Brain Food for Pioneering Spirits: Which factors actually shape how we think, and how? Dr. Yasemin Yazan, Marc, Sabine and Jürgen range widely — from neurological illness and social bonds to unconscious bias, common thinking errors, mood-switching techniques, and the role language and memory play in steering our thoughts…
Note: This session was recorded live in German as part of the Deep Talk Club, so the video above is German-language audio only. What follows is an English translation of the conversation, lightly edited for readability — the back-and-forth between the moderator and participants is preserved, but the original timestamps and speaker names have been left out.
A very good morning. Today we continue with the next topic: thinking and influencing factors. So which factors actually influence our thinking, and in what way? That’s the question we want to engage with today, and we already had some first hints at the first approach that we can maybe pick up again and deepen further today. So let’s take a look at this together, and you’re all warmly invited again today to join in and bring various impulses. And then we’ll work our way along together and see what insights we can generate from the room today. We’re recording, which means anyone who joins is automatically agreeing that the whole thing will also be published, and we have three small room rules. A profile picture where you’re recognizable, first and last name, and at least one sentence in the bio, and anyone who doesn’t want that for whatever reason, or can’t speak right now, or similar, also has the option to gladly use the chat. So: thinking and influencing factors. Which factors influence our thinking, and in what way? Let’s take a look at this together. I’ll gladly mute myself now and see who’d like to open the round with me this morning. A very good morning, dear Marc, what do you say to that?
Good morning to the group. I’m happy first of all that we’ll be talking together the whole day today, dear Yasemin, because this topic is so complex, I don’t think we’ll get through it in an hour. But I’m happy to be able to start the day with you. You mean the whole day? Yes, that’s just so wonderful. I’ll start with what came to mind first for me, what’s been occupying me for months now, what influences our thinking. This isn’t such a nice thing, but I still know it can happen to me too. These are neurological disorders and diseases. And by that I mean especially dementia, because I’m experiencing that right now with my father. And that’s partly frightening. As a child, everything changes. As a child you look up to your parents and get taught everything, and maybe admire them too, and are dependent on them. And when you then notice how that changes with age, and how people change too, really neurological disorders — I understand that people change so completely that you don’t recognize them anymore — that does occupy you. Then also the question, what can I do so this doesn’t happen to me? You don’t really know, but there are probably various influences, and I said to myself, I want to train that, stay mentally fit, keep engaging with something constantly, and so on. And what also occupies thinking, of course, are social influences, and that’s also something I’ve observed, which is important to me. I’m actually more of a loner. I deal with my customers all day, don’t have a big circle of acquaintances, except that I call people on birthdays or they call me. But I do notice, man is not an island, and I’ve gotten into the habit for about two years now of really building and maintaining contacts. Not many, not 50 or 100 — if I ever get married, it’ll be a very modest wedding, a very limited number of people. But still I find it important to be in exchange, not just with a partner, because you simply get other influences, and thereby get new impulses too, and I’ve noticed for myself that I can get along very, very well alone with myself, I’m very content with myself, I don’t get bored either, but I still need input from outside, because it doesn’t work entirely without fellow humans after all.
Yes, thank you so, so much. Well, maybe there’ll be a few more, since the Deep Talkers will come to the wedding too. Wonderful, thank you for the introduction. And specifically, you addressed neurological disorders first. Yes, so basically to a degree, whether that’s dementia or other illnesses too, that’s definitely an important aspect, especially observed quite frequently in old age, especially because, for example, life expectancy keeps rising, on average, in recent years, tending upward. Because medicine keeps advancing, we also have more and more illnesses that maybe were already there before, but because lifespan was shorter, maybe certain things never even became symptomatically visible, and now they’re much more clearly visible accordingly. So especially things like Alzheimer’s and similar are actually observed much more often, even though maybe earlier it was possibly already present in the same form. Then the social influences, I find that totally exciting too. You said it so nicely, man is not an island. That means here too the exchange that takes place, and depending on with whom that happens, that this has an influence on thinking. Maybe we can look more closely at that, how exactly that has an influence. We also had, for example, these cultural aspects, we had that at the first approach too. But of course it’s not just cultural aspects, but also this “who do I surround myself with, where do I grow up, which society,” and then actually maybe also social classes, which might also make a difference here. And then also, for example, a closer circle of friends that maybe has a particular mindset or similar. So maybe we can look more closely at that too. Marc.
