Tag: health

$$$ WHY BOREDOM CAN BE VERY GOOD

$$$ WHY BOREDOM CAN BE VERY GOOD

For me I define boredom like this: It’s when you must be fully engaged and present and actively working on a project…AND it is always a monotonous one, one that you must FORCE yourself through.

Working at a pre-K twice each week has really shown me what boredom is. You have to be engaged in the scheduled activities of the two-year olds. You’re going through all the motions and unlike an arduous hike where you get to view the gorgeous scenery at the summit, or a workout where you feel the biological surge of blood flow and adrenaline as well as the knowledge that you’re actively improving your physique and making a difference in your health, working with two year olds you feel like you’re just keeping them in the right place. Your attention isn’t free to wander; it is consumed by each child’s every second impulse to throw something or to escape. Also, you’re not really getting to see the progress that they’re making because they won’t be with you next year and they’re someone else’s children.

 Lately I have become fascinated by whether boredom can have an impact on motivation levels. Could it help develop the right mental framework for experiencing the dopamine drive, the feeling to engage in a task and to enjoy doing it? Could it bring about new ideas?

 I am actively trying to lean into boredom. I want these moments of boredom to fill my days so that I can be more creative and come up with a variety of useful and novel ideas. I’m using boredom as a tool to ultimately sharpen my senses and my experiences.

 Just as buying more lottery tickets increases your chances of winning, more ideas increase your ability to generate more ideas from your subconscious. These are the kinds of ideas that can be streamed into the pipeline of your awareness. The more of these you have, the more likely you are to come up with an original synthesis. This could be an invention, business idea, or a strategy to do something that no one has ever thought of before.

It’s absolutely fascinating to consider that all the raw materials of the universe surround you on a moment-to-moment basis. But these must be extracted from the chaos; they must be rearranged. You can come up with something out of the drudgery of your own life and produce an original idea.

 Let’s pivot back to boredom. The more I learn the more I see that punctuating your day with 20 minutes of monotonous boredom is a recipe…a conduit to having divergent thinking. Only then can you piece the strange or unseemingly disconnected thoughts together.

It’s the fusion of ideas that we desire. Often, it’s a problem that requires a solution.

Say, you don’t like the way your house looks. Or, you don’t know how to attract more followers to your Instagram account. Maybe you really want to figure out a way to develop a line of interesting home decor items that reflect your aesthetics, your artistic tastes and personality. Perhaps you want to figure out a way to make more friendships and more personal connections in your day-to-day life.

One of the interesting things about our brains is that when we are truly bored, when we’re going through repetitive thoughts our brains default mode network activates. This is considered the opposite of executive function. If executive function is when your brain is engaged in a complex and detailed thinking, the default mode network is when you’re NOT attempting complex or detailed thinking…you’re not doing high level math or constructing elevated literary prose. These require lots of conscious effort. They need the management of your attention so you can retrieve information from your memory to compose or create something or understand something.

 How do you know when the default mode network turns on? The best way to know is if you suddenly hear the voice within your head. You hear not just the ruminating thoughts about “what you should have said” or “why did she say that to me?” but you hear things like, “Maybe I should turn one of my living room walls into a “Butterfly Wall” with lots of pictures of butterflies.

 In other words, when the default mode network arrives, random ideas start coming. Ideas that may or may not be useful. You will notice that they start to flutter through. They are allowed through the gate because you have deactivated the main executive controller—the pre-frontal cortex. You’re doing mindless tasks like folding laundry, going for a walk, taking a shower, or washing dishes. A new idea comes at you. You think, ahh, maybe I should try that…maybe I should research that phenomenon? Maybe I should write about that phenomenon! When these kinds of thoughts start coming, you know you are in the default mode network.

 When you’ve finally arrived (and ANY music, listening to podcasts or beeps from your phone will not help you get there as quickly) you need to know that this is where interesting connections between ideas are made. This is where the real MONEY-MAKING CONCEPTS HAPPEN.

 Different things that your subconscious may have picked up at different times of the day or days ago or even weeks ago may spontaneously bubble up and combine to make a very wonderful idea. This is where inventions happen. This is where powerful plots to movies break out, where two pieces of disparate data reproduce a new concept. Sometimes these concepts are quite useful. They may help resolve in earlier conflict period you have been dealing with.

New approaches, new inventions, new paintings, new business plans, new plots to novels or plays or gardening landscapes develop in this state. They make themselves tangible to your conscious state brain.

This is exactly why periods of boredom, monotony, and stillness end up giving you such a wildly incredible edge. But it makes total sense! You can’t understand brightness without the dark, and you can’t see the bright ideas without the simultaneous background of monotony…your own feelings and experiences of deep boredom. Yes, going through repetitive motions will get you there.

