Reining in our grasshopper minds
Controlling our minds from jumping from one thing to another
In ten seconds flat
You are walking down the street on a cold winter day. You feel like going somewhere warm and pleasant on holiday. But you cannot think of it right now. That’s because you loaned a large sum of money to your best friend when he lost his job a few months ago. Last month, he got another job, but you can’t ask him to pay back the loan yet because his mother has become seriously ill, and he is struggling to pay her medical bills. Why should medicine be so expensive? It is all because pharma companies charge so much for essential medicines. Perhaps the government should regulate how much pharma can charge for essential drugs.
In ten seconds flat, you have gone from a cold winter day to how much pharmaceutical companies charge for essential drugs and government regulations. Your mind hopped from a winter day to a holiday to money problems, a friend losing his job, his mother, her illness, medical bills, pharmaceutical prices, and potential government regulations.
Our grasshopper mind
This is how our minds work. They jump from topic to topic. We all have a grasshopper mind.
Is it a problem? Not always. It is like driving a car on autopilot. It is okay if the highway is clear and the car doesn’t exceed the speed limit. But what if the car suddenly starts hurtling at 120 miles an hour on a crowded highway, moving erratically? Now, it has become dangerous.
Our minds on autopilot do this quite often. One angry thought leads to another angry thought, and another and another before we are seething with rage. One negative thought leads to another negative thought, and another and another before we fall into depression. One anxiety-provoking thought triggers another anxiety-provoking thought and another and another before we see a bleak future ahead of us.
A grasshopper mind makes focusing on what is in front of us difficult. We dream of holidays when at work and think of work when on holidays. We are on the phone when at dinner. We text when we walk.
We know that
A rolling stone gathers no moss. - Publilius Syrus (attributed)
The grasshopper mind quickly takes us away from the present, where life is happening. Wouldn’t it be better for us to be where our life is happening? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to rein in our grasshopper minds so we can experience life more fully?
Let’s see what suggestions Stoics offer to rein in our grasshopper minds.
1. Train yourself to choose
Remember when you were deeply involved in writing an important report, enjoying an exquisite meal, or playing a game? You were absorbed in whatever you were doing and unaware of anything else. Psychologists call this state the flow state. You can observe this kind of focus when professional athletes are playing, professional artists are doing their work, or even when children are absorbed in play. They are not trying to concentrate but concentrate. Such concentration is not the result of trying to control the grasshopper mind but immersing themselves in whatever they are doing.
If you don’t pause to consider what is involved, you will end up like a child: wrestler one minute, gladiator the next; actor one minute, musician the next. You will be like a monkey that imitates whatever comes its way, drawn by different things. You have not paid attention, and you have not thought things through. You are being casual and arbitrary. - Epictetus, Encheiridion, 29
The first step in training your mind is to decrease mind wandering. Initially, what you choose will not matter. However, once you become more practiced in choosing, you may want to choose things that align with your life’s objectives. If you choose to chat with your friends on social media over having a dinner conversation with your family, do it so you can practice reining in your mind that hops from where you are to where you want to be. Train yourself to do whatever you do fully.
2. Once you have decided, stay with it
Once you have decided to do something—whether to eat dinner or help go to the gym—banish all other thoughts from your mind. Don’t let your grasshopper mind second-guess your decision and go back and forth between what you have decided to do and what you have chosen not to do.
You must always consider […] how to spend no time over all other incoming impressions. This will happen […] if you are free from all stray thoughts and from any deviation… - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.5
One of the reasons our mind goes from one thing to another is we keep second-guessing ourselves. A player cannot score a goal if, having decided to kick the ball in one direction, he starts wondering about the decision.
If your mind starts wandering, remind yourself that you had the choice but chose this one. When you go to a restaurant, you enjoy the dish you ordered without thinking about the dishes you didn’t. So also, once you have chosen to do something, stop wasting time thinking about things you didn’t choose to do.
Our minds’ tendency to be everywhere—not just where we have chosen to be—will not get us anywhere.
To be everywhere is to be nowhere. - Seneca, Moral Letters, 2
3. Choose what is worthy
I said that, initially, it wouldn’t matter what you choose to pay attention to as long as you do it fully. But this is only to train your mind. What you choose to do does matter.
“Where do I find good and evil?”
“In your choices. - Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5
So, the first step in controlling a grasshopper mind is to rein it in. The next step is to ensure you choose the right things to focus on.
How do you know what is the right thing to focus on? You can think through what is important or ask yourself when the situation arises. If, during a meal, you are tempted to call someone, you can ask yourself, “What is more important? Do I want to enjoy my meal fully and savour the flavour and taste, or is it so critical my call cannot wait until I finish my meal?” If your family is important to you, you will not be tempted to text your friends when you are dining with your family. If being with nature is important to you, you will not be tempted to be on the phone while hiking.
Your choices follow from what is important to you. If you are obsessed with money, you will have no problem choosing between relaxing on vacation and calling your broker — you’ll call your broker. If you are obsessed with your work, you will have no problem between being a workaholic and having a balanced work and life approach — you will choose to work. So, what you choose will depend on your values.
If you think a Stoic way of life is important, you would choose actions consistent with that vision. When you choose actions that are consistent with your vision, it is easier to stay focused. Grasshopper minds work overtime when we are not sure what is important to us in our lives.
Takeaways
Our minds naturally hop from one topic to another. This can create problems for us.
We can train our minds to rein in this tendency. Professional athletes and artists do it routinely.
The first step is to choose one thing and stay with it.
Once you succeed, choose things that are consistent with your values. When your mind wanders, remind yourself of the importance of remaining with what you have chosen.
Try this simple exercise
Start with any topic. Try to focus on the topic for a few minutes. Watch how your mind jumps from one topic to another.
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I usually know this as the monkey mind ; the mind jumping from tree to tree !.