Do you ponder? I find that I spend quite a bit of time pondering. I associate pondering, considering, ruminating, even though I am not a ruminant, with my grandfather. I spent enough time with the man to get a feel for pondering but I was just a kid. I didn't know enough to join him in pondering subjects, issues, questions of interest to him.
For years, I had a basic fear of spending hours in what appeared to be hypnotized indecision, like my grandfather seemed to do. Now, without being hypnotized, I like to consider, to mentally taste, picture, compare. More 50 years ago, I wrote my dissertation about decision theory. I knew then that a formal, semi-mathematical approach to making a decision I cared about was only one way. Whether it is a spreadsheet of elaborate measurements and formulas or Benjamin Franklin's way as described in his autobiography, I knew that decisions can often be made instantly and off the cuff and still turn out to be excellent.
I knew back then of the work of Kahneman and Tversky on basic human biases and shortcuts in deciding. Now, the four videos in the PBS or Amazon series called "Hacking Your Mind" brought back to my mind the basic idea of trying to decide how to feel or what to do, what to choose using deliberate and SLOW thinking. Besides that, I have spent enough time meditating that I am conscious of my mind and my moods and my doubts and my joys. Books like "Aware" by Dan Siegel and "On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hardwired Habits" by Wray Herbert have gotten me to enjoy considering my thoughts and impressions and then reconsidering them from other angles and approaches.
I think acting can be a key. In high school, I played Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny. After a few weeks, the director sat me down and talked about what the captain was facing and fearing. He improved my ability to be the captain on stage by having me ponder the man's personality and situation and fears. Repeatedly in "Hacking Your Mind", Kahneman urges us to slow down and ponder second thoughts.
