PLANIFICACIÓN Y PUESTA EN SERVICIO DEL CABLE SUBMARINO

For more than a century psychologists have been curious about what happens in people’s brains during aha! moments—those moments of clarity when the solution to a vexing problem falls into place through sudden insight. A series of experiments (Kounios et al. 2006) has begun to iden-tify what leads to aha! moments. First, the research suggests that aha! solu-tions to vexing problems are often actually preceded by brain patterns that begin much prior to the act of solving the problem—sometimes even before a problem is presented. This suggests that how a person is thinking before problem solving begins may be just as important as the kind of thinking involved in reaching the solution—it’s almost as though you put your mind into a receptive state that primes it for insights and integrations.

Second, as people approach an aha! solution, brain activity suggests that attention focuses inwardly. It appears that, to switch to new trains of thought, irrelevant thoughts must first be actively silenced. To facilitate this, the brain momentarily reduces visual input. This produces an effect similar to closing your eyes or looking away—physical tricks we often unconsciously employ to help solutions emerge into conscious awareness.

Furthermore, Kounios and his colleagues also found the mental prepa-ration that leads to aha! solutions to be characterized by increased brain activity. Increased activity was seen in the temporal lobe areas (associated with conceptual processing) and the frontal lobe areas (associated with cognitive control or “top-down” processing). Learning to focus attention inwardly, to reduce visual and auditory inputs, and to silence irrelevant thoughts temporarily can all set the stage for moving into a different kind of cognitive processing—one that includes increasing insight-based knowl-edge along with the traditional “figuring it out” knowlknowl-edge. It’s amazing that so many transformative practices, like the vision quest, already foster qualities like introspection and internal silence that scientists are only now discovering as key factors in growth, learning, and transformation.

Preparing the Soil

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SUMMARY

Just as soil can be prepped in anticipation of a beautiful garden, conscious-ness transformation can be nurtured and cultivated. By fostering curiosity, creativity, and introspection in your life, you can open yourself to expanded dimensions of your being. These are ways of being, within the everyday circumstances of your environment, that can help you increase the trans-formative potential of your experiences—and allow any transtrans-formative experiences that come to take hold more easily and firmly, with less resis-tance or trauma.

Once you’ve prepared the ground and a seed of transformation has been planted, you begin the growth cycle. Before you can harvest your bumper crop, more work remains ahead. What sustains you on the transformative path? What keeps you moving forward when the terrain seems impassable, or when you’re tempted to settle for a familiar and comfortable stopping point that’s less than your full potential? Many of our research participants emphasized the importance of practice. In the next two chapters, we’ll con-sider the different paths of practice available to each of us and some ele-ments common across them. For now, consider the following exercise as a way of clarifying your own intentions for transformation.

Experiencing Transformation:

Preparing the Soil

Growth and transformation happen all the time—they’re aspects inherent to both nature and human nature. The degree to which growth and transfor-mation proceed on a slow, agonizing, bumpy course or flow easily through your life is partly up to you.

Over a half century ago, Abraham Maslow (1954) proposed that when human beings’ basic needs for food, shelter, and safety are met, they seek to satisfy higher needs for things like friendships, intellectual stimulation, and beauty. In this exercise, we explore the possibility that so-called higher

needs may need to be met in order to fully meet what had previously been considered “lower” needs. Examining to what extent your needs are being met can shed light on the conditions for transformation present in your life.

Take out your journal and find a quiet place to reflect. What is the con-dition of your soil right now? How conducive is your life to the transforma-tive process?

You may or may not have your basic physiological needs for food, shelter, and safety secured. Explore whether your basic physiological needs are really being attended to by answering the following questions:

Are you eating enough nutritious foods on a fairly regular schedule?

Are you giving your body enough exercise, sunshine, and nutrients?

Do you have aches, pains, or discomforts you could be attending to more consciously?

Are you getting enough rest and sleep?

Are your environments at work and at home safe, and are you taking whatever precautions you need to in order to feel safe?

Do you have an appropriate balance of work and time for rest and renewal?

Does your housing really suit your needs?

If you’re feeling frustrated in reaching your highest potential, perhaps these more basic needs aren’t being adequately attended to. While they may seem mundane, they’re just as important to your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being as are more lofty spiritual and philosophical pursuits.

Next, flip it the other way: are you having trouble reaching your goals in relationship to the basic needs of balancing your life, eating healthily, treat-ing your body well, etc.? It’s possible that you’ve delayed your higher needs

Preparing the Soil

85 ity for trust, generosity, and forgiveness; and actively cultivating joyful and creative experiences.” Our so-called “higher” needs are as fundamental to our quality of life as are our basic needs. Explore whether your “higher”

needs are really being met by answering the following questions:

Do you have friends and family members who are supportive and worthy of your trust and respect? If not, where can you seek at least one connection like that?

Do you regularly engage in at least one activity that brings you uncomplicated joy?

Is there a regular time for creativity in your life?

Do you spend daily time in quiet contemplative reflection? How about time in nature?

Right now, make—and commit to—a plan to fulfill at least one of the basic needs and one of the “higher” needs you’ve identified in this exercise.