If we think of the mind as an aperture, we can ask ourselves: What causes the aperture to contract, limiting the scope of our mental adventures? And what encourages it to open, expanding our conceptual possibilities?
At any one time, the mental aperture is tending to close or tending to open. With a little practice, you can sense this. And you’ll notice there’s no way to force the mind open. You might like to reach a more expanded approach to whatever you are focused on. But if the mind is contracted, you’ll hit an almost physical limit to the range of mental motion.
This is where we have to acknowledge the massive role of emotional states in even the most “left brain” cognition. In my experience, it is conflicted emotions — especially anxiety — that prompt the mind to shrink.
Now for any emotional state there is always both a mental and bodily aspect. You cannot have a conflicted emotion (anger, jealousy, fear, etc.) without contracting the musculature. The contractions may be minute, and hard to detect without careful observation. But they always occur. In other words, a contracted mind signals a contracted musculature, and vice-versa.
Emotions arise in response to situations, real or imagined, past or present or future. And sometimes those situations need to be understood and addressed. In the meantime, the quickest way to quiet a difficult emotion may be to soften the muscles. Lying down, or taking a hot bath, or jogging, or releasing the breath… these simple actions can be enough to widen the aperture of thought and increase our range of mental motion.