Yes, I’ll repeat some things now that people who are here daily have heard, because they really convinced me. I told you before that at some point I saw a discussion, also in discussions, with Lanz. That was also about clan formation, how all that arose, and it’s about the topic of integration. And if you don’t understand that, if you don’t just parrot some pub talk, but if you really engage with the cultures — we humans — and imagine we grow up in a certain area, as a child, really really small as a child, mom and dad tell us, Marc, the only one, you have to remember this, boy, the only one you can trust is dad, mom, and our family, and otherwise nobody from outside, definitely not police officers, and politicians are all corrupt. And if I have this experience, that family members disappear, that they get tortured, that they end up in prisons, that corruption reigns, and I then change countries, and someone stands in front of me, a happy person who hasn’t had this experience, and hands me a flyer and says, with us everything is different, you can trust me, I’m one of the good ones — that simply doesn’t work, and in this case that has nothing to do with prejudice, you’ll be able to explain that better than me, dear Yasemin, but that’s what our brain has learned, and when we talk about integration, you also have to say sometimes that certain processes in certain forms aren’t possible, not because they’re worse, but because certain basic experiences are different for these people. And this group I described, that was about a topic about the Lebanese, how all that developed, so how the first Lebanese came to Germany. They were already excluded on their side, weren’t liked by the Turks either, they were outcasts there. Then they came to Germany, weren’t allowed to work, were outcasts here too. And what do you do when you have a family and children? You look for ways to survive within a group, in this case the family. And if I can’t work legally, that’s not a justification, so there’s no outcry, it’s not a justification for doing illegal things. But every one of us, I think, has it in our basic nature that every person who comes into the world loves their children and loves their family, and simply wants us to have food, a roof over our heads, these basic needs. And if I’m not given those, if I can’t attain them, then I think of something else, because man is inventive. This shouldn’t become a topic about foreigners now, but it occurred to me on the topic of thinking, so I also said, you can’t spontaneously say, the group is like that, but this reflecting — we had that room before, before thinking — that actually makes sense now, that this reflection on certain things, questioning why is it like that, why does a group behave like this — of course some prejudices are correct, because we see what we want to see, but to question, why is that so, there has to be a reason for it. Per se nobody is good or bad. And that’s where reflection comes in. And then you get completely new answers, which you also don’t find good, and which also don’t offer a solution, because some problems are too complex to solve with one sentence. But the understanding is at least there. And through this understanding, my own values change too, and my attitude toward many things.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. Then let’s first bring Sabine in too, and then we can gladly make cross-connections again too. A very good morning, dear Sabine.
A very good morning, greetings from Berlin. Yes, and the first thing that comes to mind for me is the Deep Talk Club, it makes me think every day, that’s a big influencing factor. But two other things occurred to me. I’d simply split the whole thing into a cognitive side and an emotional side. And if — we also had this yesterday evening at your AI thing — if the emotional side doesn’t get moving, then often the thinking process doesn’t get moving at all either. So I have to somehow notice, something’s happening. I was just at a businesswomen event from the Chamber of Commerce, there were so many women with so much energy. So I go home with a lot of spirit, because I say, in our chamber we still need to change something, where are the women there. And that wasn’t framed as a women’s issue, like we need to make sure we hit the quota, but simply under aspects like the skilled-worker shortage, something needs to happen there. And simply such events, other people, they often bring you to think. They bring you to think more than if I read a book where all of that might be written too. I think the environment brings you to think a lot. And then of course the emotional side.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And there too we can actually look more closely again. Those were a lot of aspects now that you both brought in, in addition. And especially in relation to what Marc told us, I can also share a short story, quite fresh, so to speak, just experienced again too. Recently, when I was at the hairdresser, I had the opportunity to exchange with one of the partners, so to speak, because since the hairdresser who normally takes care of me was on vacation, one of the partners took over this time. And I’ve encountered this partner — I don’t know how many years he’s already been there — but because he never did my hair, we never talked. And in this encounter, in this exchange, I learned that he’s Syrian. And then during the conversation I reflected a bit in parallel and realized, recognized for myself, that even though Syrians have now been here in Germany for so many years, this was actually the first encounter where I had the opportunity to talk with a Syrian. And I found that totally exciting at that point, also very unusual, because that simply never came about, even though Frankfurt is a very multicultural city and so on. But it just never came about, and I found it totally exciting, asked a lot