It is a literal fact that your brain will start to conjure up its’ own unique creations if you let yourself step into boredom and monotony on a regular basis. You need this kind of “contrast state” to push your brain to rearranging and re-managing itself as it works with less stimulation.

I can attest to these many times over the course of my life. The times where I really allowed boredom to prevail, the more likely my brain could reconfigure itself, bring up storage boxes from the basement, so to speak. More storage boxes to look through? More stuff for it to work with!

KEEP MENTAL NOTES

KEEP MENTAL NOTES

We keep being told “What gets measured gets managed”.

If you can see your waist whittling down, you can measure it to confirm a reduction in inches.

Likewise, if you think you’re getting more movement throughout the day and becoming less sedentary—you can measure the number of daily steps you’re getting with a Fit app on your phone.

When you get to experience and visualize the improvements in your various goals you have instituted for yourself, you get a mental reward.

You end up finding ways to implement measurement techniques into your life. Did you forego sugar for half the day? If you can’t track it somewhere JUST NOTICE IT. Keep a mental note. Always take moments to thank yourself and reward yourself with just the thought.

Do you have a social media account where you post regular photos or reels? You’re constantly tracking your success. You’re tracking your reach with the analytics on the platform you use. You’ll take note of comments, likes, views and subscriber numbers.  As you look at the metrics and consider them, your brain is taking notice.

You end up gaining a sense of both inspiration and motivation when you see these improvements in your metrics.

We need to start realizing that health, mental health and self-improvement requires this metric or “analytic system” too.

One thing I want to emphasize is that you don’t necessarily need to jot it down or keep an orderly tab on a device. Instead, just think about it. Your brain is a computer too.  Take mental pictures of your little successes. In other words, savor your success for a moment and give yourself credit.

The reason why this method is so undiscussed is because we have a million apps and a million programs and tools at our disposal to keep track of our progress.

But what if it was far simpler and far more accessible and much quicker just to give yourself constant reminders?

You probably give yourself mental reminders about “How out of shape you are” or “How you’re terribly inept at such and such”.  It’s easy to deluge your brain with constant, negative mental reminders. Psychology tells us that we have a negativity bias. Our brains are wired to see the negative and the scary since our species developed on the African plains confronted by vicious beasts of all kinds. The human brain naturally wired itself from the beginning to be LEERY before CHEERY.

Perhaps we could turn this all around and start to slowly give ourselves little mental notes when we perform the task effectively or we do something correctly.

Even if just a small thing, just say “Okay, I did that one thing!” or “I lifted weights in the basement for 2 minutes.”. Or “I parked very far from the store entrance in order to get more steps in.” Maybe you just need to remind yourself “I don’t have a headache right now, that means I can focus on any task better.”

Take mental notes throughout the day. Your brain does notice this, it builds reserve for more productive future actions. There is a snowball effect that is occurring.

Just as Dave Ramsey has a method about paying off the small debts first to gain a sense of accomplishment to have the mental impetus to pay off the larger debts later, perhaps we need to NOTICE THE LITTLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS FIRST in order to have the mental ability to sustain ourselves as we work towards BIGGER accomplishments.

To Boil it down: Start small and don’t make it technical! Just take mental notes about the positive instances in your life. Your brain will take notice, even if subconsciously, and will push you into further positive actions.

Exercise NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Exercise NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

It’s January and New Years Resolutions are upon us.

How can I be more fit? How can I become a better painter, writer or seamstress? How can I FINALLY figure out an avenue to make some side CASH? How can I improve my current career? How can l learn to be more thankful and reflective in every present moment? How can I find absolutely every possible way to squeeze out more creativity in every moment? How can I really, really, really learn to waste less time even though I’m already quite frugal with my time as it is?

These are all questions that are slamming into minds right now. We all want to improve. Everyone tends to have the same problems–not enough time, lots of interests and definitely a passion to use every single bit of their potential.

But here’s something you need to get rid of–especially as you commit to getting rid of the bad chemicals in your food–you must get rid of discouragement and depression. You have one brief life. It makes ZERO sense to spend time not feeling mentally or physically at your peak. You have this one opportunity (as we currently understand) to experience your particular consciousness. So why be bothered by feelings of listlessness or someone else’s little reaction to you?

I firmly believe we can craft peak levels of performance much more frequently than we realize. Even just writing these words I feel myself getting jazzed up.

Now, if you know of ways that certifiably increase your performance and an upbeat mental approach to issues, you can implement these into your moments.

