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Mental Control Techniques

Scientists are developing ways for patients to control objects such as computers and wheelchairs using only their minds). However, some people still do not have control over their own minds. People mostly exhibit mental control over their thoughts and actions. However, there are some instances, such as times of stress and emotional problems that can make it more difficult for a person to control his thoughts. When under stress, people can struggle to control what they think about, causing work and school difficulties. Fortunately, there are some techniques that can help people control wandering thoughts and finally focus on their tasks.

  1. Suppressing Thoughts

    • Attention control is the largest aspect of mental control, which is the person's ability to focus on one thing instead of another. When a person keeps getting distracted, such as when she keeps watching TV instead of studying, that person lacks attention control. People can usually only focus on one thing at a time .People must actively suppress information that they do not want to focus on. However, they must pay attention to things that they want to suppress enough to recognize that they want to suppress them.

    Unique Thoughts

    • Trinity University professor Daniel M. Wegner found that people who are very good at suppressing their thoughts will more likely think about the thoughts that they suppressed later on. When some people use one set of thoughts to suppress a particular thought, they are more likely to associate the suppressed thought with the thought used for suppression.The loss of concentration after suppressing a certain thought is called a distraction rebound. People can avoid distraction rebounds by using something to distract oneself that is uncommon. In the Wegner experiment, participants used a red Volkswagen as the distracting object.

    Thinking About Obsessions

    • When obsessed with an idea, people can control their thoughts in the long run by thinking about the objects of their obsessions in the short run. For example, people can spend time talking about their obsessions and write about their obsessions as a way to overcome them. Instead of thinking about a distracting thought during a college test, the person can allow himself to have the thought before bed.

    Switching Tasks

    • When someone is having a hard time focusing on a specific subject, he can switch to a different subject for a period of time. For example, if a student is trying to study physics, but can't focus, he can instead clean his dorm room or perform some other task before returning to the physics homework.

    Rewards

    • People can use rewards to increase mental control. When someone successfully concentrates on a specific task for an allotted period of time, that person can reward herself with chocolate, a movie or something else enjoyable. By looking forward to the reward, the person will be more willing to get the task done quickly.

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