of questions, and it was a nice exchange. But that also shows, especially in relation to what Marc told us, if I don’t have these encounters, then it can well be that through hearsay and so on, certain thoughts arise or prejudices develop. And especially in this context the thought occurred to me, we had also picked up media in various contexts and rooms, that media can also ultimately influence thinking, can have a big influence at that point, if I especially let myself be guided by what I hear, so to speak, without critically checking it again or similar, that that’s also a big factor. And then you also differentiated so nicely, Sabine, the cognitive and then also the emotional side, and that these also condition each other mutually to a degree. So on one hand we have the senses as stimuli that come from outside, that trigger something and then can also trigger emotions. We often deal with fear or joy. And we also had something like gut feelings, we’d also talked about that in other rooms, that this has a lot to do with prior experiences too. And where I lack experiences, where I possibly didn’t have encounters, where I couldn’t gather experiences — and always with this aspect of experiences, that means experiences also play a very important role in this context — there it can then be that my brain plays a kind of trick on me. Basically well-meant, because it’s simply evolutionarily designed to ensure that existence is secured, and accordingly maybe reacts with fear in certain situations, to warn me, so to speak. But this warning isn’t necessarily always justified either, and if I simply act unreflectively, without thinking about it and critically checking it, and so on, and just go into actions, behave in a certain way, then it can be that I don’t even notice that maybe it has no justification at all, the way I handle certain things, the way I behave in this regard, and so on. And that’s why I find that very, very exciting too, and it also shows the complexity here. And so, Marc, I have to agree with you, let’s see how long we’ll need today with the room. Would you like to make cross-connections again?
I’d like to say, like Yasemin, to sum it all up, since we only have very little time in the room. I can only keep repeating every time that this is one of the most important topics for me, and that I really wish that in education this wouldn’t be second to this knowledge transfer in school — that’s very important, but from a certain age, at least briefly, keeping just one hour exactly about this thinking. And I’m deeply convinced, and can also prove it in my own life, that thoughts determine our quality of life. That’s simply so. Our thoughts determine our quality of life. And if that’s true, if that were correct, if that’s 100 percent true that our thoughts determine our quality of life, but we don’t know whether the thoughts determine us or whether we can determine our thoughts, and then also don’t learn the technique for that, then we lose so much, lose things, this key, this treasure chest we carry within us, so that we have a good quality of life that isn’t necessarily dictated from outside. Of course the social environment you come from helps, the family you come from helps, but we can do a lot ourselves too, by seeking out or joining other groups and so on and so on. And it’s not that at some point you sit in school and everything’s already decided because you were born into the wrong family. But to know all that, I have to know exactly how my thoughts function, and then not become a slave to my thoughts, but become the boss of my thoughts. But that only works if I have the luck to have met people like you, dear Yasemin, who make me aware of this, who put this technique into my hands. And you don’t have to be a neuroscientist for that, the way you said and explained it, but actually an hour is enough to become aware of that, and then to keep engaging with it privately. And I can only say, if I had known this earlier, if I had had this insight already at 20, then — I’m totally content, I’m a totally happy person, but many things I really only found out after 40,
where I then think, man, why didn’t you find that out earlier? And I would rather have left out other areas in school if someone had really explained to me how our head and our thoughts function. And I just had to smile at what Sabine said, very topical — I have absolutely no clue about football, I only read in the news yesterday that someone said about the now-dismissed national coach, well, he tried to motivate the German national team with the story of greylag geese, and compared that with other celebrated football coaches, with Guardiola, whose name I know but I wouldn’t recognize him in a photo, and they said, there are simply other kinds of motivation where the players’ thoughts were determined, and if you’d listened to these people, afterward, right after the interview, you’d only want to do 10 or 15 push-ups, while with our national coach you fell asleep. That’s not my opinion, I’m quoting from the newspaper.
Yes, thank you so, so much. And your remarks just now also brought me to the thought that beliefs play a role too. So maybe we can direct our gaze at that too. Sabine, did you want to make another cross-connection, or should we bring in Jürgen?
I have a small cross-connection to your Syrian story. It’s the same for me. Now that I’ve visited Sri Lanka, of course — that’s inner, that’s clear — many more questions come up for me that I ask my customers. And in the past I often didn’t do that, because I thought, oh, in such a big country, you don’t know where they come from, or, or. But simply asking questions, that’s certainly also an impulse to think, because that brings back the other person’s experiences, which bring you to think further.
Yes, absolutely. Thank you so, so much. Jürgen, a very good morning. What are your thoughts on the topic?
