I like to physically challenge myself with all sorts of things people would think are crazy and would never attempt. One Christmas Eve, I slept outside in 14 °F weather. I also ran in 99 °F with 2 sweaters on, a beanie, gloves, and sweats!
Why did I do these crazy things? Because I wanted to test myself and see if I could push my physical limits. Physically, my body said you are trying to kill me stop now! But I was able to push through the pain and continue the suffering with my mind.
My mind was stronger than why my body which made me think if memory can overcome the body?
The thing that is different about memory than sleeping in the cold or running in the heat is memory is 100% mental. There is no physical aspect besides the brain. Does this mean when you completely exhausted your mind, you wouldn’t be able to push through and use your memory in terms of memorizing, learning, or recalling?
I remember there have been studies where people have tried to go days without sleep and a day or so in, they where hallucinating and just out of it. In this state of mind, memory techniques or anything else wouldn’t be able to help if they tried to memorize something.
If you are running and you broke your foot, your body would be telling you to stop and seek help. But you can continue to run on your broken foot because you decided in your mind you will continue at all cost. Check out David Goggins on what the mind can do regardless of the state the body is in!
Is is possible to control your memory when you reach this mental breaking point? I have never experienced this type of mental breakdown before. I wouldn’t even know what it would look like or what you would feel like.
I have gotten to the point where my head has pressure and thinking literally hurts to do. But even in this mental state, I could still solve problems, read, and even use memory techniques. I am scared to see what the experience of mental breaking down would be, but also interested in seeing what I would be able to do in that state.
What are your thoughts on this?