In the excellent book ‘The shallows’, the author describes how our internet overload is drowning out any time for quiet reflection. I read this book while on holiday on a tropical beach, away from said distractions, and soaking in quiet reflection. I swore that upon returning home, I would limit my internet use, I would focus on one project at a time, and I would get back in touch with my capacity for deep thought and reflection.
Easier said than done apparently.
However, I’m making baby steps. The biggest of these small steps is going out to a friends farm once a week and working (usually weeding). It’s a repitive motion, done in a muddy field in a valley that feels more like a bowl. The clouds bump up against the hills on all sides. This grey, repetitive time gives me hours and hours to just think.
Sometimes I try to go Zen and clear my thoughts, mindfully pulling weeds without judgment. At other times I harshly judge myself for the things I think of when finally given time to think (“I wonder if the kardashians are still famous?”). But mostly my mind just lolls around like a puppy. Pulling up long forgotten memories of ex-boyfriends and remote travel locations, wondering where my life and career are going, reminding myself to send an invite email about camping. It’s amazing the vast reserve of stuff that is in there, just waiting to be forgotten about.
I’ve also started to try (or trying to start) meditation. I maybe only get to it twice per week, but the guilt is there, gnawing at me to do it more often. I think this is perhaps a precursor to actually doing it more often.
And finally, while working on projects I’m trying to ignore the rest of the rabbit hole that is the internet. Closing the internet if I’m working on writing, closing useless tabs online, or even brainstorming on paper.
And so, it is helping? Am I tapping into some vast reserve of creativity and happiness by giving myself time to think?
Maybe. I’m definitely feeling clearer headed, which could be a function of doing less work. But I’m also feeling more strategic – able to think ahead, see different angles of things etc. I think what he said in ‘the shallows’ is true: that quiet reflection allows humans to link disparate thoughts together (and that internet information storage could never replicate this function). These linkages can’t be forced. All the junk I think of while farming isn’t really junk. It’s helping me pull things together.
As life get’s busier and summer wraps up, I hope I remember this. That time every week to just THINK can potentially make the rest of my time more production. If I consciously went into my 'thinking time' (for lack of a better word) with certain issues and problems I wanted to solve, I think it might be even more effective.