Good morning, dear ones, dear Yasemin, Sabine, Marc, and everyone in the room. I’ll gladly pick up two things for the original connecting point I had to say something about this topic, namely the statement from Marc, if I can recap it correctly, who said, being your own boss, I’ll gladly pick that up, and the other was your last hint, which was again for me a hint at the problem of unconscious bias and our heuristics, and specifically I proceeded by saying influencing factors, I differentiate that, I go from influence and question influence — if these exist, doubtlessly they do exist — which ones can I influence myself, and which am I exposed to, in quotation marks, exposed to. That was my consideration, or my initial, for this heading, dear Yasemin. And I say, in the end I land on two essential topics that keep popping up again and again. One, that from within me and from my development, my personality, is also an influencing factor on our thinking. The essential influencing factor where I myself can become my own boss is education. So for me education is one of the essential influencing factors that I can steer, that I can make decisive within the scope of my self-determination as a definition of education, for the way I think. And the second point, which in some sub-areas — I don’t want to reopen this topic, we’ve already discussed it often — between subconscious, unconscious, and conscious, which in sum influences us very significantly. These are precisely the unconscious biases, these distortions, these beliefs, that’s also such a topic or a term that immanently affects our thinking, and especially the emotional, the reflexive thinking, so the very fast thinking. And now I’ll draw the last arc, saying, I think it helps a lot if I know that my thinking is influenced by unconscious bias, and that I engage with that within the framework of self-reflection, whenever I notice that this behavior becomes, for me internally, worth discussing and reflecting on, and I secure the result of that for myself. And that means for me that reflection in turn contributes a building block to my education. This bridge was, for me, always in search of connections to our topics, the trigger with regard to influencing factors. Thanks for listening.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so, so much, and with regard to beliefs, or also unconscious bias, the distortions we have, I found that very exciting too. In the last three years there were also many discussions around the Covid pandemic, and I made a really exciting observation there that fits exactly with that too. I found that totally exciting. I can’t remember anymore exactly who made it, but there was definitely a video that was shared in both, so in both camps, so to speak, proponents of vaccinations and opponents of vaccinations and so on. And interestingly, one and the same video, so to speak, same content, zero modification or anything. And both sides watched the video and both said, that’s right, and that’s why the others will never understand it. And basically it was one and the same content. And it was so nice, basically a textbook example of how you can really observe from outside what happens there. That means, against the background of beliefs, the observation, the perspective on the topic, even though both consume the same thing, see the same thing, how different the interpretation of that then is. And yes, you can really take that as a textbook example. We have that every day and everywhere, only it was very nicely observable from outside, in quotation marks, because it was the same content and completely different, so to speak, in the interpretation, against the background of how one is disposed toward a certain topic. And I find that — this came back to me as a memory while you addressed those aspects. Marc, Sabine, are there further connecting points where you’d like to make cross-connections again?
Gladly. I have a question for Yasemin in advance, because I don’t want to preempt anything. I don’t have an overview of the topics still coming up on the subject of thinking. Do you have a special room on the topic of thinking errors? Because I’m not sure whether influencing factors — thinking errors are also influencing factors — whether you’re doing a separate room on that, or whether I can say something about it.
You’re welcome to say something about it. We don’t have thinking errors, we have thinking blocks. I think that’s something different, so we can gladly pick that up too.
