Saturday, October 1, 2022
Our frazzled brains have not evolved fast enough to keep up with how we live. Life is moving too quickly, we are doing too much, and we are not giving our minds the right environments to flourish. Today are minds are always preoccupied. That steady noise produces a low-level anxiety – nonstop text messages, constant screen time, etc. What we need is time to think. But being alone with your thoughts, gentle mind wandering is a lost necessity of yesteryear. Constant stimulation and anxiety doesn’t set us up to think creatively. When anxious, mind wandering isn’t daydreaming, it’s day-nightmaring.
We have to create time to think. We have to create the right environment (safe, quiet, calm) for the brain to do its best work. I believe that we are using too much mental bandwidth worrying, scrolling on electronic screens, eating compulsively, talking incessantly, and moving around like bees. What if you could free up some of that precious, mental bandwidth, and let your mind calmly wander? Would you feel like that’s wasting time?
Creative thinking works exactly like it used to, eons ago. You have to create the right environment. If you just pick up your phone, turn on the TV, or go to the kitchen to eat, every time you have a free moment, you never let the brain do what it does best – concentrate, ideate, wander. The brain can only do one thing at a time, believe it or not. Even if just for a few minutes, if you can relax and stop panicking, and give your mind some space to wander, without feeling guilty or feeling like you should be doing something “productive,” no telling what amazing thing you’ll think of. Modernity is too fast and too distracting for our poor brains. Give your brain permission to think and to wander freely. It’s not wasteful, it’s using your time wisely.