"Eureka!": How insights happen and what to do to make them happen more often

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

No mental effort: just fantasy, rest and monotonous work.

The most suitable synonym for the word "insight" is insight. This is a bright idea or thought that appears as if from nowhere and becomes the solution to an important problem for a person. The very moment when you want to jump up and shout joyfully: “Aha! Here it is! Eureka!"

From the outside it may seem that there is something miraculous in all this: the insight appears as if out of the blue and at a completely unexpected moment. But there is no magic here, only the peculiarities of the activity of our psyche.

How insight works

This term is often used in psychology and psychoanalysis. It was first used by Wolfgang Köhler, one of the founders of Gestalt psychology. He experimented on monkeys and saw that if some tasks seem impossible to them, the primates give up all attempts to cope with them and wander aimlessly around the cage, and after a while they suddenly find an optimal solution.

Then it turned out that people, with some reservations, behave in a similar way - they achieve insights without a visible process of analysis: they suddenly find important answers in a dream, on a walk or while cleaning, over a cup of coffee with friends. This means that the concept of "insight" is applicable to a person.

Moreover, these ideas and solutions are often more successful and creative than those that we grind out of ourselves with long reasoning, brainstorms and analysis. That is, insight is a welcome guest for anyone who has to be creative, invent and solve complex problems.

In general, insight consists of three steps:

1. Acquaintance with the problem. The person is immersed in the task and conditions, trying to figure out how to use them. He collects information, accumulates knowledge: he reads, studies other people's experience, watches training videos, reflects.
2. Incubation period. This is the longest stage, because a person is temporarily distracted from the problem, engaged in completely different matters and lets the thought process float freely.
3. Actually, the insight itself. A person accumulates a critical mass of information, the brain processes it, and the subconscious mind issues a solution. It is quite possible that it has matured a long time ago and it cannot be called so new, but it has surfaced only now, thanks to complex and unconscious processes. Researchers using MRI have found that immediately before inspiration in a person, the right anterior temporal region of the brain is activated, which is responsible for establishing connections between different parts of the brain and different information.

What to do to make insights come more often

Here are some of the ways that psychologists and neuroscientists recommend.

1. Get distracted

It is believed that the brain knows the right decision from the very beginning, but we cannot “hear” it: the stormy stream of everyday thoughts, fears, blocks and experiences interferes. One way to “turn off” this noise and stay quiet is to do something that doesn't require active mental activity.

This can be any monotonous physical job: cleaning an apartment, renovating, weeding garden beds, painting walls, cooking, or handicrafts such as knitting and embroidery. Or maybe a calm walk in a familiar area, cycling, running. That is, anything that will make you disconnect from ordinary, everyday thoughts and plunge into a meditative state.

2. Let your thoughts go free

One way to come to insight is to fantasize and dream. Turn inward, allow your thoughts to take any pleasant direction, not scold yourself for wasting time. Absolutely not in vain!

Wandering in the clouds and free, scattered wandering through the nooks and crannies of our own mind make us more creative and help us find extraordinary solutions.

3. Cheer yourself up

Calmness, openness, moderate curiosity, high spirits - this is exactly the state that illumination needs to express itself. But what can turn him off is anxiety and a pessimistic attitude.

Therefore, it is worth trying to create a joyful, calm and safe environment for yourself. Nicely equip your workplace, go to your favorite cafe for a croissant and delicious coffee, buy something you dreamed of, meditate to release anxiety a little.

4. Don't make an effort

This is probably the key and at the same time the most difficult condition for insight. Insights always come at exactly the moment when we are not thinking about the problem at all. That is, the point is to collect as much information as possible, necessary to solve the problem, and then try to switch to other things - if, of course, time permits. Take on a new project, read, take a trip.

Yes, insight is not the only way to find a solution, and sometimes there is simply no way to wait for it. Therefore, you need to use other approaches: analyze the situation for a long time, see what competitors are doing, use brainstorming, think hard and not leave the table until a suitable idea appears. But it is the insights that bring the most vivid, pleasant, and often optimal answers.