Is the rational mind really that good at being rational?
I guess it depends what you mean by rational. Or what results you hope to get.
The rational mind is certainly very good at coming up with reasons to justify whatever it is you want to justify. But is it starting from a place of reason? I don't think so. It's the servant of your emotions, pretending to be their master.
"I have to think about it." Usually that means I don't want to, and I have to think up some reasons why I don't have to. Sometimes it means, I genuinely do need to think about whether or not I should do that thing. But does thinking about it produce the decision? I was once taught to make a list of pros and cons when I'm facing a difficult decision, and inevitably the lists come out roughly the same length: as many reasons for yes as for no. Have you ever had this experience? Doesn't it seem strange?
I'm guessing this happens because your rational mind doesn't yet know which side you want to come down on. It's giving you lots of reasons to come down on either side. So, thinking about it doesn't necessarily bring you any closer to the decision, and when you make it, you may not be any more sure about it—except that you've given yourself more time to feel into what you actually want. You may think you're carefully weighing the pros and cons, but the decision-maker is your gut. And once your gut has spoken, the reasons for deciding that way seem so much more solid and sensible than the reasons in the other column.
Interestingly, it's been shown that we do have brain cells in our gut. So a "gut feeling," which I'd say is another word for intuition, is actually being delivered to you by brain cells—just not the cells of your rational mind. Information has been processed far more quickly, bypassing consciousness.
How often have you thought, "Dammit, I should have followed my gut on that one." I've thought that plenty. What happened? I allowed my rational mind to override my intuition, and my brilliant, human, top-of-the-intellectual-heap rational mind got it wrong.
So, here comes the weird conclusion: the rational mind is actually not very good at thinking. It wants so much to drive the bus—because, if you're being Freudian, you can identify it with your ego. But it's easily distracted, and it doesn't know where it's going, and it's desperate for navigational instructions from somewhere, anywhere, anyone!
I think that's why writing what you don't know, letting the imagination drive the bus, is so fun and satisfying. You're saying to your rational mind, stop stressing! You don't have to drive. Ride shotgun and enjoy the view. And the better the view—in other words, the more surprising the stuff your imagination pops up—the more your rational mind likes to sit back and enjoy the ride.
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