How many disturbing thoughts seem to come out of nowhere to disturb your peace of mind? How many phobic ideas pass through your mind without your consent? How many worries take away your sleep?
Our thoughts shape our world. They determine the meaning we give to many of the experiences we live and the way we deal with them. However, despite its importance to our well-being, much of this process happens “automatically”. We don’t have much control over our thoughts.
“We can control computers, cars and planes, but we do not have complete control of the most incomprehensible of machines: the human mind,” wrote the psychiatrist and psychotherapist Augusto Cury, who points out that the process of generating thoughts is not only hyper-complex, but largely uncontrollable.
The theory of multifocal intelligence focuses precisely on the way in which we construct thoughts to teach us to manage them more effectively. This way they can be more functional and constructive, contributing to our mental balance, instead of taking it away from us.
What is the theory of Multifocal Intelligence based on?
The theory of multifocal intelligence is an existential approach that also includes the contributions of Neurosciences, Sociology and Cognitive Psychology. Created by Augusto Cury, it maintains that thoughts are the cornerstones of our well-being, but they are determined by multiple factors, both conscious and unconscious.
The first area is deeper and refers to the unconscious phenomena that act in milliseconds to retrieve and organize memory information and, therefore, influence the construction of thoughts and the generation of emotions. Once generated, thoughts return to memory and are registered, thus building the platform that constitutes the “self”, which is the maximum expression of critical awareness and the ability to choose. Therefore, everything we perceive, feel, think and experience becomes bricks in the construction of that platform.
The second area refers to the body of complex variables that influence, for small fractions of a second, the phenomena that access memory and produce thoughts. These variables act when these phenomena reach the cerebral cortex and determine which thoughts have priority over others. The emotional and motivational state, our vital history, the social environment or even the state of the nervous system at that moment are some of the factors that influence this selection of thoughts.
Finally, the third major area of multifocal intelligence is the result of the first two, which is manifested through perceptible behaviors that can be expressed in a thousand different ways with attitudes that vary from generosity or selfishness to shyness or bravery.
The theory of multifocal intelligence aims to decipher these thought codes in order to apply them more effectively. Its main objective is to teach us to manage our mind constructively. It is proposed to help us strengthen our critical awareness and the managerial capacity of the “self” so that we are able to recognize the automatic and unconscious processes that distort reality or the mental traps that end up feeding emotional disorders.
As Cury pointed out, “Intelligence codes are as important as learning to eat, walk and breathe, but they rarely enter the global education menu.”
The 3 steps to develop Multifocal Intelligence
The first step: stop the automatic flow of thoughts
According to the theory of multifocal intelligence, we fall too much into our own mental traps, which can not only block our creativity but also alter our emotional balance, preventing us from becoming the managers of our inner world and, therefore, of our own life.
Mental traps demonstrate the existence of subtle plots in our personality, which can end up working against us, such as the fear of admitting mistakes, conformism or resistance to taking risks.
To get out of this loop we need to be in touch with our inner reality, recognize our shadows and admit our fragility, insecurities and fears. “If we do not question our most disturbing thoughts, our distressing emotions, during the first seconds that they occur, they are registered in our cerebral cortex and there they open a traumatic window that cannot be erased from our mind, and that as they accumulate, becomes ‘psychic garbage,’” Cury wrote.
According to this theory, distressing thoughts and anticipatory suffering only need five seconds to generate a mark in our brain. For this reason, the first step to develop multifocal intelligence and become managers of our psyche is to stop this automatic flow of thoughts.
Cury affirms that in the depths of our minds there are phenomena that have an incredible capacity to build thoughts, but if they read our memory too quickly, we could suffer what he called Accelerated Thinking Syndrome, a fairly common problem caused by the hyper-construction of thoughts. Thus the brain ends up stealing energy, which causes us excessive fatigue, concentration problems, headaches, stress…
This incessant flow of automatic thoughts can be combated by opposing a rational thought. This way we will avoid opening that “window”. Therefore, we must be attentive to the quality of our thinking and the irruption of disturbing ideas, particularly anticipatory and catastrophic thoughts that bring nothing more than anguish and anxiety.
With time and practice, we will become skilled enough to prevent negative thoughts from taking over. Therefore, when we detect them, we must stop to recognize and stop them.
The second step: widen the perspective and be more critical
Many of our problems are due to “unifocal” beliefs, which take a single perspective as a reference and do not take into account other vital aspects. In other words, we see problems from only one point of view, which prevents us from finding solutions.
Multifocal intelligence broadens our interpretation of reality and helps us manage our thoughts and emotions in order to be able to exercise the role of “psychic manager” effectively. It encourages us to take into account all the factors that are influencing our ideas, beyond the fact in question that triggered them. Thus we can assume a psychological distance that allows us to see the problem from a more objective and rational perspective.
To do this, we must be aware of the way we construct our thoughts and the effects they have on our well-being and emotional state. Our way of thinking, including the way we process information and our experiences, influences the way we position ourselves in the world. It is the basis on which we develop our attitudes and make decisions.
Instead of getting carried away by catastrophic or negative thinking, we must take a critical stance. Multifocal intelligence encourages us to question, challenge and criticize all the disturbing thoughts that come to mind, many of which are simply the result of a conscious and unconscious emotional history.
It is about rescuing logical thinking to allow the “self” to become the entity that directs and manages all these processes. Increasing our level of consciousness will allow us to better manage the production of thoughts, which will be reflected in more constructive attitudes and behaviors focused on more positive ends for ourselves.
The third step: disconnect
To develop multifocal intelligence we must take a break from everyday life to become aware of the thoughts that are at the base of our decisions and behaviors. This is what is called “management” or “administration” of thought.
We cannot become architects of our mind if we are always busy. That’s why Cury recommends taking a few minutes to relax our mind, several times throughout the day. It’s just about taking a couple of minutes to breathe and think about the meaning of what we’re doing.
It is also important to place more emphasis on positive stimuli, which means training our attention to focus primarily on the positive we receive each day. In fact, to develop multifocal intelligence it is essential to engage in more constructive and creative activities that help the mind become more flexible and open.
In this way we manage to educate thought and, therefore, transform the destructive emotions that it usually generates when it is not stopped. Over time, all this lead to a more intelligent, calm, serene and constructive life.
Sources:
Dias de Souza, C. et. Al. (2017) Teoria da inteligência multifocal de Augusto Cury, Revista de Trabalhos Acadêmicos – Universo; 2(3): 2179-1589.
Cury, A. (2016) El código de la inteligencia. Barcelona: Zenith.
