THE RELIEF OF SYMPTOMS FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT OF ANXIETY: WHAT MAKES THE MENTAL SEQUENCES WORK
Ideas can be accepted into the mind by two distinct mechanisms. We can scrutinize an idea that is offered to us, and examine it logically and critically. If we find it a good idea we accept it by this intellectual process of evaluation. On the other hand, many ideas are accepted into the mind quite uncritically and without any intellectual evaluation. We see this most commonly in children and in adults who are very relaxed, fatigued, or alcoholic. In this process the acceptance of the idea depends much more on our feeling toward the person who offers the idea than on the merits of the idea itself. The process by which ideas are accepted uncritically in this way is technically known as suggestion. It is important to remember that the uncritical acceptance of ideas in this fashion does not result from the evaluing mechanism working in less degree, but results from the activity of suggestion, which is quite a different mechanism of the mind. However, if the alert critical faculties of the intellect come into play, they always put a stop to suggestion, and the idea is subjected to the intellectual process of evaluation.
If we consider this matter from the biological point of view, we see that the critical method of accepting ideas is a recent evolutionary development, whereas the uncritical method based on our feeling for the other person is a biologically primitive process which has been practically superseded by this more recent development of our ability to evaluate things critically.
The important fact from our point of view is that this primitive process of suggestion functions very much more effectively when we have regressed a little toward a more primitive mode of mental functioning. This of course is exactly what we do in the regression of our mental exercises. So while we are regressed like this, we can use the process of suggestion to influence the working of our mind in a way that would be quite impossible if we were in our normal alert waking state.
In the matter of anxiety and general nervous tension our mind is quite impervious to the logical reasoned approach of the intellect, but on the other hand it is quite amenable to the process of suggestion when in this relaxed and regressed condition. In our exercises we ourselves present the ideas to our mind, so in this case the process is known as autosuggestion.
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