From Natalie Christie of the great self-improvement blog The Tiny Soprano, here are some great tips for revitalizing your mind.
“People only see what they are prepared to see.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Have you ever starting off driving in one direction, only to suddenly notice you have taken a completely wrong turn purely out of habit? We can see where we are going, but we haven’t really been watching.
Whenever this happens we usually blame it on being distracted. But how does this “autopilot” suddenly switch itself on? Why do we sometimes find ourselves blindly missing the obvious?
You may be surprised to know that you are probably doing this kind of sleepwalking all the time. Because of the sheer amount of sensory information that your poor brain has to process, it’s much easier for it to apply filters to everything it sees, hears, tastes, smells or touches.
What this means is that you don’t really “see” things you are habitually used to seeing. This makes it difficult to spot when things are a little different from normal.
The problem is, if you have your filters on high, then sure, you’ve managed to escape being bombarded with all the irrelevant junk out there. But what if a fantastic opportunity accidentally ended up in your sensory spam folder?
Don’t allow your poor overworked brain to miss the good stuff. Here are 7 energizing ways to start waking up your mind:
1.Be constantly curious. An eager and inquisitive mind is the best way to avoid mental sleepwalking. Children are a perfect example - they take nothing for granted and love exploring and questioning things we have learned to accept as the norm. So get into a childlike state of wonder at the world. (But this is not an excuse to start throwing tantrums when your partner eats all the chocolate.)
2.Change your perspective. Start challenging the way you perceive things. Ask yourself, “Are there other ways I can look at this?” Start playing with optical illusions to train your mind to actively embrace the ambiguous. Choose to consciously challenge the face value of everything - there’s probably a lot more beneath the surface that you haven’t noticed. (This applies to how you interact with other people too.)
3.Learn something new. There’s no better way to enliven your mind than developing new skills, physical and mental. Your brain loves to make new connections and the more you challenge it, the stronger these connections are and the longer they last.
4.Travel. Give yourself the chance to be present in an alien environment, where you really are experiencing everything for the first time. The more exotic and foreign, the better. Or just choose a different cafe to meet your friends. Or a restaurant you’ve never visited. Even better - why not just drive somewhere without knowing where it is you’re going?
5.Ditch the buds. Waking up your mind isn’t just about what you see. Why not start really listening for a change? Use that time on the train to eavesdrop on the conversations of your fellow passengers instead of digging out the MP3 player. You may hear something unusual that sparks a creative idea you can use. Or simply take a moment to really tune in to your surroundings when you are outside. (I love picking out the individual songs of different birds outside my window in the morning.)
6.Clear up your diet. Having a fuzzy head from lack of sleep or too much drinking the night before does nothing for having a fresh and alert mind, primed to spot the next opportunity. Our brains operate on “safe mode” already, why deaden the noise even more? A detox not only does wonders for your head, but food tastes different when your body has had a spring clean, and you may find yourself preferring the healthier you for the added alertness it brings.
7.Meditate. To get a mind that is fully awake, you need to also give it time to rest. Meditating doesn’t have to be anything other than simply closing your eyes for a moment and allowing the chatter to cease. If you can spare 15 minutes in the morning and again at night (and I know you can) just lie in bed and focus on your breathing.
As Albert Einstein once said, “I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.” Wake up your mind to the world around you - there are connections to be made and secrets uncovered!
Natalie Christie is the little diva behind The Tiny Soprano, a website that features small but powerful ways to become more authentic, more aligned, and more in tune with the best version of you.