your mind, not in a sugar cube, say Stanford scholars

The research challenges the popular view that willpower is a limited resource that depends on a consistent supply of glucose.

A sense of belonging

To Gregory Walton , an associate professor of psychology, belonging may be the most interesting mindset. When students question whether they belong in school, especially a school they value, Walton said, their classroom performance and health can suffer.

The most proximate determinant of how people behave is how they understand things, and you can change that. —Gregory Walton Associate Professor of Psychology

Part of the reason lies in how students explain setbacks to themselves. If students are already wondering whether they belong and then get criticized, excluded or left behind, it’s easy for them to interpret that as proof they don’t belong, leading them to withdraw. That exacerbates inequality, Walton said, since the burden of those worries falls most heavily on minority students and students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds.

Fortunately, there’s something to be done about it: Change the narrative. In 2011, Walton and Geoffrey Cohen , the James G. March Professor in Organizational Studies in Education and Business and a professor of psychology and of education, tested that idea by presenting a series of older students’ thoughts about college life to 92 first-year students. Those thoughts conveyed a sense that everyone has difficulty adjusting to college at first and that everyone can succeed.

The exercise lasted just an hour, but it worked. Especially for African American students, grades and even overall health improved throughout their college years – all, Walton said, because they had been given an alternate way to understand the struggles they encounter. Walton, Cohen and colleagues have since shown that even short online programs, designed to show that challenges with belonging are normal and get better with time, can help reduce social inequalities.

“The most proximate determinant of how people behave is how they understand things,” Walton said. “And you can change that.”

Online ‘mindset’ interventions help students do better in school, Stanford research shows

Stanford researchers found that brief internet-based interventions that instill a “growth mindset” and a sense of purpose can improve learning, especially for struggling students. These interventions could potentially reach vast numbers of students at low cost.

The power of realistic expectations

While many students experience difficulty acclimating to college, first-generation, low-income, and minority students are the hardest hit and most at risk of dropping out. Reading short narratives from upperclassmen detailing how they felt out of place at first, but gained a sense of belonging over time, could help change that.

Shielding a few students from stereotypes benefits everyone’s grades, Stanford research shows

Students received higher grades just from being in classrooms with African Americans who participated in a psychological experiment aimed at reducing the impact of negative stereotypes.

Self-affirmation plays role in minority students’ college success

African American and Latino students who completed self-affirming writing exercises in middle school took more challenging courses and were more likely to enroll in college, among other positive outcomes.

Crum is also a member of the Child Health Research Institute . Mackey is a member of Stanford Bio‑X , the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute , the Stanford Cancer Institute and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute .

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The Power of a Positive Mindset

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7 Incredible Studies that Prove the Power of the Mind

• By Power of Positivity
• Published on January 5, 2015
• Last modified May 20, 2023

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.” – Buddha.

There is a tremendous amount of information about the power of the human mind. Discoveries in brain science, coupled with astonishing acts of human will, have solidified the human brain as perhaps the most powerful, life-changing force in the world.

While there is much information available, it is what we ultimately choose to do with this information that dictates how our lives ultimately turn out. Only the practical application of these concepts will constitute a truly life-changing experience.

We strongly encourage, while reading this article that you make a conscious decision to apply this potentially life-changing knowledge to better your own life. If done correctly, you will experience some truly amazing results.

Without further ado, here are 7 incredible discoveries that prove the power of the mind.

Study #1: visualization creates results:.

There are certain physical feats that we can only achieve when we actively pursue them. However, visualization – the recreation of all the images, sounds and feelings in your mind surrounding an activity – can create some astounding experiences.

Psychologist Alan Richardson set out to prove the power of visualization through an experiment . Richardson, an Australian psychologist, gathered a group of basketball players and split them into three groups. The intent of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of visualization in how the players converted free throws.

The three groups were as follows:

– The first group practiced 20 minutes every day.

– The second group visualized themselves making free throws, but didn’t participate in practice.

– The third group did not practice free throws or visualization.

The results were amazing. The group that only visualized demonstrated marked improvement, and were nearly as accurate as the players that actually practiced. The third group, as can be expected, regressed.

Study #2: Smiling improves mood

Specifically known as the ‘Facial Feedback Hypothesis’, scientists have known for a long time that changing your body through actions such as smiling, sitting up straight, and relaxing, are followed by positive emotional responses.

One of these studies took place in the late 1980’s. Researchers did not want to reveal that the study was about smiling or emotion, fearing that it could alter the results. As such, they improvised through the use of a common, everyday item: a pencil. Here’s what they did:

– The first group held the pencil horizontally in their mouth, between their teeth, which physically forced them to smile.

– The second group held the pencil horizontally in their mouth using only their lips, which did not force a smile and actually caused somewhat of a frown.

– The third group (control group) simply held the pencil in their hands.

The participants next viewed different cartoons and rated them on how funny they were. The first (or “smile”) group gave the cartoons much funnier ratings than the second (or “frown”) group. The third group fell somewhere in the middle of the two groups.

Study #3: Thought management lowers stress

Something else amazing about the human brain: it cannot tell the difference between a real or imagined threat.

Don Joseph Goeway, the author of Mystic Cool: A proven approach to transcend stress, achieve optimal brain function, and maximize your creative intelligence has plenty of experience in this area. Goeway managed the department of psychiatry at Stanford and assisted parents dealing with the loss of a child, prisoners adjusting to a life sentence, and refugees of the genocidal war in Bosnia struggling with post-traumatic stress.

His work with stress is truly unprecedented. However, he developed the most simple and practical way to eliminate fearful thoughts and escalating stress as any method before it. Goeway calls it the ‘Clear Button’, which works by distracting the primitive brain where fear is known to reside.

The steps for the Clear Button are as follows:

• Imagine that there is a button in the center of your left palm; imagine that this button, when pressed, will send a signal to your brain to stop the fearful thinking.
• Press the button with your right hand as you become aware of your breath.
• Then take three easy breaths counting them out.
• Imagine a different color for each number.
• As you exhale, relax in the present moment.

Study #4. The brain can produce serotonin on its own

Serotonin is an essential brain chemical because it increases will power, delays gratification, and increases attention to detail. It impacts every part of the mind.

Despite the proliferation of prescription medications and supplements, your brain is more than capable of producing serotonin on its own . If for whatever reason your serotonin level is too low, you will find difficulty in finishing things, being active, and controlling your impulses.

Here are the three ways your brain can produce serotonin:

– Sunlight. It contains UV light; which when absorbed through the skin produces Vitamin D , promoting the production of serotonin.

– Massage . One particular study focused on pregnant women. Women that received massages twice a week from their partner boosted their serotonin levels by 30%.

– Exercise. A well-known method to increase endorphin levels, exercise is effective at boosting serotonin.

Study #5. People can “think” their way to releasing weight

This experiment involved a Harvard psychologist and a group of mostly overweight hotel maids. Despite exceeding the recommended amount of exercise, 67% of the maids did not consider themselves physically active. Langer, the psychologist, predicted that the maid’s viewpoints on their physical activity made it difficult for them to lose weight.

To test her hypothesis, Langer gathered half of the maids, took their physical measurements and explained that they were exceeding the amount of exercise recommended by the surgeon general. The other half received no information.

After a month, Langer’s team returned to the hotel for reevaluation. The maids that were evaluated and given information had a decrease in systolic blood pressure, weight, and waist-to-hip ratio. The other group’s results were insignificant.

Langer attributes these physical (and likely psychological) benefits to a simple change in mind set.

Study #6. Positivity and meditation prolongs life

In 1989, Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford University took on a study consisting of 86 women in the late stages of breast cancer. Then he split the group into halves. One group received only prescribed medical care. However, the other group received weekly support sessions in addition to medical care. During these weekly sessions, patients shared their feelings, socialized with other patients and had a positive environment in which to cope with their illness.

Upon the conclusion of the study, statistics proved that women in the support group survived twice as long as those that did not. Additionally, a similar study in 1999 found that cancer patients who have general feelings of helplessness and hopelessness have a lower chance of survival.

Despite being labeled as a “spontaneous remission” by physicians, David Seidler believed it was anything but. Seidler, writer of “The King’s Speech”, battled bladder cancer for years and was scheduled to undergo an operation within two weeks. Seidler decided to use meditation in an effort to battle the cancer. He used meditative practices and the power of the mind, specifically imagining a healthy bladder, leading up to his surgery.

When doing the pre-surgery biopsy about two weeks later, the doctor was surprised to discover a complete absence of cancer , even sending the results to four other locations for reevaluation. All other locations agreed: there was no cancer.

Study #7. The Placebo effect

Placebos are pills, medications, or procedures that are prescribed only for the psychological benefit of the patient. In fact, pharmaceutical studies frequently employ placebos to affect the human mind and other areas as well.

In fact, as researchers are discovering that placebos are at times more effective than actual medication, the pharmaceutical industry has been left worrying about the profitability of its industry. Prozac, a common antidepressant , and other long-tenured prescription drugs are often  less effective than placebos. As a result, the industry is currently engaging in other neurological studies in an effort to either refute or safeguard their products from common placebos.

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The Power of Positive Thinking

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Carly Snyder, MD is a reproductive and perinatal psychiatrist who combines traditional psychiatry with integrative medicine-based treatments.

Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images

What Is Positive Thinking?

• Benefits of Positive Thinking

How to Practice Positive Thinking

Potential pitfalls of positive thinking, frequently asked questions.

Do you tend to see the glass as half empty or half full? You have probably heard that question plenty of times. Your answer relates directly to the concept of positive thinking and whether you have a positive or negative outlook on life. Positive thinking plays an important role in positive psychology , a subfield devoted to the study of what makes people happy and fulfilled.

Research has found that positive thinking can aid in stress management and even plays an important role in your overall health and well-being. It can help combat feelings of low self-esteem, improve physical health, and help brighten your overall outlook on life.

This article discusses what positive thinking is and the health benefits of being positive. It also explores some of the strategies you can use to become a more positive thinker.

Positive thinking means approaching life's challenges with a positive outlook. It doesn't mean seeing the world through rose-colored lenses by ignoring or glossing over the negative aspects of life.

Positive thinking does not necessarily mean avoiding difficult situations. Instead, positive thinking means making the most of potential obstacles, trying to see the best in other people, and viewing yourself and your abilities in a positive light.

Some researchers, including positive psychologist Martin Seligman , frame positive thinking in terms of explanatory style. Your explanatory style is how you explain why events happened.

• Optimistic explanatory style : People with an optimistic explanatory style tend to give themselves credit when good things happen and typically blame outside forces for bad outcomes. They also tend to see negative events as temporary and atypical.
• Pessimistic explanatory style : People with a pessimistic explanatory style often blame themselves when bad things happen, but fail to give themselves adequate credit for successful outcomes. They also have a tendency to view negative events as expected and lasting. As you can imagine, blaming yourself for events outside of your control or viewing these unfortunate events as a persistent part of your life can have a detrimental impact on your state of mind.

Positive thinkers are more apt to use an optimistic explanatory style, but the way in which people attribute events can also vary depending upon the exact situation. For example, a person who is generally a positive thinker might use a more pessimistic explanatory style in particularly challenging situations, such as at work or at school.

While there are many factors that determine whether a person has a positive outlook, the way that they explain the events of their life, known as their explanatory style, plays an important role.

Positive Psychology vs. Positive Thinking

While the terms "positive thinking" and "positive psychology" are sometimes used interchangeably, it is important to understand that they are not the same thing. Positive thinking is about looking at things from a positive point of view. It is a type of thinking that focuses on maintaining a positive, optimistic attitude. Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the effects of optimism, what causes it, and when it is best utilized.

Health Benefits of Positive Thinking

In recent years, the so-called "power of positive thinking" has gained a great deal of attention thanks to self-help books such as "The Secret." While these pop-psychology books often tout positive thinking or philosophies like the law of attraction as a sort of psychological panacea, empirical research has found that there are many very real health benefits linked to positive thinking and optimistic attitudes.

Positive thinking is linked to a wide range of health benefits, including:

• Better stress management and coping skills
• Enhanced psychological health
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Increased physical well-being
• Longer life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease-related death

One study of 1,558 older adults found that positive thinking could also reduce frailty during old age.

A 2018 study published in the Journal of Aging Research found that having a positive mental attitude was linked to decreased mortality over a 35-year period. People who had a more positive outlook were also more likely to get regular physical exercise, avoid smoking, eat a healthier diet, and get more quality sleep.

Clearly, there are many benefits of positive thinking . But why, exactly, does positive thinking have such a strong impact on physical and mental health ?

One theory is that people who think positively tend to be less affected by stress. Research suggests that having more positive automatic thoughts helps people become more resilient in the face of life's stressful events. People who had high levels of positive thinking were more likely to walk away from stressful life events with a higher sense of the meaningfulness of life.

Another possibility is that people who think positively tend to live healthier lives in general; they may exercise more, follow a more nutritious diet, and avoid unhealthy behaviors.

While you might be more prone to negative thinking, there are strategies that you can use to become a more positive thinker. Practicing these strategies regularly can help you get in the habit of maintaining a more positive outlook on life.

• Notice your thoughts : Start paying attention to the type of thoughts you have each day. If you notice that many of them are negative, make a conscious effort to reframe how you are thinking in a more positive way.
• Write in a gratitude journal : Practicing gratitude can have a range of positive benefits and it can help you learn to develop a better outlook. Experiencing grateful thoughts helps people to feel more optimistic.
• Use positive self-talk : How you talk to yourself can play an important role in shaping your outlook. Studies have shown that shifting to more positive self-talk can have a positive impact on your emotions and how you respond to stress.

While there are many benefits to thinking positively, there are actually times when more realistic thinking is more advantageous. For example, in some situations, negative thinking can actually lead to more accurate decisions and outcomes.

Some research has found that negative thinking and moods can actually help people make better, more accurate judgments.

However, research suggests that realistic optimism might be the ideal. The results of a 2020 study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin revealed that people who have mistaken expectations, whether those expectations are optimistic or pessimistic, tend to fare worse in terms of mental health when compared to realists.  

The authors of the study suggest that the disappointment that optimists experience when their high hopes are not realized can have a negative impact on well-being. This doesn't mean that people should strive to be pessimistic thinkers. since studies indicate that people with a negative outlook tend to fare the worst. Instead, having a generally positive outlook that is focused on realistic expectations may be the best approach. 

In some cases, inappropriately applied positive thinking can cross the line into what is known as toxic positivity . This involves insisting on maintaining a positive mindset no matter how upsetting, dire, or damaging a situation might be. This type of excessive positivity can impede authentic communication and cause people to experience feelings of shame or guilt if they struggle to maintain such an overly positive outlook.

Positive thinking can have pitfalls at times. While it is important to have an overall positive outlook, unrealistically high expectations can lead to disappointment. Being unable to accept any negative emotions, known as toxic positivity, can also have a negative effect on mental well-being.

A Word From Verywell

Even if you are not a natural-born optimist, there are things you can do to learn how to think more positively and become a positive thinker . One of the first steps is to focus on your own inner monologue and to pay attention to your self-talk.

Strategies that can improve your positive thinking include noticing your thoughts and making a conscious effort to shift from negative thoughts to more positive one. Practicing positive self-talk and practicing gratitude can also be helpful ways to start having a more positive outlook.

