Creating Space To Think
The Space To Think Creatively
Are you overwhelmed with other people's ideas? I found myself in that state recently. It felt as though my mind was straddling too many paradigms. There was a palpable sense of too much going on in my mind -- as though I was being pulled in multiple directions at once. I felt like I didn't know what I was genuinely about. It persisted for a while until I just got fed up and decided enough was enough. I had to do something. I had to make it different somehow so that I could rediscover and hear my inner voice again. Here's how I went about creating the space to think for myself....
The Book Shelf Clear Out
My small home office was becoming claustrophobic to me. The bookshelves lining two walls were packed with hundreds of books on spirituality, personal development, philosophy, self help, business, success, new age and all the rest of it. It seemed like every book represented another cluster bomb of ideas. And just seeing them there seemed to be triggering the ideas in my mind -- simultaneously -- creating a discordant cacophony like listening to multiple radio stations playing at once. I realized that I had to get away from all these books and tapes with all their distinct and different systems and ways of living. I couldn't hear myself think in their presence. I decided to box them all up and put them in the loft -- out of sight, out of mind. Looking at the empty book shelves in my office, I felt an immediate sense of greater space, order and clarity.
The TV Fast
It occurred to me that I had been watching TV nearly every day since I was a little kid. What a colossal habit it was. I felt like I needed to watch TV for a while every night; I would always scan for movies or put on a DVD to create a distraction from life. I was living vicariously through movies and TV shows. I used to do a lot of fasting and experimenting with different health diets and so on. That gave me a keener sense of what it was like to discipline basic desires -- like hunger. I recognized that on a level that I hadn't even recognized I was addicted to TV. I decided to do a TV fast for 30 days to break the habit. No more movies. No more DVDs. No more Saturday night "Match of the Day" (soccer show). No more reality TV shows! It was a challenge, not a great big one, just a little one. I just wanted to see what would happen as a result of changing this habit. It was also part of this creating space so that my own creativity could arise.
The Newspaper and News Fast
This dovetailed nicely with giving up TV and just added an extra dimension to the creation of inner space. As someone who likes to keep tabs on what is going on, giving up news was another challenge. I'd been aware for months that the level of manipulation in the newspapers and TV news seemed to be getting worse and worse. Stories are reported in ways to manipulate your thinking. You find yourself expressing views that are diametrically opposed to what you are all about -- I saw this happening in myself and others and it worried me. It wasn't that hard to stop watching the news, or reading the newspaper -- apart from the sport pages which were my main port of call.
Unsubscribing From Ezines and Online Newsletter
Never mind the spam, so much utter tosh comes through in legitimate ezines that it's a relief to unsubscribe from them. Some internet marketers are so annoying! They send email everyday. There is only one ezine that I don't mind getting everyday and that is Early To Rise -- the value of what Michael Masterson has to say outweighs for me any concerns about the frequency of mailings. But many ezine owners are as annoying as spam dealers.Get off their lists and save your brain the trouble of acknowledging their presence in your email inbox. See my Brain Spam article.
Restricting Online Surfing
Hmm, I can't say I really bit the bullet on this one. I guess I should have made personal development sites and success-type sites off limits too. But I work online everyday and part of that involves research and it's so easy to stumble upon interesting links... ;-) At least, I've been a bit more discerning.
The Results So Far
It's been about 20 days so far. Which is nothing really (but hey, you try it!). As I said, I felt an immediate improvement in mental clarity from emptying my book shelves and creating space in my office. I had thought I would feel bereft without all my books, but instead it has felt kind of freeing. I haven't really thought about them at all. This ties in with all that good feng shui advice on clearing your clutter. I feel like I am creating a vacuum -- a vacuum for new ideas to come in.
Regarding the TV fast, again I didn't miss it too much. I was a bit grumpy at times the first week. This was a kind of TV detox mixed in with feeling a bit sorry for myself (embarrassing lack of perspective I know!). Saturday night was a bit of a trigger night -- usually the one night when we have dinner in front of the TV as a family -- pizza and pop idol! Plus there is the late night football show already mentioned -- which is my show. But now I don't think about TV at all. And the shows that I felt like I just had to watch before? Now I couldn't give a flying fig about them. Even the football/soccer seems fairly inconsequential.
I've taken a far greater interest in my dreams -- these inner movies have become more elaborate and convoluted. Instead of TV, I think of dreams as "Me-V" -- my own personal adventure movies. I write down all my dreams and later try and figure out what they are telling me.
I've become more productive. I had been in a bit of a creativity and productivity slump for a couple of months or more. I found that I have got a lot more done and also felt more ambitious, more interested in my life and what I can do. Without the lure of TV I am working longer, exercising more, and reading fiction which I hardly ever used to do.
And I've been socializing a lot more this month. Some events that I had been dreading attending turned out to be okay. My social skills were a bit rusty so I did a bit of psycho-cybernetics style visualizing before hand to update my self-image. Suffice to say, I was charm personified. ;-)
Creating Space To Think Creatively
If you want to encourage and develop your own inner genius, you need to create space for it. There is just so much to distract and overwhelm you these days. Take a leaf out of my book, and challenge yourself to go without some oh-so-important things like TV, newspapers, even those precious personal development books. You have the wisdom inside you. There are amazing insights within. Give yourself a chance to hear the voice of your own wisdom. Create some space for it.
