If you give your brain an unresolved problem, it begins to solve the problem without you asking it for an answer

I am guessing that the answer to this came immediately.

You cannot help but get the answer.

This works well a lot of the time!

But sometimes…well, another calculation

This time the answer is a little slower…

And then sometimes ...

We have an unresolved problem, (it could be anything) and our brain does not stop thinking about it…. thinking and thinking and thinking… I am sure you know that experience, right??

Sleepless nights and rumination!

The brain reminds you of things you have to do.

Actually, it is very reliable when it comes to reminding you. But…

It is very unreliable as to when to remind you, it just does not seem to remind you at the right time or at the right place.

Have you ever gone to the supermarket and when you are on your way into the store thought "I must remember to buy batteries today" And, you are reminded again by your brain only as you drive out of the parking lot on the way home!

It happens all the time! You get reminders from your brain, and more often than not, when you can't act because you're in the wrong place to do take action.

The brain reminds you of something about your job in the evening when you are in front of the TV. It reminds you to pick up the kids when you are at work in the morning. It reminds you to go somewhere, two hours after you should have left, and sometimes it starts talking to you at 4 in the morning about the meeting you have with Eric later that morning.

In fact, it is quite easy to stop the brain so that it does not try to solve problems or remind you all the time.

People often think they need to complete a task in order to relax. You will hear people say, “When I finish work, then I can relax”.

But, finishing work, a task, or action is actually not needed in order to relax.

What you may not know is that the brain can relax really well without the job being completed.

And, you don´t need to do mindfulness either!

The brain only needs 3 things related to the thing ‘you have to do’ in order to relax:

Brain says, ‘Book flight tickets to Stockholm, Book flight tickets to Stockholm, Book flight tickets to Stockholm’. I have been reminded at least 4-5 times a day for the last few days.

Hmm ... it was not just to sit down to book the tickets, there were things to check first, other meetings in Stockholm and possible travel to another city on the way home.

I thought, I´ll do it later...

And the brain continued to send reminders “I have to book flight tickets to Stockholm, I have to book flight tickets to Stockholm ..."

Living as I teach is a good practice, so I finally stopped and asked the 3 key questions;

My result is that that I get to Stockholm in time for a customer meeting on the telephone at 12 o'clock in an undisturbed environment, then have a good lunch before my next customer meeting at 2 pm, and then get back to Gothenburg as soon as possible in the evening.

• Find out if the meeting tentatively at 1500hrs is on or off - so SMS the customer for confirmation.

• Notify my colleague that I have a phone meeting at 12 pm and will fly earlier to Bromma Airport and not with her to Arlanda Airport as originally planned.

I put a note in my calendar, to check the following day whether the customer for the 1500hrs meeting answered the text message, so that I know which flight home I can take.

The brain works this way with everything you have to do.

There is not one thing that occupies the brain, if you are anything like me, more like 5 unresolved issues and 20 things to do…. Or maybe even more… The brain continuously works in the background on the problems and reminders about things that need to be done.

What you might notice though, it does not often reminder you about the next step you have to take, in my case to send SMS to a customer but instead the brain keeps saying, book a flight ticket, book a flight ticket, book a flight ticket even though I cannot book a ticket until I know if there will be more meetings in Stockholm or not.

Feel free to try the 3 questions around something your brain keeps remind you about and see if your brain can relax too.

The questions are;

I am curious to see how this changes things for you!

Wilhelm