Conference turris::womannotes-v3

	I think I also have a tendency to mull rather than think.  I
	hadn't really noticed this until I'd been reading =wn= for quite
	some time and realized, "Wow.  These people have really *thought*
	about <some issue>.  They've come up with *opinions*, *reasons* and 
	*conclusions*!"  It dawned on me that I had a fair amount of
	opinions, but I didn't really know where they had come from.  I
	hadn't thought through the issues, making decisions about how I
	felt about them, and coming up reasons for my opinions.

	I've tried to rectify the situation somewhat.  For me, talking 
	through the issues with someone else helps me to clarify my
	feelings.  Sitting quietly is difficult to do.  I too reach for
	the closest book!

	Sue

    re.0
    
    I seem to have two intermediate states between what you call mulling
    and thinking.
    
    I sometimes find that a fairly repetitive manual task that I've
    mastered [such as bargello needlepoint or outline quilting] allows me
    to focus on a particular subject and follow all of the branchings and
    inter-relationships in a relaxed and pressure-less state.  The
    stitching is an outward sort-of-mantra.  [And even years later I can
    look at a quilt or a tapestry and have little recollection of having done
    the work, but felt the memories cascade as I look at different areas of
    the finished work.]
    
    Then, when I am feeling be-set or twitchy, I've found it beneficial to
    'park in a quiet place' and de-focus, letting the thoughts and ideas
    come as they will.
    
    But, yes, I do a lot of what you call thinking as well.  When I have
    the house to myself, I can lose hours and sometimes whole days to the
    process.  I can sit in the front room or at the kitchen table and
    become so engrossed that I'm only marginally aware of the quality of
    light changing around me.
    
    I don't experience the lure of tasks that you describe once I sit down
    and compose myself -- it only takes seconds.  But I do experience
    difficulty allowing myself the pleasure -- no rest for the wicked and
    all that.
    
    Sometimes, I write when I think.  When I was doing solo survival
    training I used to pack fountain pens [ink so that I could not erase my
    thoughts] and empty books for the days I'd be alone.  I'd see to my
    basic needs and then think and watch light in the trees or shadow on
    the water -- sometimes writing, sometimes not.
    
    I think _a_lot_.
    
      Annie

    Actually I think I think to much!
    
    When I read I will be struck by something I read and then just sit
    thinking about the thought for ten or fifteen minutes.  It sometimes
    takes me hours to read a short magazine article, because I take so
    many thought breaks.
    
    Like Annie, I can spend hours or even days deep in thought, only
    marginally aware of whats going on around me and forgetting to eat
    because it just doesn't occur to me.
    
    Mary

    I like to take think breaks.  Sometimes they are the result of the
    need to problem solve, sometimes to think over something I have
    just read or experienced.  Usually if it is something that has happened
    to me I don't think about it for a while because I want to space
    between (things happen and then something else happens and then
    something follows that so stopping to think can end the experience).
    
    I have problems in what you call mulling.  When I am involved in
    doing something I tend to "squirrel cage."  That's my term for
    recursive or dead-end thinking when you go round and round like
    a trapped critter.  Squirrel caging tends to happen when I'm trying
    to work stuff out and am also doing a real world task.  I wind up
    thinking without solution and acting without quality when I squirrel
    cage.  Squirrel caging also happens when I am feeling insomniac
    and too tired to think rationally. 
    
    Real thinking is hard work.  It requires attention and a good bull
    hockey detector to avoid pitfalls.  It also requires, for me, a
    dialog with myself to search out patterns, find flaws, find examples.
    I think in both words and flashes, sometimes visually.  
    
        Margaret

    I call all of what's been described "thinking," and visualize
    different points on a continuum.

    On one end:  I concentrate, consciously focusing on something or
    other.  I don't always need a quiet place though; sometimes the
    effort it takes to block out distractions helps me to focus (or
    is it the act of focusing that blocks out the distractions).
    Anyway, I find it's hard work, but enormously satisfying, usually
    productive and, as others have indicated, totally absorbing.

    On the other end:  what I call mulling is a process that occurs
    subconsciously (so I can't really describe it--what a cop out).
    Admittedly I am sometimes left wondering how I arrived at a
    certain conclusion, but it always seems to work (and, excepting
    very personal, gut-instinct issues, a conscious working backward
    usually produces a process).

    Somewhere in between:  what Meigs calls mulling I call my normal,
    "default" state.  Thoughts and ideas are always bopping around in
    there; I need to make a conscious effort to either empty my mind
    or focus it.

    I operate in the "default" state most of the time--I freely admit
    to being lazy (although I suppose I could just be letting my
    subconscious do most of the work).  I believe good results/
    solutions/extraordinary thoughts are a consequence of both
    conscious and subconscious thought, but I've come to that
    conclusion using mostly my subconscious, so I can't say why 8*).

    nla