If there’s one thing we can all depend on, it’s the rational, logical human mind.

Hahahahaha.

Just kidding.

If you’re familiar with research on how the brain works, you know that the human mind, despite its magnificent capabilities, is far from a perfect, computer-like machine. In fact, it’s riddled with biases that can pull us away from reality rather than bringing us closer to it.

For example:

• All of us are prone to the negativity bias, which makes situations seem more dangerous or difficult than they really are.
• Attentional blindness can cause us to miss something that’s right in front of us.
• The clustering illusion makes us perceive meaningful patterns in random events. (This is why we see faces in clouds, but never clouds in faces.)
• The mind loves to fret about things that haven’t happened and probably never will. Because this feels normal, we often overlook the fact that it has a name: anxiety.

The list could go on for pages.

In fact, of the four aspects of awareness I think of as our built-in compasses—body, heart, soul, and mind—the mind is both the most trusted and the least accurate.

That doesn’t mean we should ignore it. It means we need to learn how to use it skillfully. When the mind becomes an instrument we operate, rather than a machine that operates us, it transforms from a source of confusion into a source of creativity.

Here are three simple ways to work with your mental compass.

One: Calm the Critter

As I mentioned above, our negativity bias causes the brain to focus disproportionately on anything that seems dangerous, difficult, or hostile. Our first reaction to unfamiliar situations is often fear—fear driven by ancient reflexes buried deep inside the nervous system.

Those reflexes evolved hundreds of millions of years ago, in ancestors so distant they looked more like iguanas than people. Lofty thoughts don’t reassure them. Verbal concepts mean nothing to them.

So when fear surges, it helps to remember that these reactions are coming from a very old part of ourselves. We can soothe them the same way we would soothe a frightened puppy or kitten.

Slow down. Be gentle. Speak softly.

We’re born knowing how to comfort small creatures, and it turns out those same instincts work remarkably well on ourselves.

Action Step: When you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or upset, approach your own inner critter with quiet kindness. Simple thoughts such as, “You’re okay. I’ve got you. This moment is safe,” can help your brain settle down and think more clearly.

Two: Curate the Commentary

Along with our ancient fear responses, the brain has another automatic feature: the endless stream of commentary running through our heads. It resembles the crawl at the bottom of a news broadcast—always updating, always interpreting.

We tend to assume this commentary represents reality. Unfortunately, much of it consists of half-truths, old wounds, catastrophic predictions, and painful stories we’ve been repeating for years.

If you’ve ever lain awake all night worrying, you’ve experienced how much suffering these stories can create—even while you’re warm, comfortable, and perfectly safe. Add the constant barrage of modern news and information, and the commentary can become completely overwhelming.

One of the most powerful ways to manage this aspect of the mind is to direct its logical abilities back toward its own assumptions. You can do that by asking a simple question:

Are you sure that’s true?

Be careful. The more frightened your mind becomes, the more confidently it insists that its stories are facts. It will tell you that:

Of course your boss’s frown means you’re about to be fired.

Of course your spouse left that coffee cup in the car specifically to fray your last nerve.

Of course that twitch in your arm means you’re having a heart attack.

Fear makes all these conclusions feel obvious. But before you accept them as your reality, think twice. Better yet, think several times.

First calm your inner animal. Otherwise the frightened brain will only fight, flee, or freeze. Once you’re calmer, you can examine the evidence with much greater clarity. And the mind is actually excellent at this—provided it’s aware of its own biases and willing to follow the facts.

So borrow the attitude of your favorite scientist, detective, or journalist. Look carefully. Double-check everything. Do the math. Let evidence guide your conclusions.

Used this way, the mind can stop being an instrument of illusion, and can become a powerful liberator from the false stories that darken our lives. Because, as you’ll see if you actually try this, most painful stories don’t survive close examination. As they dissolve, they leave behind open space and unused energy that can allow the mind to function properly.

That’s when the mind shows its true capacity: not only to be logical, but to be magical.

Three: Call Up Creativity

Much of our psychological suffering comes from misusing the mind—allowing it to dwell endlessly on regrets and worries. Once we loosen our grip on thoughts that aren’t true, something extraordinary becomes available: imagination.

Look around you.

Unless you’re sitting alone in the wilderness, you’ll see hundreds of things that began in someone’s imagination.

A chair.

A lamp.

A fireplace.

An air conditioner.

Everything around you that was made by people first came into being inside someone’s mind. We humans didn’t become such a dominant species merely because we can think. We became powerful because we can imagine. Creativity is something unique to our species—and in some ways, it’s the most powerful thing on Earth.

So how do we activate creativity?

You might assume you need free time, artistic friends, or a visit from the Muse. But research shows that creativity actually emerges when the mind is calm, curious, and cornered.

Yes, cornered.

Certainly, there are many jobs that can be done and problems that can be solved by logic and analysis. Creative solutions are different. They appear when we’ve fully utilized our mind’s rational ways of thinking until we reach a dead end. An impasse.

At such times, we eventually stop trying. We take a walk, shower, or fall asleep. That’s when the mind works its magic. It begins making unexpected connections, unusual comparisons, unseen parallels. Then, suddenly, it may pop the solution into our awareness when we least expect it. 

Psychologists call this the Eureka Effect. Here are a few examples:

Engineer George de Mestral had been searching for a new kind of fastener when he noticed burrs sticking to his dog’s fur during a walk. The result was Velcro.

In 1943, a Mexican maître d’ named Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya found himself with hungry customers, no chef, and very little food in the kitchen. He fried up some leftover tortillas, added cheese and jalapeños, and unknowingly created a venerated Super Bowl tradition.

Around the same time, a mother named Bertha Berman became fed up with sheets bunching and slipping off mattresses. One day she noticed the way a drawstring closed a bag, and adapted the same principle to create fitted sheets.

All these inventions followed a similar pattern. People became curious about a problem, reached an impasse, relaxed into something else, and suddenly saw a new possibility.

If you’d like to experiment with this yourself, try a game I call How Is This Like That?

1. Choose a problem you’ve been unable to solve.
2. Go outside, browse the internet, or have coffee with a friend while keeping the problem lightly in the background.
3. Let your attention rest on something around you and ask yourself, “How is this like my problem?”

Do not try to force an answer. Play. Dream. Imagine.

See what appears.

Mental Magic

The mind may be humanity’s greatest superpower—and we don’t need genius IQs or decades of training to use it well. We simply need to calm ourselves, question the stories that cause suffering, and create enough spaciousness for imagination to do its work.

The mental compass is far stranger and wilder than any perfectly rational Mr. Spock-like robot. If we aren’t skilful, it may veer into assumption, shift away from hard evidence, and sometimes spin wildly in an anxious circle. 

But once we’ve learned to calm it, curate it, and awaken its creativity, the mind becomes an unparalleled magical instrument to help guide us through any challenge—from figuring out dinner for unexpected guests to building a deeply fulfilling career. Try applying these ideas to any issue that troubles you, and invite the magic to happen. 

And by the way, if you happen to invent an easy way to fold a fitted sheet, humanity—and I—will be forever grateful.