Don’t be put off by this rather ponderous title. Thinking requires mental immersion. Like physical immersion, you have to be encompassed, surrounded, almost drowned by it. If you are not you will butterfly from one thought to another. Butterflies are beautiful but don’t last long. You want your thinking to last forever. Immersion is the act of being deeply involved, or being completely surrounded – physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Can you immerse yourself and survive? Life teaches us that any activity is successfully achieved only when we immerse ourselves into it. The Olympic Marathon runner, the Michelin chef, the paper-clip maker, all become successful when they eat, sleep and breathe their callings. ‘Vocation’ is not, as generally assumed, a mysterious summons but a shout. A yell from the top of the tree. A promise, a vow, a life. Above all it is a commitment.
Thinking makes all these demands. The 11th Century Bayeux Tapestry was not a canvas to throw paint at. It was a meticulously crafted embroidery to tell the story of the 1066 Norman Conquest. Each thread was treated with loving care. Each design was mulled over, tried and reviewed until finally endorsed. The process was not only one of planting. It was also one of weeding. What you throw out of your thoughts is as important as what you leave in. Think and re-think if you want to be a good thinker. And rethink again if you want to be brilliant.
When do you have time to be immersed in thinking in today’s frenetic world? Perhaps somewhat surprisingly the answer is ‘always’. Other thoughts are flitting by but are not fully occupying your mind. You are in transit, bathing, relaxing, driving, eating, for a lot of the time. Those are good thinking times for you. If you are immersed in your thoughts about something, you can expand your mind while doing all sorts of routine stuff.
It is one of the few instances of multi-tasking that actually works.
Children do it – remember “out of the mouths of babes…”? Baby talk yourself into sparkling, creative thoughts. And like a child don’t be frightened to create and delete. Our propensity to punish mistakes is the biggest single reason for our universally poor education systems. Mistakes are lessons and the more painful the better learned. Immersed thinkers trip up all the time.
There’s another way of looking at immersion – wallowing. Have you wallowed in a hot bath? Even with today’s Sustainable Showering an occasional tub wallow is a good relaxant. It lets the pores breathe. A good mental wallow allows the tiny-junction synapses to slosh about and communicate with each other. There’s no freedom like a wistful wallow.
Only one thing left to do, isn’t there?
Plunge away!
Good morning
John Bittleston
P.S. How do you trigger thinking? My next Daily Paradox on the subject will be called “Triggering thinking”. Good idea isn’t it?
Please let me know if you try the questions I have given you today. [email protected] is the place to write to.
15 August 2025