I woke up sluggishly at 5:50am this morning. No, it wasn’t an all-star kind of morning. Everything felt pointless. Repetitive. And to use a cliche, just going through the motions. Then, at 6:50 am I decided to embark upon intense cardiovascular exercise on our exercise bike. After 15 minutes I felt back to normal. The sluggish feeling had all but dissipated. And this was all because of the exercise. Here I was doing something I didn’t want to do—and EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, doing something at a TIME I DIDN”T WANT TO DO IT. I didn’t put it off like I wanted to. I just went ahead and did it.

The best way to think of exercise (for me at least) is refreshment or a rinse. The mind is being refreshed by the neurotransmitters being produced from the exercise/movements. Neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin are showered over your brain. These will help get you into the mental state that you need for the day. They assist with clarity. They will improve your mood and motivation. Also, higher levels of oxygen are reaching various brain tissues.

My favorite thing about exercise is that it very likely produces neuroplasticity. Most studies are indicating the involvement of exercise on brain growth. Who knows what we will find out about exercise over the next 50 years?

So, if there is one thing I will commit to this year it will be exercise. I will make movement and fitness my goal. I really hope this main goal will then trickle to other areas of my life. I can only hope.

“Good Little Decision” Journaling

“Good Little Decision” Journaling

Every act of self-discipline puts you on a journey to success and mental balance. I truly believe that just GRABBING my moments and making even just a few, very decisive moves will catapult me into a truly new dimension–a new reality of health and wellness.

Here is a recent example: Last night I decided not to eat a bowl of ice cream that I had planned to eat. I made my son a bowl of ice cream and was almost ready to make one for myself. At that CRITICAL MOMENT, I had a thought, a reflection, a flash of mindfulness. I thought, “You know, I’m only going to eat this bowl of ice cream for the taste–not because I’m famished, not because I’m even bored, not because it has some health denseness to it…but solely because I want a jolt of dopamine.

I’m not quite sure how I got through that impulse and made it to the other side. Truly, it was one of the few I’ve made. I lead a moderately healthy lifestyle but always give in for the “taste”. This time I made a choice–a deferral of gratification. I realize I need to make more of these little decisions on a moment-to-moment basis. Even here, I stopped for a few minutes to write and journal. It’s injecting the good decisions in your day–throughout your day–that really does the trick.

I think I’m going to make myself a journal where I start to write down good little decisions I make on a daily basis. Any act that fortifies my brain or my overall health should be written down and remembered. I need to write these moments down! As I develop my track record for good decisions, I will increase the level of confidence and positivity I have for myself. This will keep the momentum going for the times that I do break down and make awful health decisions. I have to start seeing myself as someone who can make better decisions. Afterall, I have done a few so I can do more, right? That’s the state of mind that you need to be in.

Sure, I may have had cookies for breakfast but how about exercising now, VIGOROUSLY? How about not checking my phone? How about writing a blog post? How about trying to force myself to stay positive for just a little while longer? How about channeling creativity instead of scrolling?

All of these little decisions add up!

PICKING YOURSELF OUT OF THE DUMPSTER

I’ve concluded that a 20 minute cardio exercise session followed by stretches is perhaps the best strategy for picking myself up from the dumps.

After 20 minutes of fairly intense cardio you start to feel a soothing, warm calmness descend upon you. Exercising regularly like this will assist in achieving a variety of goals all at the same time!

While exercise isn’t a 100% guarantee, it will INCREASE YOUR CHANCES of being more creative, less moody. It will INCREASE YOUR CHANCES of sleeping better. It will pivot your mind away from negative thinking (at least temporarily). It will INCREASE YOUR CHANCES of having a better memory that day because of the increased blood flow to your brain.

Because exercising regularly INCREASES the likelihood of so many positive life experiences and emotions, it ends up diminishing the time…those moments you’re spending in unpleasant states of what I call “mental dreariness”. Exercising gives you a MUCH NEEDED BREAK from anxiety or dwelling on (seemingly) failed experiences or failed personal interactions.

Over the weeks, LESS TIME SPENT IN MENTAL DREARINESS OR DEPRESSION starts to ADD UP! You’re reworking your entire conscious configuration. Think about all the new inputs you’ll receive from more time spent in flow states and less time allowing your brain to wander into jealousy or resentment or comparison to others. It’s like compound interest for your brain. Over time, you’re changing into an improved person, both mentally and physically.

The problem with exercise is that it is often uncomfortable, monotonous and boring. But other than that, it’s a huge investment to your life and wellbeing. Start out for 5 minutes of intense cardio a day and start to add a minute or two. I started around 8 minutes per day and FINALLY got up to 15 (yes, after 2 years). Now I’m easily committed to 20 minutes a day of intense exercise.

Once you start seeing the incremental improvements, you’re hooked. You’ll even miss it on those sick days!