Yes, so, I have this in front of me, I wrote it down once, and I’ll just say three points that affect all of us, and I had to smile about myself when I heard them, because these also keep coming up every day despite my knowledge. And specifically, thinking errors that happen to all of us: catastrophizing. You can remember that one. So catastrophizing, for example, I’m sitting in the evening with my partner, the daughter doesn’t come home, and immediately you think, oh, something happened, I hear nothing. Or I haven’t heard from my partner or from my father, something happened. Catastrophizing. Happens in very, very many situations. The second thinking error, that’s predictions. There too I had to smile. That happened to me too, when my self-esteem wasn’t quite so high yet. I go to a party, so, keyword predictions, I go to a party and see a totally attractive woman and think, I’d like to talk to her, I’d just like to have a conversation with her, but she probably has a certain partner. Maybe I’m not attractive enough, so I’d better let it be, I don’t talk to her. I don’t even know that. That’s a prediction. If I do that long enough, then I continue that in business too. That took a really long time for me too. I’m in the acquisition business, and you often think, you can’t call that customer, they’re much too big, they’re so overpowering, why would they work with a small company like me — and I really have gotten world-class companies as customers by now, the circumstances were different there, but those are also predictions, and if you’re not aware of that, you don’t approach some things professionally at all, in the sense of, I’m too small, I’m not important enough, and so on. And the third thinking error that also keeps happening to me, because I’m a very emotional Cancer, is mind reading, that based on the experience we’ve had, we impute thoughts to the other person that they maybe don’t even have, in that they say something and we then think, they want something from us, they want to bully us now, or they don’t like us. We impute something to the other person without questioning, why did they say that, maybe they just had a bad day, and so on. And I have this example that’s especially burned into my mind, when you say to your partner, for example, were you at the hairdresser? Then the self-confident partner says, oh wow, Marc, that’s great that you like it. And the not-self-confident partner says, just tell me right away if you don’t like it. And both are right, because we see what we want to see.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so, so much. Further keywords in this context are things like perception. Then we have communication, we’d already addressed communication several times too. Then further impulses that occurred to me, also connecting to the first approach we did, mental fitness, so to speak. Sabine had also brought in something like movement, nutrition, etc. Maybe to pick that up again as an impulse, maybe we’d like to build on that too. And you, Marc, had just addressed aspects like illness too. And we also have precursors to this becoming ill, such as, for example — and these are factors that often accompany us in everyday life — things like stress, or how do I deal with stress, resilience and so on, which we could also pick up as impulses here, and what influence they also have with regard to our thinking at this point. Would someone like to add to that, or have you developed further thoughts elsewhere, Marc, Sabine, Jürgen? Gladly, Marc.
Yes, thank you for addressing that again, dear Yasemin. I often discuss that with my partner, because she works in the school system, and I believe over 40 percent of teachers — I know, I don’t know the exact number, but over 40 percent of teachers have a burnout, and we have really, really big dropout rates, and not just among teachers, but in all professional branches, when people get sick, and this topic, especially this movement, this resilience topic, this making-aware of our thoughts, that the boss doesn’t necessarily have something against me, but that maybe I’m just not that important right now — this knowledge could help so elementally that maybe we don’t always necessarily need a doctor because we have a broken leg, but simply a broken soul or a spirit that needs to be set right again. And that’s why I find this topic so extremely important, because it’s sometimes — you’re completely right — really, really simple possibilities for how we can help ourselves again. One, through the fact that thoughts determine our quality of life. And I too, as an emotional Cancer, am subject to thoughts and moods, and have to register that and really be mindful. What makes me sad right now? What makes me happy? If I’m sad, what possibilities do I have to get back into a happy state? And of course the whole thing isn’t just a chakra-chakra thing, that means there are many sad things, tears run down my face sometimes too, and then I also can’t say, oh, just laugh now, but this recognizing, this being mindful, that at least helps so that the processes and the state we’re in, where we’re really deeply sad, doesn’t last so long that it eventually maybe turns into a depression or an illness. And of course we’re allowed to be sad, that happens to me too, and that’s why I’m always careful when you’re in such rooms and someone says, yes, it’s all just a head thing and we can be happy. No, I’m not always happy, I have days where I feel totally bad, or where it’s just a crappy day, but then I notice that, and I’ve managed, after a certain time, to internally press the stop button. That doesn’t happen in five minutes, maybe not even after an hour, but I notice that, then pressing the stop button, to get into a different state again. And that helps again, and movement is part of that too. And when I notice that it’s one of those days where you think, today really everything is just, you know, dot dot dot, then I really take the time and go for a half-hour walk outside, phone off, and try to just smell, or feel the sun, or, as far as I’m concerned, notice the rain. And afterward it doesn’t go much, much better yet, so it’s not blown away, but I notice that this movement, as you described it, dear Yasemin, does contribute to me getting into a different state.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so, so much. And the aspect of mindfulness, that brought me to further thoughts too. Maybe we can look at what role attitude plays too, for example. So something like mindfulness, trust, openness, curiosity. That was also, for example, yesterday at the talk, something where I invited the listeners, for those who were there, actually especially with the journey we took through AI, to try to push aside, as far as possible, things like evaluations, things you’ve heard about AI — of course we can’t fully manage that, but to try to push it aside and look at it first with a corresponding attitude, with curiosity and so on, to only then, in a second step, so to speak, make that evaluation. And this attitude with which we look at topics and connections, that ultimately also has something to do with how that has an influence on our thinking, in quotation marks. Would anyone like to add to that? Gladly Jürgen and then Marc.
