Abstract Thinking Helps Us Create, Innovate, Problem Solve
This weekend my daughter made a fort in the garage. She used umbrellas as a roof, snow discs as placemats, and a recycling bin as a wall. Then she cooked me a meal of pine needle stew and immediately began planning how we would live in the future if the entire house began floating downstream in a flood. We live in Oregon so this plan isn’t totally without merit.
She was playing around too, with abstract thoughts, and having a good time doing it. As time went on, she began drawing connections between many of her elaborate, abstract ideas and the potential for real-world application. That is one of the secret powers of this kind of imaginative play and abstract associations. It can yield real world benefit.
What is Abstract Thinking?
Abstract thought allows us to conceptualize, to make symbolic representations, or draw connections and patterns to things that are not necessarily present or real to us now. This allows us to shift, adapt, predict, plan, and draw conclusions that move us into a place of engagement or deeper meaning or understanding.
When we are in concrete thinking mode we are drawing from the facts before us. We are rooted in what we can see and sense right now. We tend to be more analytical in this moment, more mathy and sciency.
Abstract thinking allows us to experience spirituality, plan vacations, imagine how it will feel when we complete our goals. Concrete thinking gets us to write down what we need to do right now to achieve our goal. It prompts us to read a book, take the steps necessary to cook a meal, call the doctor. Both forms of thought are essential and our ability to bounce between them are an indicator of our resilience. Our ability to adapt and deal with each situation with the appropriate and most helpful way of thinking – abstract or concrete — creates a flexible mindset and it is an aspect of the growth mindset that helps us thrive.
Getting Some Distance from the Problem
Abstract thinking can also help us create psychological distance. If we imagine ourselves living in the future, or in a different scenario or environment than the one we are presently in, and then dealing with the matter at hand, we feel a bit removed from the trouble.
Several studies indicate this kind of psychological distance makes a difficult task easier to deal with and keeps us from heading into the emotional deep end when things go wrong. By seeing ourselves as distant from the problem, we become less reactive and more able to glean insights we need to move forward. This can even help us make better decisions.
From this kind of abstract approach we are free to draw from our memories and random associations and connections to innovate, create, and problem solve. And this is fun too, abstract play is more than just building a fort of umbrellas on the garage floor, but a way of connecting the disparate pieces of our world.
In Wednesday’s post, I’ll tell you how to do it.
Image by: Stock.xchng
