How to Solve Problems with your Subconscious Mind

By Michael Michalko / Source: Psychology Today

Sometimes ideas do not appear when you are concentrating your attention and mysteriously appear when you are not. 

Modern science recognizes this as a result of incubating the problem in your subconscious yet can't account for why it occurs. 

A majority of scientists, artists,  and writers report that they get their best ideas and insights when not thinking about the problem. Ideas come while walking, recreating, or working on some other unrelated problem. This suggests how the creative act came to be associated with divine inspiration for the illumination appears to be involuntary. 

The more problems, ideas and thoughts that you think about from time to time, the more complex becomes the network of information in your mind. The more work you put into thinking about a problem, the more thoughts and bits of information you put into random motion.

When you quit thinking about the subject and decide to forget it, your subconscious mind doesn't quit working. Your thoughts keep colliding, combining and making associations. This is why you've experienced suddenly remembering names, getting solutions to problems you've forgotten about, and ideas out of the blue when you are relaxing and not thinking about any particular thing. 

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT 

Work on a problem until you have mulled over all the relevant pieces of information. Talk with others about the problem, ask questions, and do as much research as you can until you are satisfied that you have pushed your conscious mind to its limit.
 
Write a letter to your unconscious mind about the problem.

Make the letter as detailed and specific as possible. Describe the problem definition, the attributes, what steps you have taken, the problems, the gaps, what is needed, what you want, what the obstacles are, and so on. Just writing the letter will help better define a problem, clarify issues, point out where more information is needed, and prepare your unconscious to work on a solution. The letter should read just like a letter you would send to a real person. Imagine that your unconscious is all-knowing and can solve any problem that is properly stated.
 
Instruct your unconscious to find the solution. Write "Your mission is to find the solution to the problem. I would like the solution in two days." Seal the letter and put it away. You may even want to mail it to yourself. 

Let go of the problem. Don't work on it. Forget it. Do something else. This is the incubation stage when much of what goes on occurs outside your focused awareness, in your unconscious. Open the letter in two days. If the problem still has not been solved, write on the bottom of the letter "Let me know the minute you solve this" and put it away. Sooner or later, when you are most relaxed and removed from the problem, the answer will magically pop into your mind. 

ADS ON EGGS
 
An advertising agency was under pressure to come up with an innovative marketing campaign to introduce a television networks new shows. Stymied, Bert, the creative director, wrote the following letter which he addressed to his subconscious mind. He called his subconscious mind "Secret Expert."
 
How are you Secret Expert?

I haven't heard from you in some time, so I thought I would write you a letter. I need your help with a problem. I need to come up with an exciting new marketing program to introduce a new season of television shows. The shows include programs about criminal forensics, contests for prizes, lawyer shows and comedies. I'm interested in coming up with some kind of campaign that will capture the audiences attention more than one time. The approach of the campaign should be unique, fresh and unexpected. 

What do people need and keep? Is there something they need that we can advertise on? What kind of goods, products, foods and services should we investigate? What producers, distributors and retailers should we study? Can we combine our services with another company? Do we need to share revenue? I need a fresh approach to advertising. Your mission is to give me a new idea on how to advertise television shows. I need the idea in two days. Help!!! 

Thanks, Bert"

Bert mailed the letter to himself and two days later received it. When he read what he had written, he got his brainstorm, which was to advertise on "eggs." Somehow an association between "foods," "need," "producers," and "fresh approach," inspired the thought of using "fresh egg to advertise?"

He arranged to place laser imprints of the networks logos, as well as some of its shows on eggs-some thirty million. Some of the slogans that will be imprinted on the eggs are "Crack the Case on CSI," "Scramble to win the great race," "Hard-boiled drama," "Leave the Yolks to us," and "Funny Side UP." 

The consumers look at a single egg at least a few times. When they open the carton at the store, when they transfer them to the refrigerator, and when they crack them open. It's unlike any other ad medium in the world, because you're looking at it while you are using it.
 
Try the experiment yourself.

Edited by: Lawyer Asad