Thank you very much, dear Yasemin. That triggered me now. Unfortunately I was only partly able to follow your remarks on thoughts yesterday. But I’ll position this for myself, for my opinion currently, that the decisive point, and thus the essential influencing factor on our thinking in general, is perception. So starting from the fact, or excluding it, do I even notice that I have to think — unfortunately, in my view, in many common publications it’s always reduced again and again to the sensory perception of our five senses. But I think that besides these five senses, which basically pick up something that comes from outside, something in our interior also triggers this thinking. And with this triggering, in my view, a kind of preference of thinking is simultaneously connected. And our emotions belong very essentially to that for me. On one hand, I think everyone can, I think, follow this — I think differently when I’m in an emotionally positive or negative situation. So the trigger is set at perception, am I angry starting the day, or am I happy just because the sun rose today. I think completely differently. Mind you, I say this again explicitly, I’m referring this to myself, it’s not a general validity. And the second thing, which plays a very essential role for me, and specifically a topic surely for you, dear Yasemin, is that with the initial of perception, a reference, a connection also takes place to experiences managed in our brain and through our brain. Basically a representation for the current situation is sought in the past, in order to be offered a solution relatively quickly and energy-savingly from the brain’s side. And these two positions are, for me, in the moment of perception, besides the sensory, so experience and the emotional state, a very essential trigger point for me, how I then enter into this thinking. And I say again quite consciously, this is based on reflection on my part, my experience, may be different for everyone else, but for me it’s exactly this thing that Marc also always addresses, which is unconscious bias — we see that, and we only see what we want to see. The awareness, the knowledge that under certain circumstances I’m directed, oriented, in a very specific direction of thinking through perception, is for me a topic of
education. Thanks for listening.
Yes wonderful, thank you so, so much, Marc. Yes, and I’ll repeat myself again, you said perception, dear Yasemin, and I’ll build on that, perception plus education and experience, and now I come back — I don’t know, a hundred thousandth time — to the fantastic outdoor breakfast with Dr. Mario Herger, and I’ll bring an example now. I’ll come back to your ChatGPT example, dear Yasemin, that the new thing scares us. And immediately Dr. Mario Herger comes to mind, and specifically when there were telegraphs, people said, oh, telegraphs, that’s not good, because diseases could travel through the wire. Today we laugh about that, that’s really a joke. Then the second one, with the mirror, really great. Mirror, very dangerous thing, because if women have a mirror, then they just look at themselves all day, then they don’t work, that just doesn’t work. I have to smile about that too. Everyone who has a mirror knows that their partner doesn’t stand in the bathroom from morning to evening looking at herself in the mirror. Us men neither. And the third example is dolls. There they said, oh, dolls, that’s devil’s stuff, because if women play too much with dolls, sorry, if the little girls only play with dolls, then they’re only occupied with the doll, and per se probably can’t become good mothers anymore. And these examples come to mind, and I hope you remember them if you ever get into a discussion. Today we have a mirror, we have dolls, and we have telegraph poles, and we’re all still completely normal people. We’ve only improved our lives, not worsened it. And please keep that example in mind when we talk about ChatGPT and other things.
Yes, absolutely. And Sabine, you also wanted to add something, gladly.
Yes, that’s very exciting. I wanted to summarize a bit some topics we’ve already touched on a few times in today’s conversation. For me, the environment is actually very important, my own openness, but I also think the topic of repetition comes up very often. If I go to some event today, then I think, yes, great, interesting, I’ll take that with me too, maybe for another day. But if a new impulse doesn’t come again, then that goes down relatively quickly. And you don’t implement what you actually found positive there. And so it’s actually important that you always have people around you who poke you a bit, and give you a push like that and say, come on, get moving, come on, get into action. And that then also sets in motion again the process that Mr. Jürgen mentioned earlier, the whole time somehow reflecting and getting into thinking, and not stopping at thinking, but then also getting into action. But that’s another room. Great topic, thank you.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so, so much. And repetition, that on one hand — maybe, we have different kinds of repetitions. On one hand we have that, for example, can be in the context of experiences I make that repeat, which then maybe can also solidify beliefs or even let them arise in the first place. And then we have repetitions in the context, as you just said, also for example to further expand and solidify the neural network, so to speak. We also had that yesterday, for example, this nice textbook example with Marc, who kept saying, maybe I still have a knot in my head, not in the button. That means, when we, and then we also come to the topic of learning, so to speak, when we basically think about certain things, then we have this aspect that new thoughts also arise. And then we haven’t implemented them in any form yet. So also a good example, like yesterday, a talk for example. That’s really important, I got a lot of impulses there. And these impulses, they first do something with me. Maybe I look at it skeptically. Maybe I have the impression, oh, that’s really exciting, it’s time for me to really engage with this topic now. But this once-hearing, in quotation marks, like at a talk, that’s also exactly why these keynote speeches or such, which are sometimes very euphorizing, partly because it’s embedded in stories and so on, that this can be very motivating for the moment, but isn’t sustainable if there’s no repetition, or if nothing happens building on it, so something also gets set in motion. That means, just the one-time thing, picking it up and thinking about it, engaging with it, that’s not yet sufficient to design learning here not just for the moment but sustainably. Because learning in this context also has something to do with these neural networks, these strands, so to speak, growing — you can really imagine that physically, that they grow. And if there’s then, for example, no repetition, then they regress again too. That means, I can, through repetition, quite deliberately even, here too I can go into self-steering, so to speak, to solidify that. Jürgen, you wanted to add something too.
Yes, dear Yasemin, thank you. I wanted to say one more thing, or emphasize again, that one term you mentioned in your second-to-last contribution shouldn’t be forgotten. That was the topic of attitude. And I’ve actually managed, in this short phase, to reduce the complexity in my description. A meta-level about this topic of influencing factors on thinking would, for me, contain two essential influencing components, mind you on the meta level. Namely, on one hand a kind of intrinsic sphere, that’s the sensory perceptions — I have to notice that some stimulus is coming toward me, so purely sensory perception. And the other point of this meta level, there I’d take your term, or your reference to the term attitude. Because for me, attitude is something that’s recruited from my experiences, from my — also a nice term — convictions or values, which I carry within me based on culture and based on my socialization, my upbringing, and my social environment. So I find this term “experience” great, because for me it subsumes all these potential influencing factors that are influenceable, or unconsciously influenced, by the sensory, by the sphere laid out within us. That’s for me an absolute, also a topic, an aha-effect out of thinking. Thank you for that.
Yes wonderful, thank you so, so much. And there I’d also like to pick that up again, I’d gladly connect this term, mood, to that, building on what you said earlier, Jürgen, with the how-I’m-currently-doing also has an influence on that. And there I wanted to bring in something else too, in relation, I find that fits with influencing factors and also self-steering and self-efficacy in this context. Specifically in how to handle it. Tony Robbins has such a triad, he points out that you can actually switch this mood, for example — that’s also again about consciousness — that you can actually switch this mood within seconds. Namely through the triad: which language do I use, the physiology — so for example something like, how am I standing, bringing in movements, breathing can fall in here too — and the focus, that means, with what gaze am I currently looking at it, or maybe directing the focus to something else. And very exciting too, if you look at that more closely, also from the methods and so on that are used from various approaches, especially NLP too, that exactly this is what these methods are aimed at, that for example various exercises are done where you change the language, or where you imagine, within the application of the method, that you change the perspective, making the person smaller, bigger, having them speak Mickey-Mouse-style or similar, and suddenly the perception at the point of the problem changes too, how you think in this context, for example. And with the focus, also a technique from NLP, where simply an irritation is created, that suddenly in a conversation, for example, you say, what did you actually eat yesterday evening? So a completely different focus in terms of the thought game, and that of course also does something to the people in that moment. So that’s applied quite deliberately, on one hand also in the method techniques, so to speak. But I also have the possibility here myself, and this hint that this mood, this “where am I currently, how do I feel,” that I can, within seconds, if I know how it works and which influencing factors are relevant here, that by shifting the levers, so shifting the influencing factors, at that point quite, quite deliberately act on it, I’m actually able, within seconds, to actually change my mood, and through the change of mood, then immediately take influence on the thinking in that moment. Marc, Sabine, Jürgen, would you like to build on that too? Jürgen, gladly.
Yes, and there you can splendidly build the bridge. Thank you for this explanation, dear Yasemin, to our previous topic on reflection, where we also found that it has an essential influence, all the way to the method and thus to the result of reflection, with which, in what way does reflection strike, or in which situation and emotional state does reflection strike Jürgen. And since reflection is at least a sub-area of thinking, that hits absolutely 100 percent. May I perhaps make one more request based on a remark, a request for a special room, namely you addressed language. Language is, for me, from both sides, an essential influencing and determining factor on our thinking. And it’s splendid to discuss whether thinking precedes language, or whether language actually only documents that — only, well said, only what I think — and conversely, though, the way I’ve learned to speak is thus an essential influencing factor on thinking, and thus the formative element of all of us in our community, namely communication. That would be my request, which I’m voicing here now, with regard to a special room, since Marc has also registered this right. Thank you.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so, so much. Let me check, I believe we have a room where it’ll also be about thinking and communication again. If not — and yes, thinking and communication is also a room we still have. And there we can gladly do that, and there too, my request, gladly to keep in mind again, that we place and pick that up accordingly, what role language plays in interplay with thinking. Jürgen, gladly, next keyword.
