Sander's Reflexions

Left … right … left … bump … brake … BUMP … touchdown!

A nice summary of a day of skiing! :-)

But I really want to comment on this:

What happens when I’m skiing [...?]

Skiing is not yet something your muscles can do mostly by themselves. It takes too much conscious thought to stay balanced that your brain has not enough brain power left to produce "idle ideas". Kind of like the idle process being run less and less the busier the system becomes with user activity.

[...] or in the sauna?

Here I think something else comes into play: after an exhausting day on skis (about 6 hours of physical activity, much more than during your average day) your body is quit tired. Lying down in warm place (ok, hot), your body starts to rest immediately; your brain can rest, too, from all that mental activity of keeping you balanced on the skis.
 

Great topic Sander! Nice observations.

Did I say we are always thinking? Well, could be that I said that. I probably meant that thoughts often get in the way of action. Seems that it is the other way around as well. Thinking is not always functional.

But perhaps we should define "thinking" a bit more.

Number 1 thinking: There is conscious 'reflections' on things. Perhaps a very good skiier will be able to comment to himself on the beauty of it all, while racing down the slopes. I don't know. I'm not very good in skiing, but I have 4 years of practice. So sometimes I will say to myself: Hey, that was a good move. Or: Wow, THAT was close... Or: Uh-o, better watch out now, here comes that bump again where I fell last time. Still, I must agree, *other* reflections, say, on Kant, or what have you, seem to be suppressed during heavy action.

Type 2: Then there are the seemingly random images, tunes and phrases that come floating by, or stay humming in the background. They are not really in consciousness. They are more like people walking on the other side of a river: you can see them, they keep the same pace, walking in the same direction, but to say that you've actually *met* them would be too much. Today I've been humming "Nijntje, een lief en klein konijntje" all day. It;s making me crazy! But I don't remember whether such tunes are also popping up during skiing. I've no reason to believe they will not, though.

Type 3A: Then there is cognition: the functional machine. To say that you are not 'thinking' whilst you are skiing is does not mean you do not use your head at all. Even a hardcore "situated cognition" guy like me still believes that the brain is working and is doing something functional in the context of getting you to ski properly. Lot's of this kind of thinking is unconscious, so you would never have guessed that you were thinking. But even cognition pops up sometimes (Type 3B). When you come across a junction and you have to decide left or right, you make the decision (unless the world makes the decision for you, which also happens quite a lot. But that does not mean that skiers never decide consciously to go left or to go right, of course they do: here you have it: thinking!)

Type 4: Then we heave dreams, which is sort of conscious thinking without the consciousness, or rather like thinking in 'your other conscious state', the owner of which is that other you, the during-the-night-You. Micheal says in your comment: after a long day's work: your body can rest, your brain can rest too. I doubt it. I doubt whether there is any correlation between resting states body and mind. Normally, when you fall a sleep, you will eventually start to dream, at least somewhere during the REM phases. Your brain does not stop when your body does. (For that matter, your body doesn't stop either, not the insides of you that is).

I think the reason you stop thinking (consciously, reflectively, type 1 thinking) in the sauna is because the physical conditions make it that thinking costs too much energy. Free thought, the number 1 type, demands some level of physical relaxation. You need to be unconcerned with the state of your body, at least to some degree. This is also why philosophy on the ski is kind of hard.

NB Perhaps there are even more types of thinking?
 

This is interesting.

There is the zen look as well. Where you become totally one with what you do or don't do. Which is a preferred state. So indeed when skiing, or when doing something totally absorbing.

To be honest : i have to focus to "not" think. And even then i am thinking. In meditation for instance, i keep focussing all the time on all kinds of inputs, what i see, feel, hear, instead of all the stupid thoughts that keep filling my head constantly. And even then i can't keep myself from deferring.

And then i must add, that when getting in such a zen state, or thoughtless state, as Jelle said too : your unconscious still keeps on grinding. That's why, when i have some problem at work i totally cannot solve, grab, i go cycling. After the ride, in which i get as absorbed, if i am totally into it, that i don't think at all, the solution is suddenly totally clear. The unconscious me solved it. I guess.

But in the sauna, the only reason i would stop thinking is getting focussed on an endless loop : don't look at the tits, don't look at the tits :-)) Just joking, i love sauna, and i have never experienced a non-thinking moment there. Unless i would focus on it (like meditation, but if you are actually actively trying not to think, aren't we thinking then ???).

Curious what your thoughts might be ... Interesting topic indeed ;-)
 

Let's make one more subdivision. The Zen-people speak of total mindlessness, in which you will become enlightened. This can only be reached by the lucky few. Don't know whether it really exists but I'm not going to argue with a 6000 or so old culture so let's accept it. Then there is the total absorbtion (is that spelled correctly?) in what you do, like when skiing. This is not mindlessness I guess, you really have to concentrate and train in meditation for years to reach that, right? But this absorbtion happens every so often when you are doing something totally concentrated (mostly when you are good at it too). Although I'm not sure. It has a Zen-like quality in that it is not about reasoning and step-by-step problem solving, at least. It is what this -unpronouncablename- guy calls Flow.

Or are Zen and Flow the same thing?