Positive thinking is important because it can have a beneficial impact on both physical and mental well-being. People who maintain a more positive outlook on life cope better with stress, have better immunity, and have a lower risk of premature death. Positive thinking also helps promote greater feelings of happiness and overall satisfaction with life.

Positive thinking has been shown to help people live healthier, happier lives. When they have a positive outlook, they are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors such as exercising, eating healthy, and getting plenty of rest. Downsides of positive thinking include the risk of forming overly high expectations that result in disappointment and being affected by toxic positivity.

Practicing mindfulness can be a way to build self-awareness and become more conscious of how your negative thoughts affect your moods and behaviors. As you become better at identifying negative thought patterns, you can then take steps to shift into a more positive mindset. Actively replacing negative thoughts with positive ones can help you eventually learn to become a more positive thinker.

Kim ES, Hagan KA, Grodstein F, DeMeo DL, De Vivo I, Kubzansky LD. Optimism and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study . Am J Epidemiol. 2017;185(1):21-29. doi:10.1093/aje/kww182

Seligman M.  Learned Optimism . Random House.

Chang E, Sanna L.  Virtue, Vice, And Personality: The Complexity of Behavior . American Psychological Association.

Johns Hopkins Medicine. The power of positive thinking .

Park N, Peterson C, Szvarca D, Vander Molen RJ, Kim ES, Collon K. Positive psychology and physical health: Research and applications . Am J Lifestyle Med . 2016;10(3):200-206. doi:10.1177/1559827614550277

Gale CR, Mõttus R, Deary IJ, Cooper C, Sayer AA. Personality and risk of frailty: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing . Ann Behav Med . 2017;51(1):128-136. doi:10.1007/s12160-016-9833-5

Paganini-Hill A, Kawas CH, Corrada MM. Positive mental attitude associated with lower 35-year mortality: The Leisure World Cohort Study .  J Aging Res . 2018;2018:2126368. doi:10.1155/2018/2126368

Boyraz G, Lightsey OR Jr. Can positive thinking help? Positive automatic thoughts as moderators of the stress-meaning relationship . Am J Orthopsychiatry . 2012;82(2):267-77. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.2012.01150.x

Kross E, Bruehlman-Senecal E, Park J, et al. Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: how you do it matters . J Pers Soc Psychol . 2014;106(2):304-24. doi:10.1037/a0035173

Forgas JP. Don’t worry, be sad! On the cognitive, motivational, and interpersonal benefits of negative mood . Curr Dir Psychol Sci . 2013;22(3):225-232. doi:10.1177/0963721412474458

De Meza D, Dawson C. Neither an optimist nor a pessimist be: mistaken expectations lower well-being . Pers Soc Psychol Bull . 2021;47(4):540-550. doi:10.1177/0146167220934577

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

The Secret Power of Your Mind to Become What You Think

Change your life with the power of thought

Sollina Images/Blend Images/Getty Images 

• Tips For Adult Students
• Getting Your Ged

• B.A., English, St. Olaf College

Your mind is a very powerful thing, and most of us take it for granted. We believe we aren't in control of what we think because our thoughts seem to fly in and out all day long. But you are in control of your thoughts, and you become what you think about. And that little kernel of truth is the secret power of the mind. 

It's really not a secret after all. The power is available to every single person, including you. And it's free.

"The secret" is that you are what you think. You become what you think about. You can create the life you want , simply by thinking the right thoughts.

Earl Nightingale on "The Strangest Secret"

In 1956, Earl Nightingale wrote "The Strangest Secret" in an attempt to teach people the power of the mind, the power of thought. He said, "you become what you think about all day long."

Nightingale's inspiration came from Napoleon Hill's book, "Think and Grow Rich," published in 1937.

For 75 years (and likely long before that), this simple "secret" has been taught to adults around the world. At the very least, the knowledge has been available to us.

How the Power of the Mind Can Work to Improve Your Life

We are creatures of habit. We tend to follow the picture in our minds created by our parents, our neighborhoods, our towns and the part of the world from which we come. For good or for bad.

But we don't have to. We each have a mind of our own, capable of imagining life the way we want it. We can say yes or no to the million choices we each encounter every single day. Sometimes it's good to say no, of course, or we wouldn't get anything at all done. But the most successful people say yes to life overall. They are open to possibilities. They believe they have the power to make changes in their lives. They aren't afraid to try new things or to fail.

In fact, many of the most successful companies reward people who have the courage to try new things, even if they fail, because the things we call failures often turn into extremely successful things. Did you know Post-It Notes were a mistake in the beginning?

How to Use the Power of Your Mind

Start imagining your life the way you want it. Create a picture in your mind and think about that picture steadfastly all day long. Believe in it.

You don't have to tell anybody. Have your own quiet confidence that you can make the picture in your mind come true.

You will start making different choices in line with your picture. You will take small steps in the right direction.

You'll also encounter obstacles . Don't let these obstacles stop you. If you hold your picture of the life you want steadfast in your mind, you will eventually create that life.

What have you got to lose? Close your eyes and start now.

You will become what you think about.

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Essay on Positive Thinking

Positive thinking refers to a belief or mental attitude which makes us think that good things will happen eventually and our efforts will pay off sooner or later. It is the opposite of negative thinking which makes our mind full of stress and fear. Thus, an essay on positive thinking will show us how it reinforces thoughts like optimism and hope and works wonders.

Benefits of Positive Thinking

Let it be clear that positive thinking does not mean you do not notice the bad things in life. It means you try to find a solution in a productive way instead of whining about it. There are many benefits of positive thinking.

The first one is better health. Negative thinking gives rise to anxiety, stress, frustration and more. However, positive thinking helps you avoid all this and focus on staying healthy and doing better in life.

Further, it is essential for us to fight depression which positive thinking helps with. Similarly, it will also help us to relieve stress. Positive thinking overwhelms stress and it will allow you to get rid of stress.

As a result, positive thinking helps you live longer. It is because you will be free from diseases that form due to stress, anxiety and more. Moreover, it is also the key to success. Meaning to say, success becomes easier when you don’t bash yourself up.

Similarly, it also gives us more confidence. It boosts our self-esteem and helps in becoming more confident and self-assured. Therefore, we must certainly adopt positive thinking to make the most of our lives.

How to Build a Positive Thinking

There are many ways through which we can build positive thinking. To begin with, we must inculcate the habit of reading motivational and inspiring stories of people who are successful.

All this will help in motivating and inspiring you and showing you the right path. Moreover, it is important to never let negative thoughts thrive in your mind and work towards putting end to this habit.

You can do so by replacing your negative thoughts with constructive and positive reviews. Start to pay attention to your ideas and don’t pay heed to negative thoughts. Further, it is helpful to use affirmations.

These positive statements will truly sink into your subconscious mind and guide you to take better action. It will also help in visualising your dreams and getting the right means to achieve them fast.

Finally, always stay guard and gatekeep your mind to make important changes in life. In other words, do not be afraid to take actions. Keep yourself busy and do different things to avoid becoming cynical and remaining positive.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Positive Thinking

To conclude, we must change our attitude and believe that we will succeed one day. Moreover, we also need to implement positive thinking techniques which will help us learn from our failures and stay focused. As positive thinking plays an essential role in our lives, we must make sure to adopt in our lives.

FAQ of Essay on Positive Thinking

Question 1: What is positive thinking?

Answer 1: Positive thinking is basically an optimistic attitude. In other words, it is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. This kind of thinking can have a big impact on your physical and mental health .

Question 2: Why is positive thinking important?

Answer 2: Positive thinking is important as it helps us with stress management and can even improve our health. Moreover, some studies show that personality traits like optimism can affect many areas of our health and well-being. Thus, positive thinking comes with optimism

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An Essay on Understanding the Mind

Several conjectures by A. S. Iberall on life and mind are used as a backdrop to sketch a theory of mental activity that respects both the contents of thought and the dynamics of thinking. The dynamics, in this case, refers fundamentally to animated, meaningfully coupled self-organizing processes (coordination dynamics) and exhibit multistability, switching, and, because of symmetry breaking, metastability. The interplay of 2 simultaneously acting forces underlies the metastable mind: the tendency for the coordinating elements to couple together (integration) and the tendency for the elements to express their individual autonomy (segregation). Metrics for metastability are introduced that enable these cooperative and competitive tendencies to be quantified. Whereas bistability is the basis for polarized, either/or thinking, the metastable régime—which contains neither stable nor unstable states, no states at all, in fact—gives rise to a far more fluid, complementary mode of operation in which it is possible for apparent contraries to coexist in the mind at the same time.

By way of reminiscence, and apropos the topic of this contribution, the photograph in Figure 1 was taken at a symposium on Nonlinearities in Brain Function, organized by Eugene Yates and Arnold Mandell, held at the Kroc Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, from March 1 through March 5, 1982. As remarked upon previously ( Kelso, 1995 , p. 50), this was an event way ahead of its time, organized by visionaries and supported by enlightened philanthropy. A quarter of a century ago there were no Centers or Institutes for Complex Systems and the like yet, and no one was talking about “brain dynamics,” a field of research that very much stirs the air of contemporary neuroscience. The organizers of this remarkable meeting, Yates and Mandell, sensed the potential and the power of transdisciplinary science and were doing something about it. The man we honor in these lectures was living testament to that. Arthur Iberall (“Ibby”) was the centerpiece of the Kroc symposium, holding court every evening, laying out his homeokinetics manifesto in a unique and irrepressible way. Only once can I remember him being told to shut up. Ibby was both generalist and specialist, theorist and experimenter, scientist and engineer, physicist and biologist, swimmer and poet-and much, much more. Was it Georges Braque who said, “Le conformisme commence à la definition”? Iberall was no conformist so there is no point in trying to classify him. The usual categories fail and words are not the thing. Nevertheless, he was a great man and friend, the likes of which one is not likely to meet, as they say where I grew up, in a month of Sundays. For students with an interest in the history of science and especially “the sciences of complexity” who also want to get a sense of the man and the range of his intellect in one swift glimpse, consider Iberall's (1994) short article in Physics Today , where he chastises a Nobel laureate for, shall we say, pontificating with blinders on. For those in the know, the reply is revealing enough.

Participants at the Kroc Foundation Symposium Nonlinearities in Brain Function, March 1–5, 1982. Front row (left to right) : Eugene Yates, Albert Goldbeter, Anna Wirz-Justice, Arthur Winfree, Kirstie Bellman, Alice Kroc, Arnold Mandell. Middle row : William Smith, Scott Kelso, Victor Denenberg, Alan Garfinkel, Peter Whybrow, Donald Walter. Back row : Walter Carey, Erol Basar, Pierre Flor Henry, Ross Adey, Arthur Iberall, Michael Turvey, Doyne Farmer, Ralph Abraham.

ON NATURE, LIFE, AND MIND

It is a tribute to Iberall's powers of divination that empirical traces of many of his proposals continue to permeate the literature and will be touched upon as we proceed. The foregoing list is presented here principally as a backdrop for where this article is headed, which is to sketch a theory of thoughts and thinking that attempts to: (1) accommodate both the content of thoughts and the dynamics of thinking and (2) narrow the gap between the language and science of molecules and cellular machinery (genetics, neuroscience) and the language and science of mind and behavior (cognitive science, neurology, psychiatry). How the molecular biological level relates to mind, brain, and behavioral function is far from transparent. As Kandel (2006) has recently concluded, a conceptual shift is needed from studying elementary processes such as single proteins, genes, and cells to studying complex systems of nerve cells, the functioning of whole organisms, and the interactions of organisms. “Biology,” says Kandel (2006) , “will have to focus more on human beings as the model system of choice” (p. 423). He kids not.

Ultimately (and there is no point in beating about the bush) we need a language and science of experience, of everything we human beings take for granted—as Virginia Wolf would say, “an ordinary mind on an ordinary day”—that connects to a language and science of body∼brain activity.

The central thesis of this article can be stated bluntly: Minds, brains, and bodies, yours and mine, immersed as they are in their own worlds, both outside and inside, share a common underlying dynamics. They are cut fundamentally, as Maxine Sheets-Johnstone (2004) says, from the same dynamic cloth. The dynamics here refers to equations of motion for key coordination variables or order parameters that characterize patterns of behavior on multiple levels of description: patterns of brain activity, patterns of cognition and emotion, patterns of human interaction, patterns of the mind. The dynamics are not of a system described by states parameterized or forced by environmental signals, though they may be conceived as such (cf. Rosen, 1991 ). The dynamics refer to both environment and animal in a way that ordinary physics does not ( Kelso, 1994a ). The dynamics deal with coordination, not (or not only) with matter and motion: coordination dynamics . Coordination dynamics deals specifically with informationally coupled, self-organizing systems, where information is meaningful and specific to coordination tasks and functions: functional information (for the origins of the notion of information as form, see references and discussion in Kugler, Kelso, & Turvey, 1980 , 1982 ). Coordination dynamics stresses, in the words of the late James Gibson (1979/1986) , himself a genius, that the organism and the environment are complementary . Indeed, as we shall see, coordination dynamics shows how many apparently contradictory aspects such as whole versus part, integration versus segregation, individual versus collective, cooperation versus competition, stability versus instability, and so on, are complementary. In doing so, coordination dynamics opens up a path to reconciling contradictions, dualisms, binary oppositions, and the like in all walks of life, illuminating thereby the complementary nature ( Kelso & Engstrøm, 2006 ; see also Kelso, 2005 ). 1

TOWARD A COMPLEMENTARY SCIENCE OF BODY, BRAIN, MIND, AND BEHAVIOR

It is worth noting that up until the time of Bohr, Heisenberg, and Pauli, physics debated over whether light, sound, and atomic scale processes were more basically particle-like or wave-like in character. Philosophy spoke of thesis and antithesis, of dialectic tension, of self and not self, of the qualitative and the quantitative, the objective and the subjective, as if they were either/or divisions. This tendency to dichotomize, to divide the world into opposing categories (the binary decision mind-set , see 3 earlier) appears to be a ‘built in’ property of human beings, perhaps arising very early in development and independent of cultural background ( Spelke, 2006 ).

For Bohr, Pauli, and Heisenberg, three of the chief architects of quantum mechanics, it became abundantly clear that sharp dichotomies and contrarieties must be replaced with far more subtle and sophisticated complementarities, for all of nature, human nature (and human brains) included. Probably Pauli (1994) expressed it best:

To us the only acceptable point of view appears to be one that recognizes both sides of reality—the quantitative and the qualitative, the physical and the psychical—as compatible with each other. It would be most satisfactory of all if physics and psyche could be seen as complementary aspects of the same reality. (p. 260)

The remarkable developments of quantum mechanics demonstrating the essential complementarity of both light and matter should have ushered in not just a novel epistemology but a generalized complementary science. However, they did not. Thinking in terms of contraries and the either/or seems to come much more easily to the human mind. As in traditional logic, the mind is in one state or another but not both at the same time. Much harder to grasp is the notion that contraries are complementary: Contraria sunt complementa , as Bohr's famous coat of arms says. That mind-set might change, however, if complementary aspects and their dynamics were found not just at the remote level of the subatomic processes dealt with by quantum mechanics but also at the level of human beings, human brains, and human behavior. In particular, over the last 25 years or so, due to the efforts of people working in and across many fields, a multilevel, interdisciplinary science of coordination has emerged called coordination dynamics . A broad range of coordinative phenomena have been studied and explained using the concepts, methods, and tools of coordination dynamics ( Fuchs & Jirsa, 2008 ; Jirsa & Kelso, 2004 ; Kelso, 1995 ; Tschacher & Dauwalder, 2003 , for reviews). Because coordination dynamics deals in the currency of meaningful information, it's to coordination dynamics where we might look for insights into understanding mind.

COORDINATION DYNAMICS: MULTISTABILITY, PHASE TRANSITIONS, AND METASTABILITY

New empirical and theoretical developments in the science of coordination suggest that the reason the mind fragments the world into dichotomies (and more important, how opposing tendencies may be reconciled) is deeply connected to the way the human brain works, in particular its multi- and metastable dynamics ( Bressler & Kelso, 2001 ; Fingelkurts & Fingelkurts, 2004 ; Friston, 1997 ; Jirsa & Kelso, 2004 ; Kelso, 1995 ; Oullier & Kelso, 2006 ; Tschacher & Dauwalder, 2003 ; Velazquez, 2005 , for reviews). Etymologically, “metastability” comes from the Latin meta (beyond) and stabilis (able to stand). In coordination dynamics, metastability corresponds to a regime near a saddle-node or tangent bifurcation in which stable coordination states no longer exist (e.g., inphase synchronization where the relative phase between oscillating components lingers at zero), but attraction remains to where those fixed points used to be (“remnants of attractor repellors”; see Figure 2 ). This gives rise to a dynamical flow consisting of both phase trapping and phase scattering. Metastability is thus the simultaneous realization of two competing tendencies: the tendency of the components to couple together and the tendency for the components to express their intrinsic independent behavior. According to a recent review ( Fingelkurts & Fingelkurts, 2004 ),

Metastability is an entirely new conception of brain functioning where the individual parts of the brain exhibit tendencies to function autonomously at the same time as they exhibit tendencies for coordinated activity. ( Kelso, 1991 , 1992 , 1995 ; Bressler & Kelso, 2001 ; see also Bressler, 2003)

Elementary coordination law ( Eq. 1 ). Surface formed by a family of flows of the coordination variable ϕ (in radians) for increasing values of δω between 0 and 4. For this example, the coupling is fixed: a = 1 and b = 1. When ϕ . reaches zero (flow line becoming white), the system ceases to change and fixed point behavior is observed. Note that the fixed points here refer to emergent collective states produced by nonlinearly coupled elements. Stable and unstable fixed points at the intersection of the flow lines with the isoplane ϕ . = 0 are represented as filled and open circles, respectively. To illustrate the different regimes of the system, three representative lines labeled 1 to 3 fix δω at increasing values. Following the flow line 1 from left to right, two stable fixed points (filled circles) and two unstable fixed points (open circles) exist. This flow belongs to the multistable (here bistable) regime. Following line 2 from left to right, one pair of stable and unstable fixed points is met on the left, but notice the complete disappearance of fixed point behavior on the right side of the figure. That is, a qualitative change (bifurcation; phase transition) has occurred due to the loss of stability of the coordination state near antiphase, π rad. The flow now belongs to the monostable regime. Following line 3 from left to right, no stable or unstable fixed points exist yet coordination has not completely disappeared. This flow corresponds to the metastable regime, a subtle blend of coupling and intrinsic differences between the rhythmic elements in which behavior is neither completely ordered (synchronized) nor completely disordered (desynchronized).

A number of neuroscientists have embraced metastability as playing a role in various cognitive functions, including consciousness (e.g., Edelman, 2004 ; Edelman & Tononi, 2000 ; Freeman & Holmes, 2005 ; Friston, 1997 ; Koch, 2005 ; Sporns, 2004 ; Varela, Lachaux, Rodriguez, & Martinerie, 2001 ; see Kelso & Tognoli, 2007 , for review). Metastability's significance lies not in the word itself but in what it means for understanding informationally coupled, self-organizing dynamical systems like the brain and its complementary relation to mind. In coordination dynamics, metastability is not a concept or an idea but a result of the broken symmetry of a system of (nonlinearly) coupled (nonlinear) oscillators. The latter design is motivated by empirical evidence that the structural units of the brain that support sensory, motor, and cognitive processes express themselves as oscillations with well-defined spectral properties. At least 12 different rhythms from the infraslow (less than 1 Hz) to the ultrafast (more than 100 Hz) have been identified, all connected to various behavioral and cognitive functions (e.g., Chen, Ding, & Kelso, 2003a ). Indeed, brain oscillations are considered one of the most important phenotypes for studying the genetics of complex (non-Mendelian) disorders ( Begleiter & Porjesz, 2006 ). The mechanisms that give rise to rhythms and synchrony exist on different levels of organization: single neurons oscillate due to voltage-gated ion channels depolarizing and hyperpolarizing the membrane; network oscillations, for example, in hippocampus and neocortex, strongly depend on the activity of inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in the central nervous system (so-called inhibition-based rhythms; see, e.g., Whittington, Traub, Kopell, Ermentrout, & Buhl, 2000 ); neuronal groups or assemblies form as transient coalitions of discharging neurons with mutual interaction. Neuronal communication occurs by means of synapses and glia. Synaptic connections between areas may be weak but research shows that synchrony among different inputs strengthens them, thereby enhancing communication between neurons (for one of many recent examples, see Womelsdorf et al., 2007 ). Phase coupling, for example, allows groups of neurons in distant and disparate regions of the brain to synchronize together (e.g., Canolty et al., 2006 ). According to coordination dynamics, nonlinear coupling among oscillatory processes that possess different intrinsic frequencies is necessary to generate the broad range of behaviors observed, including pattern formation, multistability, phase transitions, switching (sans “switches”), hysteresis, and so forth. Although the mechanisms of coupling multiple oscillations within and between levels of organization are manifold, the principle is clear enough: patterns of behavior arise as an emergent consequence of self-organized interactions among neurons and neuronal populations and this self-organization is a fundamental source of cognitive, affective, behavioral and social function ( Başar, 2004 ; Buzsáki, 2006 ; Kelso, 1995 ; Oullier et al., 2008 ; Schmidt & Richardson, 2008 ; Van Orden, Holden, & Turvey, 2005 ).

Metastability was originally discovered when experimental observations of sensorimotor coordination ( Kelso, DelColle, & Schöner, 1990 ) made it necessary to extend the elementary HKB coordination law ( Haken, Kelso, & Bunz, 1985 ; Schöner, Haken, & Kelso, 1986 ) to handle the interaction of oscillatory components with different intrinsic properties 2 ( Kelso et al., 1990 ; Kelso, 1995 , chap. 4). This breaks the symmetry of the original HKB equation, which describes changes of the order parameter relative phase over time ( ϕ . ):

where ϕ is the relative phase between two interacting components, a and b are parameters p setting the strength of attracting regions in the system's dynamical landscape, Q ξ t is a (delta-correlated) noise term of strength Q , and δω is a symmetry breaking term expressing the fact that each coordinating element possesses its own intrinsic behavior ( Kelso et al., 1990 ; see Park & Turvey, 2008 , for further discussion).

The introduction of the symmetry breaking term δω in Eq. 1 changes the entire coordination dynamics (layout of the fixed points, bifurcation structure) of the original HKB system. This is important to realize because it is the subtle interplay between the coupling ( k = b/a ) and the symmetry breaking term δω in Equation 1 that gives rise to metastability 3 (see Kelso, 2002 , for further discussion).

where X 1 and X 2 are the individual components, the dots are their time derivatives and α and β are coupling parameters ( Haken, Kelso & Bunz, 1985 ). A nontrivial aspect of HKB is that it derives patterns of coordination from the individual components and their nonlinear interaction (see Kelso, 2007b for steps and rationale).

Equation 1 is weird. Even though it is an order parameter equation of motion that is designed to describe collective behavior (in words, phi dot is a function of phi), it includes also a parameter that arises as a result of differences among the individual components . Eq. 1 is thus a strange mixture of the whole and the parts, the global and the local, the cooperative and the competitive, the collective and the individual. Were the components identical, δω would be zero and we would not see component differences affecting the behavior of the whole. Eq. 1 would simply reflect the behavior of the collective untarnished by component properties, a purely emergent interaction—the HKB equation. It is the fact that both the components and their (nonlinear) interaction appear at the same level of description that gives rise to the array of coexisting tendencies characteristic of metastability. Eq. 1 is a basic representation of a synergy : a low dimensional dynamic of a metastable organization in which the tendency of the parts to act together coexists with a tendency of the parts to do their own thing ( Kelso, 1995 , chap. 4; for more on synergies, see Kelso, 2007a , 2000b , in press ). It is metastability that endows the synergy with robustness and flexibility, enabling the same parts to participate in multiple functions. If the synergy is a unit of life, then it is metastability that brings it alive.

The flow of the coordination dynamics across a range of δω values is shown in Figure 2 for a fixed value of the coupling parameter, k = b/a = 1, where a = 1 and b = 1). Stable fixed points (attractors) are presented as filled circles and unstable fixed points (repellors) as open circles. Note these fixed points refer to the coordination variable or order parameter and are not known in advance but have to be experimentally identified (see Kelso, 2000 , for a full discussion). Here, fortuitously for the brain, fixed points of the coordination variable φ represent the phase and frequency relationship between oscillatory processes. The surface shown in Figure 2 defines three regions under the influence of the symmetry breaking term δω . In the first region, present in the lower part of the surface, the system is multistable: two stable attracting fixed points (filled circles) represent possible alternative states. Which one the system settles in depends on initial conditions and the size of the basin of attraction. In an intermediate region, following the line labeled 2 from left to right, the weakest attractor near antiphase (right side) disappears after it collides with its associated repellor somewhere near δω = 1.3, but the strongest attractor (left side) is still present as well as its repellor partner. Finally, in the third region, in the upper part of the surface, the dynamics become metastable. Following the line labeled 3 from left to right, no fixed points exist anymore: this part of the surface no longer intersects the isoplane ϕ . = 0 where the fixed points are located. Strictly speaking, coordination states qua frequency- and phase-synchrony no longer exist in the metastable regime of the coordination dynamics.

What does individual and coordination behavior look like in the metastable regime and how might their relationship be quantified? A unique flow now exists in which the dynamics may be characterized by places where the trajectory of the coordination variable relative phase converges and pauses around the horizontal and places where the trajectory drifts or diverges from the horizontal. Let us define the former as a dwell time and the latter as an escape time . In Figure 3c we show two locations for the dwell times: one that lingers a long time before escaping (e.g., Figure 3c , annotation 1), slightly above the more stable inphase pattern near 0 rad (modulo 2 π ), and the other that lingers only briefly (e.g., Figure 3c , annotation 2), slightly above π (modulo 2 π ). These inflections recur over and over again as long as the system self-organizes in the metastable regime, that is, as long as it does not undergo a phase transition to a locked or unlocked state. Despite the complete absence of phase-locked attractors, the coordinating elements in the metastable regime do not behave totally independently. Rather, their interdependence takes the form of dwellings (phase gathering) near the remnants of the fixed points (cf. Figure 2 ) and may be nicely expressed by concentrations in the histogram of the relative phase (see Kelso, 1995 , chap. 4).

How the key coordination variable or order parameter of the coordination law ( Eq. 1 ) behaves over time. Shown is a family of trajectories of the relative phase φ over time (in arbitrary units, A.U.) arising from a range of initial conditions sampled between 0 and 2 π radians, in the multistable (a), monostable (b), and metastable regimes (c) of Eq. 1 . For the uncoupled case (d), the trajectories never converge, indicating that the oscillations are completely independent of each other. Trajectories in the multistable regime (a) converge either to an attractor located slightly above 0 rad. modulo 2 π or to another attractor located slightly above π rad. modulo 2 π . In the monostable regime (b), trajectories converge to an attractor located slightly above 0 rad. modulo 2 π . In the trajectories of relative phase for the metastable regime (c, unwrapped to convey continuity), there is no longer any persisting convergence to the attractors but rather a succession of periods of rapid drift ( escapes ) interspersed with periods inflecting toward, but not remaining on, the horizontal ( dwells ). Note dwells near 0 rad. modulo 2 π in the metastable regime (e.g., dwell at about 4 π rad. annotated 1 in c) and nearby π rad. modulo 2 π (dwell at about 3 π rad. annotated 2 in c.) are reminiscent of the transient obtained for certain initial conditions in the monostable regime (b, annotation 3). The key point is that in the metastable regime the system's behavior is neither completely ordered (synchronized, cf. a, b) nor completely disordered (desynchronized, cf. d) but a subtle blend of both.

METRICS FOR METASTABILITY: A START

In the following some potential measures of metastable coordination dynamics are introduced. Notice that all the usual measures used previously in coordination dynamics to measure and quantify stability and loss of stability such as local and global relaxation times, switching times, fluctuations, and so on, no longer apply in the metastable regime (see Kelso, Schöner, Scholz, & Haken, 1987 ; Schöner & Kelso, 1988 , for reviews of theory and experiments establishing the utility of these quantities). The reason of course is that in the metastable regime, all fixed point states have vanished leaving only traces of coordination, “ghosts” or “remnants” of where the fixed points once were. Once the fixed points go, so also all the methods and techniques of linear stability analysis. 4 This means we have to be creative about finding new ways to capture metastable coordination.

A dwell time may be defined by how long a collective or coordinative tendency persists in a system or data set; an escape time is how long the coordinating elements express their individual autonomy in a system or data set. 5 Consider first the pure cases. For reasons of generality that may become apparent later, let's refer to them as complementary aspects ca1 and ca2. An example of a pure case is illustrated in Figure 3d : there is no coupling and the oscillators are completely independent (ca1). Examples of another pure case are illustrated in Figures 3a and 3b . Whether in the mono- or bistable regimes, the oscillators are locked together, coupled in phase- and frequency-locked states (ca2), which constitute asymptotically stable states of the coordination dynamics. The metastable regime is in-between the two pure cases and is a blend of two tendencies: one for the elements to bind together and the other for the elements to behave independently. Such coexisting tendencies may be denoted as a complementary pair, ca1∼ca2. Notice that the transition from a metastable regime to a mono- or multistable regime constitutes the creation of functional information ( Kelso, 1994a , 2002 ; Kelso & Engstrøm, 2006 ). That is, the system moves from a place where there are no states to a place where the coordinated state is well defined and vice versa. Notice also that in the metastable regime near the saddle-node bifurcation, information in the classical Shannonian sense (and presumably “information processing”) is at a maximum. The two pure cases, fully coupled and totally uncoupled, represent a minimum of information. They are what they are forever.

The k number

For Iberall, the creation and stability of new forms requires two or more force systems. The physical intuition is of a generalized Reynolds number. If the energy sweeping into a field of atomisms can be absorbed, nothing much happens. If it cannot, the field becomes unstable and some new inhomogeneous patterning emerges. The generalized Reynolds number is dimensionless and expresses a competition between a global, convective process and a local diffusive transport or propagative process. The resulting form or pattern is a collective, cooperative effect. Note again how the complementary pairs competition∼cooperation and local∼global come into play. Formally, the generalized Reynolds number (Re) can be written as follows:

with unity (Re critical = 1) reflecting the critical value at which the transition to new forms occurs. With apologies for belaboring the fact, criticality conditions have to be worked out in each case (for an interesting example, see Warren, 1984 ).

Along the same lines of reasoning, a k number may be defined as follows:

The dimensionless k number appears to provide a measure of the quality of metastability . The mathematical expression is trivial:

In words, as the escape time (e) approaches zero, the dwell time (d) relative to (e) gets larger and larger. This means that there is a stronger and stronger tendency for the individual elements to bind together than to stay apart. Likewise,

In words, as the escape time (e) gets larger and larger, the dwell time (d) relative to (e) gets smaller and smaller. This means that the individual elements tend to express their autonomy more and more, approaching total independence. In analogy to the generalized Reynolds number, a critical k number expresses when the tendency to coordinate overcomes the tendency to stay apart, and vice-versa. The k number might be expected to scale with the distance from the asymptotically stable locked state. But how? This will again depend on the details of the system. Were this process analogous to so-called Type-1 intermittency, the distribution of dwell times should scale as the distance −1/2 from the critical surface where the parameterized function ( Eq. 1 ) lifts off the origin. Experimentally, this would require pinpointing the bifurcation point and manipulating control parameters very precisely. 6 More generally, comparing k numbers, the ratio of dwell and escape times, across a range of levels of observation of the same and different systems may even reveal scale-free properties (for examples, see Billock, DeGuzman, & Kelso, 2001 ; Chen, Ding, & Kelso, 1997 , 2003b ; Eguiluz, Chialvo, Cecchi, Baliki, & Apkarian, 2005 ; Van Orden et al., 2005 ).

METASTABLE COORDINATION DYNAMICS OF THE BRAIN

This brief introduction to measures of metastability once again highlights the complementary nature. Only together, as a complementary pair, do apparently contrasting phenomena, such as individual ∼ collective, integration ∼ segregation, local ∼ global, cooperation∼competition, attraction∼repulsion, convergence∼divergence, dwell∼escape, and so on, exhaust the knowledge necessary for understanding. We are reminded once again of Von Holst's (1939/1973) classic analysis of coordination: Both the “magnet effect” and the “maintenance tendency” are needed for a complete description of coordination in all its forms (see also Turvey & Schmidt, 1994 ). The metastable regime of the coordination law ( Eq. 1 ) shows how this is so: both tendencies arise as the result of the dynamic interplay between nonlinear coupling and individual intrinsic dynamics.

How might the brain make use of metastability? For a fuller discussion of this question, including “The Freeman-Kelso Dialogue,” the reader is referred to Kelso & Tognoli (2007) . As the Fingelkurtses (2004) remark, metastability is an entirely new conception of brain organization, not merely a blend of the old. Individualist tendencies for the diverse regions of the brain to express their independence coexist with coordinative tendencies to couple and cooperate as a whole. As we have seen, in the metastable brain local segregative and global integrative processes coexist as a complementary pair, not as conflicting theories. Metastability, by reducing the strong hierarchical coupling between the parts of a complex system while allowing them to retain their individuality, leads to a looser, more secure, more flexible form of functioning that promotes the creation of information. Too much autonomy of the component parts means no chance of their coordinating and communicating together. On the other hand, too much interdependence and the system gets stuck; global flexibility is lost.

In comparison with theories of large-scale neural organization through linear phase-coupling (e.g., Eckhorn et al., 1988 ; Gray, König, Engel, & Singer, 1989 ; Varela et al., 2001 ) the ability of metastable dynamics to coordinate or compute without attractors opens a large set of possibilities. 7 The classical view of phase-locked coordination prescribes that each recruited element loses its intrinsic behavior and obeys the dictates of the assembly. When such situations arise, from the functional point of view, individual areas cease to exert an influence for the duration of the synchronized state, and the pertinent spatial level of description becomes the synchronous assembly itself. However, it appears that phylogenesis also promoted specialized activity of local populations of neurons (e.g., Chklovskii, Schikorski, & Stevens, 2002 ; Ebbesson, 1984 ). In theories of large-scale integration through phase synchronization, the expression of local activity can exist only when the area is not enslaved into an assembly, whereas in the metastable regime, the tendency for individual activity is continually preserved (see also Friston, 1997 ).

As exemplified explicitly in the elementary coordination law ( Eq. 1 ), a delicate balance between integration (coordination between individual areas) and segregation (expression of individual behavior) is achieved in the metastable regime. Studies of interareal connectivity both at the anatomical and functional level ( Friston, 1997 ; Tononi, Sporns, & Edelman, 1998 ) support the notion that the region between complete integration and complete segregation is the most favorable for cognition: measures of complexity reach a maximum when there is a balance between segregative and integrative forces. Note, however, that such measures are based upon stationarity assumptions whereas metastability in coordination dynamics is a “stationary transient.” Although the holding and releasing of the relative phase over time appears to be of a transient nature, it is actually quite stationary.

METASTABLE MIND

What are the implications of metastable coordination dynamics for understanding the mind? Like nature and nurture, the contents of the mind and the dynamics of the mind are inextricably connected. Thoughts are not static: like the flow of a river, they emerge and disappear as patterns in a constantly shifting dynamic system ( Kelso, 1995 ). Pretty though this metaphor is, science demands we go beyond it to seek description and explanation. As in other, more mature fields it is crucial to have a theory or at least a conceptual framework of what one is trying to understand. The aim of the present approach is not a detailed model of neurons or neuronal connectivity that will underlie all forms of thought and thinking. Nor is this the forum to present a comprehensive account of the supporting neurophysiological and behavioral evidence. Rather, in the spirit of the person we honor here, the purpose is to stimulate insight into how mind, brain, and behavior might be connected in a unified way.

Figure 4 is intended to convey the gist of the story. On the left side of the middle panel, two areas of the brain (for the sake of simplicity) are shown to be active. This acknowledges a simple fact—or at least a dominant assumption in contemporary neuroscience: The contents of thoughts depend on the neural structures activated. Reciprocally, the neural structures activated influence—directly or indirectly—the contents of thoughts. If one is imagining producing a pattern of sensorimotor coordination, such as syncopating to a rhythmic stimulus, fMRI studies show that the same neural structures are active as would normally be engaged in the act of syncopation itself ( Oullier, Jantzen, Steinberg, & Kelso, 2005 ). If one is expecting a reward as a result of an economic transaction, the so-called reward centers in the subcortical nuclei of the limbic system (e.g., nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area) and associated pathways are activated (e.g., Knutson, Adams, Fong, & Hommer, 2001 ). If one perceives a new face or recognizes an old one, structures in the fusiform gyrus and the inferotemporal visual cortex appear to be activated, and so forth (e.g., Haxby et al., 1996 ). Thoughts crop up from within, contemporaneous with the activation of neural structures associated with memory and emotion such as the hippocampus and amygdala, and they can be triggered from without by a familiar sound, touch, sight, or smell. Occasionally insightful thoughts arise too. Though much remains to be learned about what exactly constitutes the contents of thought—which are inherently context-dependent—thoughts appear to have neural correlates. 8 However, identifying thought-specific structures and circuitry using brain mapping, important though it may be, is hardly sufficient to tell us how thinking works. Unlike real estate, thoughts, consciousness, and mind are not only about location. The overuse and abuse of the terminology of “states”—mental states, psychological states, physiological states, emotional states, and so on—muffles any sense of dynamics.

Sketch of a dynamical law of thought and thinking (with homage to Boole, 1854/2005 ). Middle panel represents synaptically coupled brain oscillations from two brain areas (for the sake of simplicity) whose activation is meaningful and specific to the content of “thoughts.” Here “thought” is used in a generic sense; the states could refer to patterns of perceiving, emoting, remembering, deciding, acting, and so on. Top left panel shows the layout of the fixed points of the relative phase dynamics ( Eq. 1 ) in the multi- (here bi-)stable regime. Solid circles are stable and attracting; open circles are unstable and repelling (see also Figure 2 ). Two states are stable, corresponding to particular phase relations between oscillatory groups of neurons, representing two stable “thought” patterns (ca1 and ca2) for exactly the same parameter values. Which one is realized depends on initial and boundary conditions. Many factors—developmental, social, cultural, learning, memory, and so on—may contribute to the process of stabilizing brain coordination states. Top middle panel shows that the formerly stable pattern near antiphase switches to near inphase as a result of changing circumstances. Any ambiguity due to bistability has been removed, a “decision” or “selection” has been made, and as a result, the system is monostable, stuck in one thought pattern. The switching mechanism is dynamic instability induced by changing control parameters (e.g., the coupling between the neural populations, which may be altered by neuromodulators). Fluctuations (not explicitly represented here) also play a key role in spontaneous switching. Top right panel shows that all states, both stable and unstable, have disappeared. This is the metastable régime. Now “thoughts” no longer correspond to fixed point, fully synchronized states of the coordination dynamics but rather to coexisting tendencies or dispositions that have characteristic dwell times. The lowest panel, called “Mind,” illustrates the classical dual nature of either/or, binary oppositions (ca1 or ca2), mind (and mind-set), switching (ca2 to ca1 and vice versa), and the mind and mind-set of the complementary nature, where both “thoughts” are held in the mind at the same time (ca1∼ca2). Even polarization∼reconciliation may be considered a complementary pair.

Active, dynamic processes like “perceiving,” “attending,” “remembering,” and “deciding” that are associated with the word thinking are not restricted to particular brain locations but rather emerge as patterns of interaction among widely distributed neural ensembles and in general between human beings and their worlds. One of the great riddles of contemporary neuroscience is how the multiple, diverse, and specialized areas of the brain are coordinated to give rise to thinking and coherent goal-directed behavior. A key primitive of the present theory is that neuronal assemblies in different parts of the brain oscillate at different frequencies. Such oscillatory activity is a prime example of self-organization in the brain. But oscillation, though necessary, is not sufficient. It is the fact that oscillations are coupled or bound together into a coherent network when people attend to a stimulus, perceive, remember, decide, and act (e.g., Başar, 2004 ; Bressler & Kelso, 2001 ; Buzsáki, 2006 ; Kelso, 1995 ; Singer, 2005 ; Varela et al., 2001 , for reviews). This is a dynamic, self-assembling process, parts of the brain engaging and disengaging in time, as in a proverbial country square dance in rural Connecticut. In the simplest case shown in the left column of Figure 4 , oscillations in different brain regions can lock “inphase,” brain activities rising and falling together, or “antiphase,” one oscillatory brain activity reaching its peak as another hits its trough and vice versa. Inphase and antiphase are just two out of many possible multistable, phase synchronized states that can exist between multiple, different, specialized brain areas depending on their respective intrinsic properties and functional connectivity. More broadly, as Iberall intuited, the organism and its environment are embedded in a nested frame of rhythms ranging from rest activity and sleep cycles to circadian and seasonal rhythms that both modify and are modified by behavior, development, and aging.

Coming back to the brain, different aspects of a moving scene, separate remembered parts of a significant experience, even different ideas that arise in a conversation may be bound together into coherent forms by synaptic coupling of (oscillatory) neural populations. The key proposal, conveyed in the top panel of Figure 4 , is that thoughts (figuratively shown as balloons) are “coded” as relative phases between oscillating brain areas. Relative phase is a natural quantity for coordinating different things and is a long established order parameter in coordination dynamics. 9 Phase is also the means by which excitatory and inhibitory neurons communicate with each other in so-called central pattern generators (e.g., Grillner, 1985 ). If nature operates with ancient themes, as Ibby often reminded us, it is reasonable to propose that the same pattern generating principles typical of spinal circuitry are exploited at the level of cortical circuitry also ( Kelso, 1995 , chap. 8; Ikegaya et al., 2004 ). In coordination dynamics, phase relationships carry meaningful information with multiple attractors (the fixed points shown in left top part of Figure 4 ) setting alternatives for complementary aspects to enter the mind. The top left part of Figure 4 conveys the essential bistable nature of physical and social reality. Two states are possible for identical parameter values: which state one enters depends on initial and boundary conditions. Baldly put, bistability is the basis of polarization and the either/or. Note that this does not necessarily imply any judgment of good or bad. Polarization, for example, may be seen as the driving tension behind scientific progress in the sense of Thomas Kuhn (1962) , and bistability may be exploited for solving ill-defined problems where the consideration of multiple interpretations of data is an advantage. Bistable, and in general multistable coordination dynamics confers many advantages on living things, in particular multifunctionality (see, e.g., Kelso, 1991 ).

Why is it that some thoughts seem to persist longer than others? Coordination dynamics suggests that the persistence of a thought depends on the stability of the brain's relative phase dynamics. Some thoughts persist longer than others because the phase relations underlying them are more stable. In Figure 4 (top left), the negative slope through the ordinate near inphase (“thought 1”) is greater, hence more stable, than its antiphase counterpart (“thought 2”). This proposition is supported by experiments and specific neurally based modeling, which shows that different patterns of spatiotemporal brain activity are differentially stable ( Jantzen & Kelso, 2007 ; Jirsa, Fuchs, & Kelso, 1998 ; Kelso et al., 1992 ; Meyer-Lindenberg, Ziemann, Hajak, Cohen, & Berman, 2002 ). For example, applying transient perturbations to Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) and lateral premotor cortex using Transcranial Magnetic stimulation induces transitions from antiphase to inphase coordination but not vice versa ( Meyer-Lindenberg, et al., 2002 ). Even more tellingly, recent fMRI work shows that increases in BOLD amplitude in a network of brain areas that includes pre-SMA, premotor cortex, cerebellum, and insula increases linearly as pattern stability decreases ( Jantzen & Kelso, 2007 ; Jantzen, Steinberg, & Kelso, under review ). 10 Such evidence suggests that disruption of a distributed network of brain areas—in contrast to a discrete switch in a particular locus—results in the destabilization and eventual dismantling of a less stable coordination pattern in favor of a more stable one.

So what makes thoughts switch? When it comes to the nervous system, it is always tempting to ask, as does Abbott (2006) , “Where are the switches in this thing?” (see also Martin, 2006 ). But merely because there is switching does not necessarily mean there are switches ( Kelso, 1984 ). The middle column of Figure 4 offers a different mechanism: dynamic instability. Multistability and spontaneous switching in perception as in the alternating vase or faces in ambiguous Rubin figures, Necker cubes, the continuous wagon wheel illusion, and so forth, continue to be a subject of much fascination in cognitive psychology and neuroscience (e.g., Billock & Tsou, 2007 ; Van Rullen et al., 2004 ; for review, see Kelso, 1995 , chap. 7 and articles in Kruse & Stadler, 1995 ). The picture shown in Figure 4 (middle column) is based on considerable experimental evidence demonstrating that switching in both brain and behavior is a self-organized process that takes the form of a nonequilibrium phase transition (e.g., Daffertshofer, Peper, & Beek, 2000 ; Freeman & Holmes, 2005 ; Fuchs, Deecke, & Kelso, 2000 ; Fuchs, Kelso, & Haken, 1992 ; Fuchs, Mayville, et al., 2000 ; Kelso, 1984 ; Kelso et al., 1990 ; Kelso, Scholz, & Schöner, 1986 ; Kelso et al., 1992 ; Mayville, Bressler, Fuchs, & Kelso, 1999 ; Wallenstein, Kelso, & Bressler, 1995 ). Fluctuations play a key role, testing the stability of states and enabling the system to discover new states. In coordination dynamics, once the system settles into an attractor, a certain amount of noise or a perturbation is required to switch it to another attractor. Or, if internal or external conditions change when the system is near instability, a bifurcation or phase transition may occur, causing the system to switch from being multistable to monostable or vice versa (see Ditzinger & Haken, 1989 , 1990 , for excellent examples of such modeling). Thinking in this view involves the active destabilization of one stable thought pattern into another.

A different view emerges from the flow of the relative phase dynamics in the metastable regime ( Figure 4 , right). Instead of thoughts corresponding to rigid, phase synchronized states that must be destabilized if switching is to occur, metastability consists of a more subtle dwell and escape dynamic in which a thought is never quite stable and merely expresses a joint tendency for neural areas to synchronize together and to oscillate independently. Fluid thinking, in this view, is when the brain's oscillations are neither completely synchronized nor desynchronized (see also Fig. 3c ). In the metastable regime, successive visits to the remnants of the fixed points are intrinsic to the time course of the system and do not require any external source of input. Switching occurs, of course, but continuously and without the need for additive noise or changes in parameters. From the perspective of coordination dynamics, the time the system dwells in each remnant depends on a subtle blend of the asymmetry of the rhythmic elements (longer dwelling for smaller asymmetry) and the strength of the coupling (longer dwelling for larger values of a and b in Eq. 1 ).

The metastable regime offers scientific grounds for Iberall's intuition of “reverie”: thoughts come and go fluidly as the oscillatory units of the brain express both an interactive integrative dynamic and an individualistic segregative dynamic. Metastable coordination dynamics also rationalizes William James's (1890) beautiful metaphor of the stream of consciousness as the flight of a bird whose life journey consists of “perchings” (viewed here as phase gathering, integrative tendencies) and “flights” (phase scattering, segregative tendencies). Both tendencies appear to be crucial: the former to summon and create thoughts, the latter to release individual brain areas to participate in other acts of cognition, emotion, and action.

In some traditions, it is not the contents of thoughts that matter but their “stickiness.” In the metastable regime of the coordination dynamics, the “stickiness” of thoughts depends on how close the neural system is to the fixed points of the relative phase dynamics. Sticky thoughts have long dwell times and a high probability density of near perfect phase synchrony between the brain's oscillations. Passing thoughts, as the name suggests, have short dwell times and low probability density. Stickiness means that the coupling interaction between neural populations is stronger than the tendency of these populations to express their individual autonomy and/or to disengage from one neural coalition to participate in others. Very sticky thoughts correspond to phase trapping between the brain's oscillations and may be pathological. Well-known manifestations of too much synchronization in the brain are diseases like Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. On the other hand, it appears that certain diseases such as schizophrenia appear to be characterized by a reduction in oscillatory brain activity and a relative absence of long range phase synchrony ( Uhlhaas & Singer, 2006 ). Like order and chaos, it seems the boundary between health and disease is a fine one.

A few further remarks may be in order. One, hinted at earlier, is that environmental, intentional, attentional, emotional, learning, and memory processes are all capable of both stabilizing and destabilizing the coordination dynamics. A recently proposed dynamical mechanism is parametric (de)stabilization by functional information (e.g., Fink et al., 2000 ; Jirsa et al., 2000 ; Kelso et al., 2001 ; see also Kay & Warren, 2001 ). The neural mechanisms of parametric stabilization by intention are beginning to be uncovered ( Jantzen, Bertollo, deLuca, Comani, & Kelso, 2007 ; Kelso, Scholz, & Schöner, 1988 ; Scholz & Kelso, 1990 ). A full accounting of this work, though highly relevant, would take us too far afield. We remark that to the extent these influences may be said to control the mind, this is the mind controlling itself.

Second, certain views on meditation view the mind (pardon the pun)—with its beliefs, biases, and prejudices based on past experience and memory—as an obstacle to being truly aware, to seeing what is . Awareness is where the mind stops wandering and thinking is the pause between two thoughts, where the brain is not trapped in a coherent state. Here we may say that for thought not to interfere, there should be no “binding” among brain areas; all the parts of the brain should be in a default state poised, as it were, to respond to any input. Metastabilty resolves, nay embraces, any paradox between “content full” thought and “content less” awareness: the flow of the dynamics allows both.

Third, notice in Figure 4 and throughout this discussion that the linkage between events at different levels, from neural to psychological and experiential, is by virtue of shared pattern or coordination dynamics, not because any single level is any more or less fundamental than any other. Thus, psychological terms like “stickiness” or “unhooking” or “trapping” or even “task difficulty” have explicit meaning in terms of meta- and multistable coordination dynamics. This amounts to transcendence if not translation.

Thought is matter and thinking is matter in motion—coordinated motion. Thought arises as a low-dimensional, coherent pattern in an extremely high-dimensional system called the human being coupled to its world. The slightest fluctuation can trigger a thought. Context matters. The coordination dynamics of thinking is essentially nonlinear and contains multistability and switching—which may be debilitating when it leads to polarization. Coordination dynamics differs from other theories of self-organization, including Iberall's homeokinetics, because it deals primarily in the currency of functional information : the two “forces” that drive coordination dynamics deal fundamentally with meaningful information exchange in living things. One force is the strength of coupling between the elements; this allows information to be distributed to all participating elements and is a key to integrative, collective action. The other is the ability of individual elements to express their autonomy and thereby minimize the influence of others. Self-organization in the metastable regime is the interplay of both. This is the architecture of mind—metastable mind.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is a written version of the Arthur S. Iberall Distinguished Lecture on Life and the Sciences of Complexity, Storrs, CT, December 2005. A similar lecture was delivered as the F. J. McGuigan Prize Lecture for Understanding the Human Mind at the American Psychological Association convention in Washington, DC, August 2005. The author would like to thank Professors Michael Turvey and Claudia Carello along with many friends and colleagues at The University of Connecticut for their wonderful hospitality during my visit to present this lecture. The title is intended to convey the problem that all of us share. It is an “essay” in the sense of the French word essai , a try. “Mind” as used here is multifunctional: we pay attention, we see, we hear, we remember, we feel, we act, we experience, and so on. These are activities that rely at least in part on the workings of a physical organ called the brain. Like structure and function, organism and environment, affordance and effectivity, mind and brain are complementary.

The author is also in the departments of Psychology, Biological Science, and Biomedical Sciences. The writing of this article was supported by a National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) Innovations Award (MH 42900), National Institute for Neurological and Communicative (NINDS) Grant NS48220, and the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The comments of Drs. Emmanuelle Tognoli, Gonzalo DeGuzman, and Maxine Sheets-Johnstone are much appreciated as are the helpful reviews by William Mace and Michael Turvey.

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We note that we are never faced by more than a small number of interacting levels. The overseer always seems to be faced only by king and by peasant. That is our key notion. ( Iberall & Soodak, 1978 , p. 22)

This is the second paper in the series, “Life and the Sciences of Complexity: Essays in Honor of Arthur S. Iberall.”

1 The symbol of the complementary nature relating contrarieties, opposites and their kin is the tilde or squiggle (∼). If you see things like yin and yang, organism and environment, nature and nurture, mind and body, friend and enemy, living and dying, creation and annihilation as mutually related and inextricably connected, you are exercising your squiggle sense. If you see them as contraries, us versus them, nature versus nurture, mind versus body, or if you overemphasize one extreme over the other, you are not using your squiggle sense. Integration∼segregation, local∼global, individual∼collective, part∼whole, competition∼cooperation, creation∼annihilation, convergence∼divergence, dwell∼escape, states∼tendencies, symmetry∼dynamics, form∼function and so forth are some of the complementary pairs that constitute the base set of complementary pairs of coordination dynamics. Note the squiggle is not a bridge: it doesn't stand for glue holding complementary aspects together or mediating between them. It is a way to write and think about complementary aspects in a way that emphasizes their relational and dynamic character. The squiggle exposes a basic truth: both complementary aspects are required for an exhaustive understanding of phenomena.

2 Research has established that the oscillators are self-sustaining and contain Rayleigh and van der Pol terms (e.g. Beek, et al., 1996 ; 1997 ; Haken, et al., 1985 ; Kay et al., 1987 ). More than the functional form of the oscillator, per se, the key to emergent coordination is the nonlinear coupling. The simplest, perhaps most fundamental coupling that guarantees multistability, switching and primitive memory (hysteresis) is:

3 Sometimes in the literature Eq. 1 is referred to collectively as the Haken-Kelso-Bunz equation. Though convenient, this is technically incorrect and fails to recognize both the intellectual contributions to its extension and the conceptual consequences thereof. For reasons of symmetry and simplicity, the original HKB equation did not contain the symmetry breaking term, δω ( Kelso, et al., 1990 ) nor did it treat fluctuations explicitly ( Schoner, Haken & Kelso, 1986 ) both of which are crucial for capturing the broad range of phenomena observed and testing further predictions. In particular, without δω there is: a) no fixed point shift, a sign of adaptation to changing circumstances, see Fig. 1 ; b) the bifurcation is a saddle node not, as in the original HKB equation a pitchfork. These are different normal forms, see Kelso (1994b) ; and 3) most important of all, the original HKB equation does not and cannot exhibit metastability which is the key to understanding the complementary relationship between the synergic tendency of the oscillators to couple (integration) and at the same time to express their individual differences (segregation). The oscillators in the original HKB formulation were identical thereby excluding metastability. For these reasons, it seems wise to refer to Eq. 1 as the extended HKB equation.

4 We remark, however, how helpful these techniques have been in establishing the presence of self-organization (phase transitions) in human brain and behavior, and for testing predicted effects, such as critical slowing down, fluctuation enhancement, switching time distributions, and so forth that are hallmarks of dynamic instability. Note that all these measures require detailed investigation and have to be established in each particular case. Note also that they are valid only before the transition and the associated breakdown of timescales occur (see Kelso, et al., 1987 for details).

5 Of course, in experiments these times need to be operationally defined, similar say to the operations used to determine the onsets and offsets of other physiological measures such as EEG and EMG (see Kelso & Tognoli, 2007 , for a start).

6 Such experiments are nontrivial. Nevertheless, very clear hints are available in behavioral studies that have systematically detuned, in small steps, a two-frequency system coordinating near 2 W 1 ( DeGuzman & Kelso, 1991 ; Kelso & DeGuzman, 1988 ).

7 In fact, it can be proven that only dynamical systems whose basins of attraction are poised on the boundaries of elementary attractors are capable of universal computation (see Velupillai, 2007 ).

8 For a sobering analysis of some of the pitfalls in the methods and interpretation of brain imaging data, see van Orden & Paap (1997) and Uttal (2003) .

9 An argument can be made that spatial patterns of amplitude in high density EEG recordings of olfactory cortex also constitute an order parameter (e.g., Freeman & Holmes, 2005 ; Kelso & Tognoli, 2007 ). In coordination dynamics, following theories of self-organization ( Haken, 1977 ; Nicolis & Prigogine, 1977 ) coordination variables or order parameters and control parameters may be identified by studying dynamic instabilities or phase transitions ( Kelso, 1990 ). The former change qualitatively at transitions and the latter–when systematically varied–lead the system through transitions. Order parameters and control parameters are thus co-implicative and complementary in the framework of coordination dynamics ( Kelso, 1995 ; Kelso & Engstrøm, 2006 ). Recent empirical and theoretical research contacts Freeman's work in that it shows that phase transitions can also arise through the amplitudes of oscillation ( Assisi, Jirsa & Kelso, 2005 ). Both routes are possible depending on the situation, e.g. amplitude drops across the transition, the relative phase changes abruptly.

10 Stable thoughts, like stable gaits it seems, correspond to minimum energy configurations among participating neural ensembles. Analogous to gaits, research shows that oxygen utilization (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent effect) increases as the pattern loses stability, suggesting that the demands on neural resources to sustain a given pattern stable also increase. Pattern stability, which can be precisely measured in terms of variability appears to be an (as yet unheralded) determiner of brain activity (number and intensity level of voxels, see Jantzen & Kelso, 2007 , Figs. 3 and ​ and4 4 ).

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Psychology Discussion

Essay on human mind | psychology.

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In this essay we will discuss about the functions of human mind.

Meaning of Human Mind:

Human Mind is the sum-total of various mental processes such as observing, knowing, thinking, reasoning, feeling, wishing, imagining, remembering, judging and others. It is not a separate object which has or possesses these mental processes. Mind is these mental processes. If we take away these mental processes. No mind is left, just as no chair is left if we take away its back, seat, arms and legs. Therefore, mind is another name for those mental processes and activities put together.

Our Human mind grows just as our body grows. It becomes more complex with advancing years. In other words, our mental processes become richer and more complicated day by day. For example, there is a difference between thinking and reasoning of an adult and those of a child of three years.

The human mind is not only the sum-total of all conscious mental processes, as it was believed earlier; it includes preconscious and unconscious processes, as well. It must be noted, however, that mind is one and is a unity. There are three levels at which it functions. At one level, we are aware of our mental processes; this is the ‘conscious’.

At another level, we are not conscious of our mental processes; this gives us the “unconscious’, still at another level, we are not aware of our mental processes at a certain time, but we were aware of them before, and can, again, be aware of them if we try. This is our preconscious.

The Unconscious :

The unconscious processes constitute the unconscious or the unconscious mind. It is the processes of which we are incapable of becoming conscious unless special methods of psycho-analysis are used. These processes lie buried deep down in the hidden recesses of our mind, very much below the level of consciousness.

It was Freud and his earliest followers Jung and Adler who strongly advocated the existence of the unconscious which could be understood and known through psycho-analysis – a method of unearthing and analysing the unconscious. Due to the discovery of the unconscious, our knowledge of the human mind is very much extended.

These thinkers have told us that the unconscious includes all forgotten past experiences, our repressed wishes and desires, our fears and phobias for which we do not know the reason, or our eccentric likes and dislikes. Many of these unconscious mental processes appear in and cause our dreams, slips of pen or tongue. They cause abnormal behaviour in the form of neuroses and psychoses.

It must be noted that there are no pigeon-holes or compartments in our mind which store the pre-conscious or unconscious processes separately. The preconscious and unconscious are a part of the same mind to which the conscious processes belong. The former are simply those mental processes which we have forgotten, either temporarily or more or less permanently. Their connections with our conscious process are broken for the time being.

These are as follows:

(i) Freud refers to the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious as the topographical aspects of the mind or self or psyche. For him, the unconscious is of paramount importance. It is the true psychic reality. The conscious is only a fraction when compared with the vast unconscious. In it are stored and found millions of infantile wishes, unsatisfied desires, cravings and urges, many of which are legacies from childhood.

Freud proves the existence of the unconscious by referring to many phenomena such as our experiences that we cannot recall, the phenomenon of somnambulism, post-hypnotic suggestion, dreams, morbid forgetfulness and slips of pen and tongue.

(ii) The second tenet of this system is the dynamic aspects of mind the – Id, the Ego and the Super ego. Freud believed that all behaviour is the resultant of the dynamic conflicts between the forces of the Id, the Ego and the Superego at the conscious, and unconscious levels of mind.

The Id is the primitive undifferentiated basis of the whole human mind. It is completely dominated by the pleasure principle. It has no idea of time or reality. Its strivings are originally impulsive and uncontrolled out they are controlled by society and the reality principle in the course of development.

The Ego represents the self or the conscious intelligence. It is the integrating part of the personality. It is an adjuster between the wishes of the Id on the one hand and the demands of external reality on the other. It has to face the three sets of forces e.g., external reality, the instinctive pressure from the Id and inhibition or control from the Superego.

The Superego is the chief force that makes for the socialisation of the individual. It is primarily sociologically and culturally conditioned. It corresponds to the idea of conscience. It represents the social and moral ideal which society sets up for our behaviour.

Within it reside the forces of repression and censorship, self-observation and self-criticism. Mitchell says, ‘By means of identification with the parents or one of the parents and Ego-ideal is set up within the Ego, and as a Superego, adopts and critical and condemnatory attitude of the parents towards the libidinal impulses.

(iii) The third tenet of psychoanalysis is that of conflict, repression and complexes. As said above, according to Freud, all behaviour is the resultant of the dynamic conflicts between the forces of the Id, the Ego and the Super-ego. The Id impulses which are largely sexual and aggressive in nature want to be satisfied, but these come in conflict with the Ego and the Super-ego. In other words, there is a clash between the primitive impulses and social and moral taboos, prohibitions and obstructions.

Our conflicts may be conscious or unconscious. When we are aware of the conflict and sources causing it, the conflict is at the conscious level. But there are times, when we are not aware of the real motives causing conflict. We experience feelings of strain, stress and anxiety but why? We cannot easily tell. The motivations of the conflict are unconscious. We are not aware of them. This is the endopsychic or unconscious conflict.

This is how it happens. The conflict even at the conscious level, is a painful affair which creates tension in the human mind. It should end as soon as possible. It can be ended by following the Id impulses and by ignoring the claims of the Ego and the Super-ego or the external world. It can be ended by consciously denying the impulses or urges completely and following the demands of the Ego or Super-ego.

Another method of ending the conflicts is by throwing those impulses into allied channels sanctioned by society and thus obtaining for them a vicarious satisfaction. For example , many women who do not marry, satisfy a fundamental wish by becoming nurses or by directing their own energies to the care and welfare of children. But most people follow neither of these courses, it is very difficult to endure the ideas of defeat which result from the denial or our Id, desires.

Again, the Id impulses cannot be satisfied in the face of social opposition. Even throwing them into other social sanctioned channels is not an easy task. We need suitable potentialities, education, guidance and environment for that. Normally, the conflict is resolved or ended, in an average individual, by an actual forcing down of these wishes into the unconscious.

This unconscious forgetfulness of the Id impulses or throwing down of these impulses into the unconscious is called repression. Thus, “what is unpleasant abnoxious, embarrassing or offensive is vanished from consciousness”. With repression, the conflict shifts from the conscious into the unconscious.

These repressed wishes or desires remain active in the unconscious regions of our mind. They slowly gather strength by making alliance with other allied repressed experiences, thus forming an active group. This group of repressed desires working with a common end, i.e. to come back to the level of consciousness, is called a complex. As soon as complexes are formed, they give rise to a conflict in the unconscious, known as the endosychic conflict.

These complexes are just like exiles whose presence back in the conscious is not tolerated. But they do strive to regain consciousness. The forces of the Ego and Super-ego would not permit this. If they come back to the conscious, they would again create conflict and tension.

The mental force that keeps the repressed undesirable wishes confined to the unconscious is technically known as the censor. The censor is not an outside agency implanted in us, but is a part of our own personality. It represents the moral and social aspects of the Ego and Super-ego.

But the censor is not uniformly vigilant at all times, its activities are considerably weakened during sleep as also during such moments that the repressed wishes seek to regain consciousness. At times, they may come in mask or in disguise and thus elude the vigilance of the censor. Such disguise may take the form of dreams, slips of pen and tongue, forgetfulness, mannerism of speech and others.

Sometimes, they may manifest themselves in mental mechanisms such as transference, projection identification, rationalization and others. The complexes may also cause neurotic disturbances or psychotic disorders of various types.

(iv) The fourth principle of psychoanalysis is Freud’s theory of instinct and libido. According to him, there are two decidedly inmates psychological urges or instincts. These urges may be called ‘Eros’ of life or love instinct and Thanatos or the death instincts or aggression. They work through the existing structure of a person’s being in his environment and determine what he is and what he does.

They are modified by the life experience of the individual, particularly those of the earliest years of life. These instincts are not opposed and mutually independent forces. They fuse and intermix. The intermixture of the two instincts leads to the Freudian principle of ambivalence loving and hating the same person.

Libido is the energy that works throughout the whole psychic system the energy of the life instinct. It is the source of sexual love, self-love, parental affection, friendship and of love for humanity in general. It causes the infantile sex-life; when the libido flows outward, it causes object-love; when it flows inward, it causes self-love or narcissism.

(v) The fifth tenet of the psycho-analytical theory is the principle of psycho- sexual genesis or infantile sexuality. Sexual life, according to Freud, does not start at puberty. Its first manifestations may be clearly seen after birth. Sexuality embraces many activities which have no connection with genitals. The fundamental functions of sexuality is to obtain pleasure from zones of the body. During the infancy and childhood period, this sexuality has three phases (a) oral, (b) anal-sadistic and (c) phallic.

At first the child derives libidiual satisfaction from the mouth; at three or four this pleasure is given by anal movement. After this we have the phallic phase when the child evinces interest in his genitalia. It is in this phase when the development of the Oedipus Complex takes place. The libido is directed towards an external love object of the opposite sex.

The latency period (5 to 12 years) is essentially one of psychic consolidation and synthesis. The psyche has a respite from infantile urges and the Super-ego develops. The pubertal period extends from 12 years onwards. There is a revival of sexuality and its passes through auto-erotic and homosexual phases before it is allowed its normal outlet in heterosexual behaviour.

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Essay , Psychology , Human Mind , Essay on Human Mind

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Essays on the active powers of the human mind.

by Thomas Reid

Introduction by Baruch A. Brody

ISBN: 9780262680134

Pub date: August 15, 1969

• Publisher: The MIT Press

ISBN: 9780262180399

• 9780262680134
• Published: August 1969
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• Description

Thomas Reid was the seventeenth century Scottish philosopher who, during his professorship at King's College in Aberdeen, led the attack upon Humean skepticism, then both wide-based and historically deep-rooted in Scottish thought. The responsibility for the success of this attack belongs not only to Reid himself but to them extremely promising minds—whom he affected so profoundly, among them Dugald Stewart, James Beattie, James Gregory, George Campbell, and Alexander Gerard. The school lost favor under the weighty dominance of John Stuart Mill and the British idealists, and Reid's writings, as a result, have suffered from long neglect.

The source of Reid's philosophical strength lies somewhat with his own original thought, but far more solidly with his perceptive thrust into the loopholes of skepticism. The Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind is a treatise on ethics, on the human being's performance and motives and freedom. The major points of the Reidan-Humean ethical discourse are as follows: 1. The theory of the origin of ideas. Hume held that ideas derived from sensation or reflection. Though Reid did in fact offer no countertheory, he was the first to point out that Hume substantiated his argument by denying existence to each of the possible alternatives. 2. The freedom of human action. Both Hobbes and Hume had considered the will and the action as the two elements of freedom; the free act, that which is determined by the will, and the unfree act, that done in opposition to the will. Reid defined freedom in terms of the will and its cause . If the agent is the cause of the act of willing, the act is free; if a force other than the agent is the cause of the act of wiling, the act is unfree. 3. The nature of moral judgment. Hume held that these judgments were merely expressions of personal sentiments, for which no objective truth exists. Reid countered that there exists a corpus of moral propositions whose truth is intuitively known, and universally believed, propositions that he referred to as common-sense judgments.

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The old fisherman sat by the sea, staring at the rolling waves under the night sky. He had gone out to sea earlier that day but caught nothing. His small boat rocked gently beside him, empty again.

For weeks, he had struggled. No matter how early he left or how late he returned, the fish just weren’t biting. His wife tried to reassure him that his luck would turn, but he was losing hope.

As he gazed at the stars, he thought of his father and grandfather, who had both been fishermen. “The sea provides,” his father always said. But the sea seemed to have abandoned him.

Just then, a bright light appeared, dancing on the water. At first, the fisherman thought it was the reflection of the moon, but the light moved and flickered. He realized with a start that it was a flame coming closer.

A small boat drifted into view, lit by a lantern. In it sat a young boy, no more than 10 years old, holding a fishing pole. The boy called out, “Have you had any luck today, sir?”

The fisherman sighed. “Not today, I’m afraid.”

The boy smiled. “Don’t lose hope! My father always says that patience and perseverance will pay of f. The fish will come. You’ll see.”

With that, the boy’s boat drifted back into the night. The fisherman sat in silence, pondering the boy’s words. His optimism and faith pierced the darkness like that small flame, rekindling the fisherman’s own hopes. He knew then that luck would find him again if he met each day with faith and determination . The sea provides, after all, for those who persevere.

2. The Opportunity in Every Difficulty: An Inspiring Tale

The old farmer sighed as he looked over his ruined crops. A terrible storm had swept through the valley the night before, and his once lush and verdant fields were now battered and muddy. His neighbor, a kind young man named Thomas, came by to offer his help.

“This is a calamity,” the farmer said. “My family has always been able to survive on the yield of this harvest. I don’t know what we will do now.”

Thomas thought for a moment. “I see this not as a calamity but as an opportunity,” he said gently.

The farmer looked at him in disbelief. “How can this be an opportunity?” he asked.

Thomas smiled. “Now you have a chance to try something new. You’ve always grown beans and squash. Why not try planting different crops that will thrive in this soil? You can diversify and strengthen your farm.”

The farmer considered this. Thomas was right—he had become set in his ways. This disaster could push him to make his farm sustainable in new ways.

“You have given me hope again,” the farmer said. He clapped Thomas on the back. “Thank you for showing this old man the opportunity in this difficulty. My farm will be better for it.”

And so the farmer planted new, hearty crops and introduced more diversity to his farm. Though the storm ruined one harvest, it ended up saving many more. For in every difficulty lies an opportunity, if only we dare to see it.

3. The Traveler: A Story About Choosing Your Perspective

The old traveler sat down for a rest under the shade of a large tree. A young boy approached and sat down next to him. “Where are you going?” asked the boy. The traveler replied, “I’m not sure where this road will lead me.”

The boy was surprised. “How can you not know where you’re going?” he asked. The traveler smiled. “I don’t know my destination, but I’m sure I’ll know when I get there. The beauty is in the journey, not the destination.”

The boy still didn’t understand. “But how will you know you’ve arrived if you don’t know where you’re going?” The traveler replied, “When I arrive, there will be peace and contentment in my heart. The journey is what shapes us and makes us grow.”

The boy considered this. He had always focused on goals and destinations but never appreciated the journey. He realized there was wisdom in the traveler’s words. “I think I understand,” he said. “It’s not about where I’m going, but how I choose to see the journey.”

The traveler nodded. “You’re learning. Our perspective shapes our reality. Choose to see each moment as an opportunity to learn and grow. Appreciate all the simple beauties around you. Find peace in the journey, not the destination.”

The boy smiled, thanked the traveler, and continued down the road with a new sense of meaning and purpose. He realized the journey ahead held endless possibilities if only he chose to see them. His reality was shaped by his perspective. The destination didn’t matter; his journey was just beginning.

4. The Two Frogs: A Short Story on Maintaining an Optimistic Outlook

Two frogs, Tom and Tim, were enjoying the summer sun near a pond. Tom was young and optimistic, while Tim was older and more pessimistic.

As Tom was hopping around the pond, he fell into a bucket that someone had left out. He tried to jump out, but the bucket was too deep. Tim came over and saw Tom’s struggle.

“It’s useless,” said Tim. “You’ll never get out.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Tom. “Someone will surely come and get me out.”

Just then, a little boy walked by and heard Tom’s calls. He lifted the bucket and tipped it over, freeing the frog. Tom hopped happily away, calling out to Tim:

“I told you I’d get out! An optimistic outlook always pays off.”

Tim grumbled as he hopped into the pond. A while later, Tim’s pessimism got the better of him again. As he was swimming, a big fish swam by and grabbed him in its mouth. Tim shrieked:

“Help! I’m going to be eaten!”

Tom heard the commotion and swam over. He told the fish:

“Please release my friend. He did not mean to disturb you.”

The fish opened his mouth and let Tim go. Tim was ashamed of his pessimism. He told Tom:

“You were right. Positivity and optimism do pay off. I will try to be more optimistic from now on.”

Moral of the story: Having an optimistic outlook can open up more opportunities and lead to better outcomes. Maintaining positive thinking and hopeful expectations can help overcome difficult situations. Like Tom, the frog approaches life with optimism and faith in good outcomes.

How Optimism Affects Happiness: +8 Ways to Develop Optimism

5. the story of the farmer and his luck.

There once lived a farmer in a small village. He was considered the luckiest man in the village. The farmer believed that God was kind to those who worked hard. He was a very hardworking farmer.

One day, the farmer was working in his field. He saw a traveler walking by. The traveler asked the farmer, “How did you get so rich?” The farmer replied, “Hard work.” The traveler was surprised and said, “Many people work hard but are still poor. There must be some luck involved too!”

The farmer thought for a while and said, “You’re right. Let’s say luck and hard work are like two horses pulling a wagon. With only one horse, the wagon won’t move. Hard work alone is not enough. Luck alone will not take the wagon far. When luck and hard work come together, that’s when the wagon starts moving!”

The traveler was very impressed with the farmer’s wisdom. He asked again, “What about times when you face bad luck? How do you deal with it?”

The farmer smiled and said, “When times are good, I work hard. When times are bad, I work even harder. Hard work can turn bad luck into good luck!”

The traveler thanked the farmer and continued his journey enlightened by the farmer’s positive attitude and simple wisdom. Like the traveler, we too can learn from the farmer’s story.

Success comes to those who work hard and maintain a positive attitude, regardless of luck, good or bad. Luck is fleeting, but hard work and a positive attitude can overcome all odds.

Is Success Luck or Hard Work: Unpacking the Success Equation

6. the story of the elephant and the rope.

The massive elephant strained against the thick rope around its ankle, trying in vain to break free. A young girl noticed the elephant’s distress and approached the handler. “Why does this elephant not just use its strength to break the rope and escape?” she asked.

The handler smiled and replied, “When this elephant was just a baby, it was tied with the same rope. At that time, the rope was strong enough to restrain the little elephant. It has grown up believing the rope can still hold it, even though now it could easily snap the rope.”

The elephant’s limited belief in the power of the rope had imprisoned it for life. Like the elephant, many of us go through life trapped by false beliefs and self-imposed limitations. We become accustomed to thinking in a certain way and continue to see the world through that lens, even after we have outgrown it.

To break free from these mental constraints, we must first recognize that the beliefs holding us back are no longer true. We have to realize, as the elephant eventually did, that we now have the power and ability to break those bindings. We just have to open our minds to growth and change.

The elephant can teach us an important lesson: we are only as trapped as we believe ourselves to be. With an open and willing spirit, we can release ourselves from the ropes that bind us.

7. The Blind Boys and the Matter of Perspective

The old monastery sat atop the hill, isolated from the village below. Two blind boys, Timmy and Jimmy, lived there, taken in by the monks at a young age.

One day, the boys were playing in the yard when they started arguing about what color the sky was. Timmy claimed it was blue, while Jimmy insisted it was gray. The argument escalated as each boy refused to accept the other’s perspective.

Hearing the commotion, the head monk came over. He told the boys, “You are both right. The sky’s color depends on the way you observe it.”

The boys were puzzled. “But how can it be both blue and gray?” asked Jimmy.

The monk smiled gently. “While you see with your eyes, you perceive with your mind. The sky appears blue to Timmy because that is how his mind perceives it based on what he has learned and experienced. To Jimmy, it seems gray for the same reason.”

“So which color is really right?” asked Timmy.

“The sky has no inherent color. It appears differently to each observer based on their perspective. Right or wrong does not apply here.”

The boys grew silent, grasping the meaning behind the monk’s words. Though blind, their vision expanded in that moment as they understood, for the first time, the power of perspective .

While the boys continued to see the world differently, they learned to appreciate how those varying perspectives enriched their lives. They realized that by embracing diversity of thought, one can achieve a more colorful and meaningful view of life. By opening their minds, the blind boys gained true sight.

8. The Mountain Story

The old man sat with his grandson by the fire, under a blanket of stars. “Grandson, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all,” he said.

The First Wolf

“One is evil. It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity , guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride , superiority, and ego.”

The Second Wolf

“The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about this for a minute and then asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”

The old man smiled. “The one you feed.”

This short story highlights that we each have the potential for both good and evil inside us. The traits and behaviors we cultivate through our thoughts and actions will determine which side prevails. Focusing on positivity, kindness, and compassion feeds the good wolf, allowing our best qualities to shine through. Dwelling on negative emotions and harmful actions, on the other hand, gives power to the evil wolf.

Every day, in small ways, we choose which wolf to feed. Make an effort to feed the good wolf within you by maintaining an optimistic attitude, practicing kindness, and spreading positivity to others. Starve the evil wolf of anger, envy, and selfishness. Though it can be difficult, having awareness and making the choice to promote good over evil leads to inner peace and benefits society as a whole.

Feed the good wolf, and let your positive attitude and actions inspire others to do the same. Together, we can cultivate more good in the world.

9. The Sun and the Wind: A Fable on Positive Thinking

The sun and wind were arguing one day over who was the stronger of the two. As they debated, they saw a man traveling along a road wearing a coat. They agreed that whoever could cause the man to remove his coat the fastest would be considered the stronger.

The wind accepted the challenge and blew with all his might, trying to make the man feel uncomfortable enough to remove his coat. But the harder the wind blew, the tighter the man grasped his coat and wrapped it around himself. The wind’s efforts were in vain.

The Sun’s Turn

When the wind gave up, the sun took its turn. The sun shone gently upon the traveler, slowly increasing his warmth and brightness. The sun’s friendly rays felt pleasant to the man, who soon unbuttoned his coat as he walked down the road. Within a few minutes, the man finally removed his coat altogether.

The sun’s kind and optimistic approach succeeded where the wind’s aggression and pessimism failed. The moral of the story is that positive thinking and friendliness often accomplish more than hostility and force. A positive, constructive attitude can go a long way toward resolving disagreements and achieving one’s goals.

The story highlights how positive thinking and an optimistic outlook can overcome negativity and adversity. By taking a friendly, empathetic approach, the Sun was able to achieve what aggression and pessimism could not. With patience and understanding, the sun’s positivity won out.

12 Reasons Why Positivity Matters (+7 Ways to Achieve It)

10. the optimist and the pessimist: a tale of two friends.

The Pessimist

Jake was a pessimist. He always expected the worst in every situation. One day, while walking through the forest, Jake came upon an old abandoned cabin. “I bet this place is filled with spiders and critters,” he thought. As night fell, Jake’s stomach began to growl. He peered inside the dark cabin, worried about what scary things might lurk within. His hunger eventually overtook his fear.

Jake lit a candle and found the cabin empty except for a pot of hot stew still warm over the fire. But Jake didn’t eat. “This is probably poisoned,” he worried, going to bed hungry.

The Optimist

Jake’s friend Tim was an optimist. He always looked on the bright side. The next day, Tim came upon the same cabin. “What an adventure this will be!” he exclaimed. Tim went inside, lit a fire, and found the pot of stew. “How lucky I am to find a hot meal waiting!” he said, enjoying the stew. He slept well that night in the cozy cabin.

A Valuable Lesson

The next morning, Jake told Tim about the spooky cabin. “Really?” asked Tim. “I found an abandoned cabin too, but it seemed quite pleasant.” Jake was shocked. It was the same cabin, yet their experiences had been very different. Jake realized his pessimism had caused him to miss out on a good meal and cozy shelter. From that day on, Jake tried to be more optimistic. He learned that positive thinking can open us up to more happiness and opportunity.

11. Be the best you can be.

The old warehouse towered before Jenny, holding untold stories within its rusty walls. She took a deep breath and stepped inside, determined to overcome her self-doubt.

A Voice from the Past

As Jenny explored the musty rooms, a scrap of paper on the floor caught her eye. It was a page from a diary, dated over 50 years ago:

I know I have talent, but I lack confidence in myself. My teacher says I can achieve great things if I work hard and believe in myself. His encouragement inspires me to push past my self-doubt and give my dreams a chance. Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win by fearing to begin. I will not let my doubts hold me back any longer. My time is now.

Jenny gasped, realizing the message was meant for her. The writer’s words echoed her own feelings and struggles. She knew what she had to do.

Overcoming Obstacles

Jenny pursued her lifelong passion for writing with a newfound determination . She worked diligently at honing her craft, despite facing rejections and setbacks. Her teacher’s support motivated her to keep improving her skills.

After months of effort, Jenny submitted a story to a local contest and won the first prize. At the awards ceremony, she saw a familiar face in the crowd—it was her teacher, cheering her on, pride shining in his eyes.

At that moment, Jenny realized the diary page was a gift to inspire her journey. She had overcome her self-doubt , nurtured her talent, and achieved her dream. The possibility of greatness lives within us all if only we believe in ourselves and rise to meet it.

Importance of Believing in Yourself: Be Your Own Biggest Fan

Final thought.

One of the most important factors for personal development is having a positive attitude. A positive attitude means that you see the bright side of things, you believe in yourself and your abilities, and you are optimistic about the future.It can help you overcome challenges, learn new skills, and achieve your goals. It can also make you happier, healthier, and more resilient.

• Positive Attitude Towards Life, Emotional Expression, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms among centenarians and near-centenarians by Kaori Kato , a   Richard Zweig , b   Clyde B. Schechter , c   Nir Barzilai , d  and  Gil Atzmon e ( Aging Ment Health. 2016 Sep; 20(9): 930–939. Published online 2015 Jun 26. doi:  10.1080/13607863.2015.1056770 ) published in National Library of Medicine – An official website of the United States government

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Power of Positive Thinking Essay – 10 Lines, 100, 500, 1000 Words

Power of Positive Thinking Essay in English: Embark on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment with this Power of Positive Thinking Essay . Delve into the transformative impact of optimistic mindset, explore practical strategies for cultivating positivity, and uncover the psychological and physical benefits of embracing a positive outlook on life.

This enlightening Power of Positive Thinking Essay delves into the philosophy of positive thinking, offering insights into resilience, stress management, and fostering a mindset that unlocks the potential for personal growth and well-being.

Table of Contents

Power of Positive Thinking Essay in English in 10 Lines

Explore the profound impact of positive thinking in this essay, revealing the benefits, practical strategies, and transformative potential of cultivating an optimistic mindset.

• Positive thinking is a mindset that focuses on optimistic and constructive thoughts.
• It has the power to influence emotions, behaviors, and overall well-being.
• Adopting positive thinking can enhance resilience in the face of challenges.
• The philosophy emphasizes gratitude, affirmations, and visualization techniques.
• Positive thinking fosters a proactive approach to problem-solving.
• It has been linked to improved mental health and reduced stress levels.
• The practice can lead to increased motivation and a more optimistic outlook on life.
• Positive thinkers often exhibit better coping mechanisms during difficult times.
• Health benefits include lower blood pressure and enhanced immune function.
• Embracing the power of positive thinking can contribute to a more fulfilling and satisfying life.

Also See – Essay on Health and Wellness – 10 Lines, 500 & 1000 Words

Short Essay on Power of Positive Thinking in 100 Words

Uncover the transformative impact of positive thinking in this essay, exploring its benefits on mental health, resilience, and overall well-being, offering practical insights for cultivating an optimistic mindset.

The power of positive thinking lies in its ability to shape our mindset and influence our actions. By cultivating an optimistic outlook, individuals can overcome challenges with resilience and attract positive outcomes. Adopting an optimistic mindset fosters resilience, aiding individuals in navigating challenges with a proactive approach.

Techniques like gratitude, affirmations, and visualization contribute to this philosophy, influencing emotions and behaviors. Positive thinking is linked to improved mental health, reduced stress, and increased motivation.

It cultivates a fulfilling life, enhancing coping mechanisms during adversity. Embracing the power of positive thinking becomes a pathway to personal growth, well-being, and a more optimistic and satisfying existence.

Power of Positive Thinking Essay in 500 Words

Delve into the profound impact of positive thinking in this 500-word essay, exploring its psychological benefits, practical strategies, and transformative influence on personal well-being and life outcomes.

The Power of Positive Thinking: Cultivating Optimism for a Fulfilling Life

Positive thinking is a philosophy that transcends clichés, underscoring the profound impact of one’s mindset on well-being and life outcomes. This essay explores the essence of positive thinking, unraveling its psychological benefits, practical strategies, and transformative influence on personal growth.

At its core, positive thinking is more than just a sunny disposition; it’s a mental attitude that seeks the silver lining in challenges and approaches life with hopeful optimism. This mindset fosters resilience, allowing individuals to navigate setbacks with a proactive and constructive outlook. The philosophy emphasizes gratitude, affirmations, and visualization techniques, serving as practical tools to shape a positive perspective.

Gratitude, a cornerstone of positive thinking, involves acknowledging and appreciating the positive aspects of life. It shifts focus from what is lacking to what is present, fostering contentment and a sense of abundance. Integrating gratitude into daily life becomes a powerful practice for cultivating positivity.

Affirmations are positive statements that individuals repeat to themselves, reinforcing optimistic beliefs. These affirmations serve as a mental rehearsal for success, helping to reshape ingrained negative thought patterns. Through consistent repetition, they contribute to building a positive self-image and bolstering confidence.

Visualization complements affirmations by creating mental images of desired outcomes. This technique taps into the mind’s power to manifest intentions. When individuals vividly imagine achieving their goals, they stimulate motivation and reinforce a positive belief in their capabilities.

The psychological benefits of positive thinking extend beyond mere optimism. Studies suggest a strong link between a positive mindset and improved mental health. Positive thinkers tend to experience lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. The optimistic outlook acts as a buffer against the challenges of life, fostering emotional well-being.

Moreover, positive thinking is associated with increased motivation. Individuals who approach tasks with a positive mindset are more likely to set ambitious goals, persist in the face of challenges, and achieve success. The optimism-driven motivation becomes a driving force for personal and professional accomplishments.

Cultivating a positive mindset also enhances coping mechanisms during adversity. Positive thinkers view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than insurmountable obstacles. This adaptive mindset not only eases the emotional toll of difficult situations but also facilitates a proactive response to overcome obstacles.

The transformative influence of positive thinking extends to physical health. Research suggests that individuals with a positive outlook tend to have lower blood pressure, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, and enhanced immune function. The mind-body connection underscores how mental attitudes can contribute to overall well-being.

In conclusion, the power of positive thinking lies in its ability to shape not only perspectives but also the trajectory of one’s life. By integrating gratitude, affirmations, and visualization into daily practices, individuals can cultivate a mindset that fosters resilience, emotional well-being, and a proactive approach to life. Embracing the philosophy of positive thinking becomes a transformative journey towards a more fulfilling and satisfying existence, unlocking the potential for personal growth and happiness.

1000 Words Power of Positive Thinking Essay in English

Embark on a comprehensive exploration of the transformative influence of positive thinking in this 1000-word essay, delving into psychological benefits, practical strategies, and its profound impact on personal well-being and life outcomes.

The Power of Positive Thinking: Unveiling Optimism’s Influence

Introduction

In a world often filled with challenges, the philosophy of positive thinking stands as a beacon of hope and resilience. This essay explores the transformative influence of positive thinking, unraveling its psychological underpinnings, practical strategies for implementation, and the profound impact it has on personal well-being and life outcomes.

Understanding Positive Thinking: Beyond Optimism

Positive thinking is not just about a cheerful demeanor; it is a mindset that seeks the silver lining in challenges and approaches life with hopeful optimism. This section delves into the essence of positive thinking, highlighting its core principles and dispelling common misconceptions.

Psychological Benefits of Positive Thinking

Positive thinking goes beyond surface-level optimism, profoundly impacting mental health. This segment explores the psychological benefits, including reduced stress, anxiety, and depression. It examines the role of positive thinking in fostering emotional well-being and acting as a buffer against the inevitable challenges of life.

Practical Strategies: Gratitude as the Foundation

Gratitude, a fundamental aspect of positive thinking, involves acknowledging and appreciating the positive aspects of life. This section explores how cultivating gratitude becomes a powerful practice, reshaping perspectives and fostering a sense of abundance even in the face of adversity.

Affirmations: Shaping Positive Beliefs

Affirmations are positive statements that individuals repeat to themselves, reinforcing optimistic beliefs. This segment delves into the science behind affirmations, their role in reshaping thought patterns, and how they contribute to building a positive self-image and bolstering confidence.

Visualization: Harnessing the Power of Imagination

Complementing affirmations, visualization involves creating mental images of desired outcomes. This section explores the psychological mechanisms behind visualization, its impact on motivation, and how it serves as a powerful tool for aligning the mind with positive intentions.

Motivation: Igniting Ambition through Positivity

The optimistic outlook fostered by positive thinking serves as a catalyst for increased motivation. This part examines how individuals with a positive mindset are more likely to set ambitious goals, persist in the face of challenges, and achieve success, creating a cycle of positivity and accomplishment.

Coping Mechanisms: Turning Challenges into Opportunities

The adaptive mindset cultivated by positive thinking enhances coping mechanisms during adversity. This section explores how positive thinkers view challenges as opportunities for growth, easing the emotional toll of difficult situations and fostering a proactive response to overcome obstacles.

Physical Well-being: The Mind-Body Connection

Positive thinking isn’t confined to mental health; it extends its influence to physical well-being. This segment investigates the mind-body connection, highlighting how a positive mindset contributes to lower blood pressure, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, and enhanced immune function.

Challenges and Criticisms: Navigating the Skepticism

While the power of positive thinking is widely acknowledged, it faces its share of skepticism and challenges. This section addresses common criticisms, exploring the limitations and potential pitfalls of an overly optimistic mindset.

Beyond Individuals: The Societal Impact of Positive Thinking

The influence of positive thinking isn’t limited to individual lives; it permeates societal aspects. This segment unravels how a collective positive mindset can contribute to a more harmonious and resilient society, fostering cooperation, empathy, and a shared sense of hope.

In conclusion, the power of positive thinking emerges as a transformative force with far-reaching implications. By understanding its psychological benefits, embracing practical strategies like gratitude, affirmations, and visualization, individuals can cultivate a mindset that not only enhances personal well-being but also shapes the trajectory of their lives. Positive thinking becomes a journey toward resilience, motivation, and a more fulfilling existence, unlocking the potential for growth and happiness.

The Power of Positive Thinking Essay delves into the profound influence of positive thinking, showcasing its transformative impact on mental and physical well-being. By embracing gratitude, affirmations, and visualization, individuals can cultivate a resilient mindset that transcends challenges.

The power of positive thinking extends beyond personal growth, influencing societal harmony. As optimism becomes a guiding force, the journey toward a more fulfilling and satisfying life unfolds, demonstrating that a positive mindset is not just a perspective but a powerful catalyst for change.

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10 of the Best Poems about the Mind and Brain

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Poets are often introspective people. ‘Look in thy heart, and write,’ Sir Philip Sidney’s muse commanded him, chiding him for a ‘Fool’ for not thinking of doing this in the first place – and ‘heart’ in Sidney’s time was pretty much synonymous with ‘mind’ in this sense.

Below are ten of the greatest poems written about the mind and mental conflict, introspection, meditation, and other brainy matters.

We haven’t included any Wordsworth, controversially, but if you want a ‘bonus ball’ or ‘Easter egg’ by way of suggestions, we’d recommend Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’ , which is not so much ‘about’ the mind’ as a fine example of meditation and personal recollection.

1. Sir Edward Dyer, ‘ My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is ’.

My mind to me a kingdom is; Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind: Though much I want that most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave …

We’ve followed convention in attributing this poem to Dyer, although some scholars believe that the Earl of Oxford wrote it. ‘My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is’ expresses the sentiment that one’s own mind contains a whole world, and, indeed more than the world, since the only limit on it is the limit of our own imagination, or what we are able to conceive of.

2. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 .

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove …

This sonnet earns its place on this list because of its reference to ‘the marriage of true minds’ in the opening line.

Sonnet 116 is often analysed as a poem about a ‘marriage of minds’ between any two people – but the specific context of the poem (in a sequence of Sonnets addressed to, or about, a young man: the first 126 poems in Shakespeare’s Sonnets focus on the Fair Youth) gives such an interpretation a twist: it is marriage of minds, a Platonic love, which can never be recognised in the way that heterosexual love can be recognised through the solemn and binding covenant of marriage.

3. Thomas Traherne, ‘ Walking ’.

To walk is by a thought to go; To move in spirit to and fro; To mind the good we see; To taste the sweet; Observing all the things we meet How choice and rich they be …

Long before the Romantics espoused such a view, the seventeenth-century poet Thomas Traherne – whose work only became widely available, or known about, in the early twentieth century – was praising the power of a good long walk to stimulate the mind.

4. John Keats, ‘ Ode to Psyche ’.

I wander’d in a forest thoughtlessly, And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise, Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side In deepest grass, beneath the whisp’ring roof Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran A brooklet, scarce espied …

In this early ode, Keats muses upon the power of imagination, embodied by the goddess Psyche; the poet decides he will be Psyche’s priest and built her a temple in an ‘untrodden region’ of his mind. Although this is probably the least-admired of Keats’s classic odes, it’s a fine paean to poetic creativity and the power of the imagination.

5. Emily Dickinson, ‘ The Brain is wider than the Sky ’.

The Brain — is wider than the Sky — For — put them side by side — The one the other will contain With ease — and You — beside —

The Brain is deeper than the sea — For — hold them — Blue to Blue — The one the other will absorb — As Sponges — Buckets — do …

‘The brain is wider than the sky’: the mind and all that it can take in – and imagine – is far greater than even the vast sky above us. This is the starting point of one of Emily Dickinson’s great meditations on the power of human imagination and comprehension.

Just as the brain is wider than the sky because of the breadth of human imagination, so it is deeper than the sea because it can contain and carry thoughts of all the oceans, much like a sponge soaking up the water in a bucket. (The comparison works especially well: it’s not the exclusive province of the poet, as anyone who’s described a friend with a head for facts as having a brain like a sponge will attest.)

6. A. E. Housman, ‘ The stars have not dealt me the worst they could do ’.

The stars have not dealt me the worst they could do: My pleasures are plenty, my troubles are two. But oh, my two troubles they reave me of rest, The brains in my head and the heart in my breast …

This poem, which remained unpublished until after Housman’s death in 1936, is about that continual theme in Housman’s poetry: the heartsick lovelorn man. Housman asks for ‘guts in the head’ to help him steel himself to life’s travails, to toughen up the ‘brains in my head’.

7. A. Mary F. Robinson, ‘ Neurasthenia ’.

I watch the happier people of the house Come in and out, and talk, and go their ways; I sit and gaze at them; I cannot rouse My heavy mind to share their busy days …

A. Mary F. Robinson’s poetry is little-read now, which is a shame, as this fine sonnet, about the condition known as neurasthenia, attests. Although its title announces its subject as neurasthenia, Robinson’s evocation of what it’s like to feel cut off from the world around you by psychological and neurological illness chimes with many sufferers’ descriptions of the blackest moods experienced during depression.

8. Wilfred Owen, ‘ Mental Cases ’.

Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight? Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows, Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish, Baring teeth that leer like skulls’ tongues wicked? Stroke on stroke of pain, — but what slow panic, Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?

This began life as a poem titled ‘The Deranged’ in late 1917, following Wilfred Owen’s famous meeting with fellow war poet Siegfried Sassoon in Craiglockhart Hospital. As its final title suggests, ‘Mental Cases’ explores the terrifying mental landscape of those men fighting in the trenches during the First World War. ‘Mental Cases’ is a powerful evocation and analysis of the psychological effects of the world’s first mass industrial war on the young men who experienced it.

As well as conveying the physical effects of warfare, Owen’s poetry also often captures the psychological damage wrought by the industrial-scale slaughter on the Western Front. Perhaps no poem better encapsulates this than ‘Mental Cases’, in which Owen describes those ‘men whose minds the Dead have ravished’. This poem also features one of Owen’s most arresting uses of surprising imagery: the description of how ‘night comes blood-black’.

9. Allen Ginsberg, ‘ Howl ’.

‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness’, this classic poem of the Beat Generation famously begins. Completed in 1955, ‘Howl’ is dedicated to Carl Solomon, whom Ginsberg had met in a mental institution, and the poem is, in one sense, an extended meditation on mental instability and despair. Are those who we consider ‘sane’ really so? And are those who are branded ‘mad’ really insane?

10. Sylvia Plath, ‘ The Moon and the Yew Tree ’.

Referring in its opening line to the moonlight as ‘ the light of the mind, cold and planetary ’, ‘The Moon and the Yew Tree’ immediately signals Plath’s intention to address her own inner turmoil – including her internal conflict about her mother and father (represented in the poem, respectively, by the moon and yew tree) and about organised religion (her longing, but inability, to believe in Christianity).

Sylvia Plath wrote ‘The Moon and the Yew Tree’ in 1961 while she was suffering from writer’s block. Plath’s husband, the poet Ted Hughes, suggested that she write a poem about the view outside their bedroom window.

2 thoughts on “10 of the Best Poems about the Mind and Brain”

I like Mearns’s Antigonish:

Yesterday upon the stair, | I met a man who wasn’t there. | He wasn’t there again today. | Oh, how I wish he’d go away! […]

Brilliant! Thanks for the reminder about this poem :)

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6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

• Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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What the data says about Americans’ views of climate change

A recent report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has underscored the need for international action to avoid increasingly severe climate impacts in the years to come. Steps outlined in the report, and by climate experts, include major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from sectors such as energy production and transportation.

But how do Americans feel about climate change, and what steps do they think the United States should take to address it? Here are eight charts that illustrate Americans’ views on the issue, based on recent Pew Research Center surveys.

Pew Research Center published this collection of survey findings as part of its ongoing work to understand attitudes about climate change and energy issues. The most recent survey was conducted May 30-June 4, 2023, among 10,329 U.S. adults. Earlier findings have been previously published, and methodological information, including the sample sizes and field dates, can be found by following the links in the text.

Everyone who took part in the June 2023 survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

A majority of Americans support prioritizing the development of renewable energy sources. Two-thirds of U.S. adults say the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, over expanding the production of oil, coal and natural gas, according to a survey conducted in June 2023.

In a previous Center survey conducted in 2022, nearly the same share of Americans (69%) favored the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050 , a goal outlined by President Joe Biden at the outset of his administration. Carbon neutrality means releasing no more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than is removed.

Nine-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the U.S. should prioritize developing alternative energy sources to address America’s energy supply. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 42% support developing alternative energy sources, while 58% say the country should prioritize expanding exploration and production of oil, coal and natural gas.

There are important differences by age within the GOP. Two-thirds of Republicans under age 30 (67%) prioritize the development of alternative energy sources. By contrast, 75% of Republicans ages 65 and older prioritize expanding the production of oil, coal and natural gas.

Americans are reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, but younger adults are more open to it. Overall, about three-in-ten adults (31%) say the U.S. should completely phase out oil, coal and natural gas. More than twice as many (68%) say the country should use a mix of energy sources, including fossil fuels and renewables.

While the public is generally reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, younger adults are more supportive of this idea. Among Americans ages 18 to 29, 48% say the U.S. should exclusively use renewables, compared with 52% who say the U.S. should use a mix of energy sources, including fossil fuels.

There are age differences within both political parties on this question. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 58% of those ages 18 to 29 favor phasing out fossil fuels entirely, compared with 42% of Democrats 65 and older. Republicans of all age groups back continuing to use a mix of energy sources, including oil, coal and natural gas. However, about three-in-ten (29%) Republicans ages 18 to 29 say the U.S. should phase out fossil fuels altogether, compared with fewer than one-in-ten Republicans 50 and older.

There are multiple potential routes to carbon neutrality in the U.S. All involve major reductions to carbon emissions in sectors such as energy and transportation by increasing the use of things like wind and solar power and electric vehicles. There are also ways to potentially remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it, such as capturing it directly from the air or using trees and algae to facilitate carbon sequestration.

The public supports the federal government incentivizing wind and solar energy production. In many sectors, including energy and transportation, federal incentives and regulations significantly influence investment and development.

Two-thirds of Americans think the federal government should encourage domestic production of wind and solar power. Just 7% say the government should discourage this, while 26% think it should neither encourage nor discourage it.

Views are more mixed on how the federal government should approach other activities that would reduce carbon emissions. On balance, more Americans think the government should encourage than discourage the use of electric vehicles and nuclear power production, though sizable shares say it should not exert an influence either way.

When it comes to oil and gas drilling, Americans’ views are also closely divided: 34% think the government should encourage drilling, while 30% say it should discourage this and 35% say it should do neither. Coal mining is the one activity included in the survey where public sentiment is negative on balance: More say the federal government should discourage than encourage coal mining (39% vs. 21%), while 39% say it should do neither.

Americans see room for multiple actors – including corporations and the federal government – to do more to address the impacts of climate change. Two-thirds of adults say large businesses and corporations are doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change. Far fewer say they are doing about the right amount (21%) or too much (10%).

Majorities also say their state elected officials (58%) and the energy industry (55%) are doing too little to address climate change, according to a March 2023 survey.

In a separate Center survey conducted in June 2023, a similar share of Americans (56%) said the federal government should do more to reduce the effects of global climate change.

When it comes to their own efforts, about half of Americans (51%) think they are doing about the right amount as an individual to help reduce the effects of climate change, according to the March 2023 survey. However, about four-in-ten (43%) say they are doing too little.

Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart over the last decade in their assessments of the threat posed by climate change. Overall, a majority of U.S. adults (54%) describe climate change as a major threat to the country’s well-being. This share is down slightly from 2020 but remains higher than in the early 2010s.

Nearly eight-in-ten Democrats (78%) describe climate change as a major threat to the country’s well-being, up from about six-in-ten (58%) a decade ago. By contrast, about one-in-four Republicans (23%) consider climate change a major threat, a share that’s almost identical to 10 years ago.

Concern over climate change has also risen internationally, as shown by separate Pew Research Center polling across 19 countries in 2022. People in many advanced economies express higher levels of concern than Americans . For instance, 81% of French adults and 73% of Germans describe climate change as a major threat.

Climate change is a lower priority for Americans than other national issues. While a majority of adults view climate change as a major threat, it is a lower priority than issues such as strengthening the economy and reducing health care costs.

Overall, 37% of Americans say addressing climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress in 2023, and another 34% say it’s an important but lower priority. This ranks climate change 17th out of 21 national issues included in a Center survey from January.

As with views of the threat that climate change poses, there’s a striking contrast between how Republicans and Democrats prioritize the issue. For Democrats, it falls in the top half of priority issues, and 59% call it a top priority. By comparison, among Republicans, it ranks second to last, and just 13% describe it as a top priority.

Our analyses have found that partisan gaps on climate change are often widest on questions – such as this one – that measure the salience or importance of the issue. The gaps are more modest when it comes to some specific climate policies. For example, majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike say they would favor a proposal to provide a tax credit to businesses for developing technologies for carbon capture and storage.

Perceptions of local climate impacts vary by Americans’ political affiliation and whether they believe that climate change is a serious problem. A majority of Americans (61%) say that global climate change is affecting their local community either a great deal or some. About four-in-ten (39%) see little or no impact in their own community.

The perception that the effects of climate change are happening close to home is one factor that could drive public concern and calls for action on the issue. But perceptions are tied more strongly to people’s beliefs about climate change – and their partisan affiliation – than to local conditions.

For example, Americans living in the Pacific region – California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska – are more likely than those in other areas of the country to say that climate change is having a great deal of impact locally. But only Democrats in the Pacific region are more likely to say they are seeing effects of climate change where they live. Republicans in this region are no more likely than Republicans in other areas to say that climate change is affecting their local community.

Our previous surveys show that nearly all Democrats believe climate change is at least a somewhat serious problem, and a large majority believe that humans play a role in it. Republicans are much less likely to hold these beliefs, but views within the GOP do vary significantly by age and ideology. Younger Republicans and those who describe their views as moderate or liberal are much more likely than older and more conservative Republicans to describe climate change as at least a somewhat serious problem and to say human activity plays a role.

Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to report experiencing extreme weather events in their area over the past year – such as intense storms and floods, long periods of hot weather or droughts – and to see these events as connected with climate change.

About three-quarters of Americans support U.S. participation in international efforts to reduce the effects of climate change. Americans offer broad support for international engagement on climate change: 74% say they support U.S. participation in international efforts to reduce the effects of climate change.

Still, there’s little consensus on how current U.S. efforts stack up against those of other large economies. About one-in-three Americans (36%) think the U.S. is doing more than other large economies to reduce the effects of global climate change, while 30% say the U.S. is doing less than other large economies and 32% think it is doing about as much as others. The U.S. is the second-largest carbon dioxide emitter , contributing about 13.5% of the global total.

When asked what they think the right balance of responsibility is, a majority of Americans (56%) say the U.S. should do about as much as other large economies to reduce the effects of climate change, while 27% think it should do more than others.

A previous Center survey found that while Americans favor international cooperation on climate change in general terms, their support has its limits. In January 2022 , 59% of Americans said that the U.S. does not have a responsibility to provide financial assistance to developing countries to help them build renewable energy sources.

In recent years, the UN conference on climate change has grappled with how wealthier nations should assist developing countries in dealing with climate change. The most recent convening in fall 2022, known as COP27, established a “loss and damage” fund for vulnerable countries impacted by climate change.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published April 22, 2022. Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

• Climate, Energy & Environment
• Environment & Climate
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How Republicans view climate change and energy issues

How americans view future harms from climate change in their community and around the u.s., americans continue to have doubts about climate scientists’ understanding of climate change, growing share of americans favor more nuclear power, why some americans do not see urgency on climate change, most popular.

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