
What is with ideas & their timing?
It has happened to me time and again — I will not get the best of ideas not when I am desperately looking for them, but they do pop up in my head like a messenger notifications when I am tied up doing something completely unrelated!
Let me give you a few personal instances to explain “weird timings” better -
The holy brush hour — This is the hour when I’m mostly in the pseudo sleep stage, still analyzing if my dream was real, or what would happen if it were to be real. And then, like a brain wave, not just the idea but also the content, facts, supporting instances just run through my head, with all the right words flowing smooth, to justify its true sense.
The solo cab time –Cab drives are dreaded — for being time taking and exhaustive. But for me somehow, it’s the excuse I give my brain to wander. I am not sure if all who travel (and not ride/drive themselves) zone out like I do. It is rare with me to stare into my phone endlessly, it’s rather easier to gaze outside the window and let the different dimension of my thinking capacity unfold. That’s one reason I don’t like driving, I’d rather prefer being seated to let my brain wander distant places. I am surprised with ideas and solutions my brain throws back at me — for a recent situation/issue with a completely irrelevant line of thought!
The last minute — I am sure this is common for us — the “Millennial generation”. Whenever it comes to focusing on the one thing that’s important –to study/ to complete a piece of work etc., it becomes the hardest thing to do. You’ll remember all the pending resolutions, the song in loop, the call that’s due etc.
To think about it — One common thread in all the mentioned points –is how busy are we in just keeping our minds engaged — it is just observing & absorbing. Little do we realize that there’s no scope for it to assess & interpret what we feed it.
I came across the article Why Your Brain Needs Idle Time by Markham Heid where he mentions how some downtime could do good to brain in forming coherent narratives from the information acquired. It’s not just learning, but also activating the creativity of the mind that takes a toll in the constant “feed-me information” loop!
How do you ensure your mind gets the much needed breather?
While the effects of meditating regularly are undeniable when it comes to calming the mind, (I read this article sometime back -My journey with meditation) here are some alternatives which I feel could also work -
Keep it simple — Your choice of activity and duration
It could be anything — you could be cooking without scrolling through Facebook, or you could be walking/exercising without music, watering the plants without looking at the newspaper, doodling, etc. While you must be mindful of the activities that you do, these activities are regular chores which are usually done on auto mode.
We would anyway end up clubbing music/phone/newspaper with regular chores, might as well consider this for a recoup.
