Hit The Reset Button On Your Brain

My husband and I recently took a Monday off and headed to West Marin.   It’s one of our favorite places to get away because there are few people out there, amazing coast and there is little to no wifi.  As we walked on the beach picking up seashells, watching seagulls fly over head, listening to the waves crash on the shore, I found myself taking deep breathes.  The longer we walked and listened and watched, the more I found myself decompressing from the week.  The more my brain stopped churning and thinking and doing…

It was very nice 🙂

We spent the entire day out on the coast and into the evening.  No computer, no phone calls, no text messages, no news papers, no Facebook.  It was truly a day off.  By the end of it my head felt clearer, like there was room to “take in” again.  There is so much stimulus in our world today and often I feel saturated.  And I know that when I feel saturated there is not much room for anything new or for creative ideas/solutions to come forth.  Tasks seem bigger and more demanding than they really are.  I’m noticing that I get LESS done when I’m like this, when I haven’t taken the time to reset my brain/nervous system/self.

This short article speaks to much of what I noticed on the beach that day.  My task-positive and task-negative networks have been out of balance.  All that influx of stimulus and multitasking has me feeling tired and drained.  In his article Levitin points out that if you want to be more productive and creative, and have more energy, we need to look at our balance of doing tasks and having time to daydream.  We need to truly give ourselves a break from the technology stimulus that pulls our attention in so many ways every minute of the day.

Here’s a link to the article.  I think it is well worth the read.