You may also be interested in:
Are you overwhelmed with other people's ideas? I found myself in that state recently. It felt as though my mind was straddling too many paradigms. There was a palpable sense of too much going on in my mind -- as though I was being pulled in multiple directions at once. I felt like I didn't know what I was genuinely about. It persisted for a while until I just got fed up and decided enough was enough. I had to do something. I had to make it different somehow so that I could rediscover and hear my inner voice again. Here's how I went about creating the space to think for myself....
The Book Shelf Clear Out
My small home office was becoming claustrophobic to me. The bookshelves lining two walls were packed with hundreds of books on spirituality, personal development, philosophy, self help, business, success, new age and all the rest of it. It seemed like every book represented another cluster bomb of ideas. And just seeing them there seemed to be triggering the ideas in my mind -- simultaneously -- creating a discordant cacophony like listening to multiple radio stations playing at once. I realized that I had to get away from all these books and tapes with all their distinct and different systems and ways of living. I couldn't hear myself think in their presence. I decided to box them all up and put them in the loft -- out of sight, out of mind. Looking at the empty book shelves in my office, I felt an immediate sense of greater space, order and clarity.
The TV Fast
It occurred to me that I had been watching TV nearly every day since I was a little kid. What a colossal habit it was. I felt like I needed to watch TV for a while every night; I would always scan for movies or put on a DVD to create a distraction from life. I was living vicariously through movies and TV shows. I used to do a lot of fasting and experimenting with different health diets and so on. That gave me a keener sense of what it was like to discipline basic desires -- like hunger. I recognized that on a level that I hadn't even recognized I was addicted to TV. I decided to do a TV fast for 30 days to break the habit. No more movies. No more DVDs. No more Saturday night "Match of the Day" (soccer show). No more reality TV shows! It was a challenge, not a great big one, just a little one. I just wanted to see what would happen as a result of changing this habit. It was also part of this creating space so that my own creativity could arise.
The Newspaper and News Fast
This dovetailed nicely with giving up TV and just added an extra dimension to the creation of inner space. As someone who likes to keep tabs on what is going on, giving up news was another challenge. I'd been aware for months that the level of manipulation in the newspapers and TV news seemed to be getting worse and worse. Stories are reported in ways to manipulate your thinking. You find yourself expressing views that are diametrically opposed to what you are all about -- I saw this happening in myself and others and it worried me. It wasn't that hard to stop watching the news, or reading the newspaper -- apart from the sport pages which were my main port of call.
Unsubscribing From Ezines and Online Newsletter
Never mind the spam, so much utter tosh comes through in legitimate ezines that it's a relief to unsubscribe from them. Some internet marketers are so annoying! They send email everyday. There is only one ezine that I don't mind getting everyday and that is Early To Rise -- the value of what Michael Masterson has to say outweighs for me any concerns about the frequency of mailings. But many ezine owners are as annoying as spam dealers.Get off their lists and save your brain the trouble of acknowledging their presence in your email inbox. See my Brain Spam article.
Restricting Online Surfing
Hmm, I can't say I really bit the bullet on this one. I guess I should have made personal development sites and success-type sites off limits too. But I work online everyday and part of that involves research and it's so easy to stumble upon interesting links... ;-) At least, I've been a bit more discerning.
The Results So Far
It's been about 20 days so far. Which is nothing really (but hey, you try it!). As I said, I felt an immediate improvement in mental clarity from emptying my book shelves and creating space in my office. I had thought I would feel bereft without all my books, but instead it has felt kind of freeing. I haven't really thought about them at all. This ties in with all that good feng shui advice on clearing your clutter. I feel like I am creating a vacuum -- a vacuum for new ideas to come in.
Regarding the TV fast, again I didn't miss it too much. I was a bit grumpy at times the first week. This was a kind of TV detox mixed in with feeling a bit sorry for myself (embarrassing lack of perspective I know!). Saturday night was a bit of a trigger night -- usually the one night when we have dinner in front of the TV as a family -- pizza and pop idol! Plus there is the late night football show already mentioned -- which is my show. But now I don't think about TV at all. And the shows that I felt like I just had to watch before? Now I couldn't give a flying fig about them. Even the football/soccer seems fairly inconsequential.
I've taken a far greater interest in my dreams -- these inner movies have become more elaborate and convoluted. Instead of TV, I think of dreams as "Me-V" -- my own personal adventure movies. I write down all my dreams and later try and figure out what they are telling me.
I've become more productive. I had been in a bit of a creativity and productivity slump for a couple of months or more. I found that I have got a lot more done and also felt more ambitious, more interested in my life and what I can do. Without the lure of TV I am working longer, exercising more, and reading fiction which I hardly ever used to do.
And I've been socializing a lot more this month. Some events that I had been dreading attending turned out to be okay. My social skills were a bit rusty so I did a bit of psycho-cybernetics style visualizing before hand to update my self-image. Suffice to say, I was charm personified. ;-)
Creating Space To Think Creatively
If you want to encourage and develop your own inner genius, you need to create space for it. There is just so much to distract and overwhelm you these days. Take a leaf out of my book, and challenge yourself to go without some oh-so-important things like TV, newspapers, even those precious personal development books. You have the wisdom inside you. There are amazing insights within. Give yourself a chance to hear the voice of your own wisdom. Create some space for it.
You may also be interested in:
