Come to Your Senses

Listening to a CD based on the book 50 Psychology Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon has reminded me of some of the insightful thinking of men and women in the field.  Today I’m thinking of Fritz Perls, a Gestalt psychologist whose work I became familiar with in the 1970s. One concept in particular is based on his idea that humans think too much. Involved in abstractions and worries, we end up feeling all kinds of angst, anxiety, and depression. So what should we do? Perls’ advice is to “lose your mind and come to your senses.”

By “losing your mind” you’ll become more aware of sights, sounds, and all sorts of other sensations. You’ll begin to “feel” more, to really live and experience life, rather than being bogged down with all sorts of ponderous thoughts. As an example, Perls often asked patients to describe exactly what they saw, felt, heard, tasted. Someone might report, “I’m sitting in a chair, and I can hear an airplane overhead and a siren outside somewhere. The air is cool, and I can hear the steady hum of the air conditioner. I see the green couch and colorful pillows with their Indian design. I’m tasting some tangy orange juice and can feel the pulp on my tongue.” Perls would then ask the patient what sorts of things they were stressing over as they experienced these sensations. Almost always, they would report that they weren’t thinking of anything painful or hurtful.

What do you think about the idea of losing your mind and coming to your senses? Do you believe that a person can actually think too much and thus hurt himself emotionally and psychologically? Do you think people would be better off psychologically if they truly experienced life more in the here and now and tried to savor the moment instead of fretting about needs, concerns, and relationships?

Brainy Quote of the Day

On the first day of fall classes, the “brainy quote” of the day was ”Tough times never last, but tough people do.” (Robert Schuller)

As a way to kick off the semester, share what that means to you.  One of the things I thought about is that for so-called normal people who are depressed, they can almost always count on an especially nice day after the depression lifts. It’s hard to remember this when you’re in the depths of misery, but eventually the sun comes out and things look brighter, more optimistic.

After you share your experiences, comments, and insights, I’ll add some additional observations.