Sorry if I jump in again now, but memory, that’s also such an influencing factor for me. Memory as an influencing factor on thinking, to the extent that something was relevant enough for me that I remember it, I ask, how does our memory even store, based on which criteria, the result of thinking, and turn it into a memory? But exactly these memories are a very essential influencing quantity on thinking, in a then, for me, similarly identified situation, the brain falling back on experience values, to orient itself by them. Maybe memories even trigger quite conscious action, and act against the actually rational thinking in the situation. Very exciting topic. Thanks again that I was allowed to place that too.
Yes wonderful, thank you so, so much, and here too again, and these aspects we can also maybe pick up again with acting, deepen further. If I know how memory functions, or how I can retrieve that again, then of course I have here again the self-efficacy that I can establish. Because I do that quite deliberately — let me give a quick example from the training context. For many years people thought, and it’s partly still suggested today, that you’d have to constantly repeat the training content after a training, and go into a lot of follow-up work, to ensure that it really sticks. But we now know from neuroscience that that’s not necessary at all. That means, once the neural networks are laid down, in quotation marks, so a “growth” has taken place here, so to speak, then basically it’s sufficient if, for example, daily a quote or an image from this training context happens. So really quite marginal, to set this neural network in motion again and be able to retrieve the stored memories again, and ensure that the neural network doesn’t regress again. And accordingly here quite consciously again the steering possibility, if you know how the connections function, how that’s simply laid out in the brain, and that’s why I find that a really, really exciting aspect too. Wonderful, with a view to the time I’d say, let’s gladly — you can gladly add more if you have something to add, and then gladly directly shape the closing word here for today for the room. Marc.
Yes, I’ll remember the room from yesterday again, I’m looking forward to the room when thinking and communication play a role. Yesterday, and staying with yesterday again, a single word solved my understanding for a complex topic, the knot in my head, namely “could,” so it was somehow a sentence like “can have influence” or “could have influence” instead of “have influence” or with this certain quantity, and immediately the connection was clear to me, just by switching one word, just like by switching one word when we’re all on vacation — we know this, and almost everyone, I’ve caught myself doing it too — you say, I have to go back to Germany tomorrow. I have to go back to the office tomorrow. I have to go to a trade fair, or, I’m looking forward to going to the office, then I’ll meet Frank, I’m curious what awaits me there. A single word can change the mood, and that’s why, dear Yasemin, thank you so, so much for the explanation you gave us, that if we’re mindful and think about how we think, then our thoughts don’t determine us, but we determine our thoughts.
Yes wonderful, thank you so, so much, and Sabine has already signed off, but left a comment in the chat for us: “Great room, I get to have breakfast now, enjoy, dear Sabine. Still listening a bit too. Highlight: reflecting, thinking, education. Thanks for the room.” And that’s what I wanted to share with you at this point too. Jürgen, what were your highlights from the room today?
Thank you all, also to Sabine, who’s already off stage, as always a fireworks of inspiration and impulses, initials to reflect. And I’m in an extraordinarily — I have to say now — extraordinarily happy situation for myself. I’m very grateful for that, topic of gratitude, that I have a lot of time to process and reflect afterward on what, for example, today again and also in other rooms, was set as an initial. I consider that a very big gift for myself personally, and I hope I use this gift accordingly too. Thank you for the inspiration and the contributions, and a nice day to you all.
Yes wonderful, thank you so, so much, and that also connects nicely to our room planned for tomorrow, namely thinking and understanding. How do thinking and understanding relate to each other? That’s the question we want to engage with tomorrow, so to speak, staying somewhat in this sequence. We now had the thought, is that actually the front thing or was it the product? Then we had the influencing factors today, and tomorrow we’ll look at, what actually is thinking and understanding, how are they connected, and what actually makes up this understanding, or this understanding process, at that point. So I’m totally curious about the room tomorrow, I’m totally looking forward to it, and you’re all really, really warmly invited to join again tomorrow at 8am, after we had a fireworks of various impulses today on the topic of thinking and influencing factors, to directly connect and continue tomorrow morning with thinking and understanding. In this sense, I wish you well, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning at 8am here at Deep Talk. Until then.
