Open a cupboard door that is normally closed, that you pass by on a regular basis, and try to keep it open all week without closing it.
My husband took a hinge off of the cupboard door that holds our coffee mugs so that he could take it to the hardware store to find a suitable substitute. He asked the family not to close it so that the other hinge wouldn't get bent.
I have closed that darn cupboard door at least 10 times.
What subconscious habits do you have? How often do you close doors throughout the day? What hinges get bent as a result? What possibilities do you close off?
I am currently enjoying a book entitled, “Change” by Watzlawick, Weakland and Fisch. They are essentially a group of psychoanalysts who decided to investigate change and how it is achieved. It is a brilliant book for anyone who wants to look at the system behind change. They focused their research around the platform of two mathematical principles, Logical Levels and Group theory. One interesting discovery that they explore is applying a solution to the solution, or applying a counterintuitive response to a problem. So Karina, in your example of the cupboard door, using this principle they might tell you to set out to purposely close the door every time you walk into the room. By setting the intention as the opposite of your solution you might find that you can overcome the problem. Another example is when they recommend that insomniacs do the opposite of what they typically do, namely to will themselves to sleep. Instead they instruct them not to close their eyes until they are actually asleep, thereby changing the focus from willing a spontaneous action to something within their control.
ReplyDeleteThere is something elegant in their analysis which tries to examine why change often seems the result from weird, spontaneous or surprising sources…