What Is Multifocal Intelligence?
The theory of multifocal intelligence considers how thoughts are constructed. It looks at the different processes that take place in the mind. Its purpose, fundamentally, is for us to learn how to handle our thoughts and make them constructive.
Multifocal intelligence is a theory created by psychiatrist and psychotherapist Augusto Cury. It analyzes how we build thoughts and the effect it has on our emotional well-being. It is an existential approach, and its purpose is, primarily, to teach us how to deal with the mind constructively.
The way you think, including the way you process the information you have access to, has a crucial impact on how you position yourself in the world. It is what determines how your attitude and behavior develops.
Thus, if you use multifocal intelligence correctly, you will be able to handle your thought production correctly. As a result, you will have more constructive attitudes and behaviors, and be focused on the most positive goals for yourself.
Multifocal intelligence
Multifocal intelligence is defined as the result of the interaction that exists between the psychodynamic structures that exist in your mind. In simpler terms, your brain performs many processes. The way they relate to each other gives rise to what we call multifocal intelligence.
Four processes take place in multifocal intelligence:
- Construction of thoughts
- Transformation of psychic energy
- Self-training
- Organization of memory, based on conscious and unconscious history
Our self is the entity that is responsible for and handles all of these processes. In other words, they can all be drawn deliberately. The theory is that we achieve this when we are able to perform a critical analysis.
It allows you to see facts from different perspectives and points of view. It also allows you to attach meaning to any negative thing that happens to you.
The basic principles of the theory
The theory behind multifocal intelligence is based on philosophy and existential psychology, as well as an archetypal psychoanalysis. It’s a perspective that tries to make you think logically. By doing this, you can analyze how some thoughts are derivatives of others, as if it were a chain reaction.
The positive aspect of this process is that you can pick up one of the “links” in the chain and stop it in its path, thereby preventing the other potential negative thoughts from affecting you.
What this theory is trying to do is question, challenge, and analyze all the disturbing thoughts that come to your mind.
These will be the result of your emotional history, both on the conscious and unconscious side. According to this theory, disturbing thoughts and foresighted disorders only need five seconds to leave some kind of negative mark in our brain.
Opens up a window
We store these records in the cerebral cortex, and it opens a kind of “window” with a destructive purpose. Here is an example. Let’s imagine you have to give a presentation to the public and you think it will all go wrong.
As a result, in just five seconds, this “window” will open up and begin to anticipate a whole host of negative situations. This will, thus, create all sorts of destructive emotions.
If you oppose this scenario with rational thinking, then this theory claims that you will be able to prevent this “window” from opening. It also claims that with time and practice, you will gain the skills to be able to prevent negative thoughts from occurring in the first place. That’s exactly the point of multifocal intelligence.
The training of multifocal intelligence
Augusto Cury has presented various activities aimed at training multifocal intelligence. All of these have to do with becoming aware of the thoughts that motivate your actions, as well as putting them on pause. This is what is called “thought management”. The recommended actions are:
- Relaxation for short periods. You need to take a few minutes to relax in your mind, several times during the day. Spend a few minutes breathing deeply and think about the meaning and logic of what you are doing or intend to do.
- Highlight positive stimuli. This means that you need to train your attention so that you primarily focus on the positive things you experience every day.
- Constructive and creative activities. Reading, writing, art of any kind or performing noble activities, such as growing a plant or taking care of the environment. All of these help your mind become more flexible and constructive.
- Adequate sleep. You should never cut back on the number of hours you sleep under any circumstances. It is also very important to distinguish between working hours and rest time. The latter is sacred.
To control your thoughts
- Check your foresighted thinking. Be wary of ideas that anticipate imaginary things that you think may happen in the future. The only thing you should be worried about according to your future is to set goals or projects for yourself, and not imagine possible future scenarios. When your imagination starts to revolt, then you should try to stop it.
- Pay attention to the quality of your thoughts. Be aware of disturbing thoughts that are trying to invade your mind, and analyze them critically.
All of this is a way for you to train your thoughts and, at the same time, transform destructive emotions. Over time, according to this theory, all of this should lead to a more intelligent, calm, peaceful, and constructive life.
