Thinking
What do you do when you need to think; when you have a knotty issue you need to work out, or kinks in a plan that need to be sorted? For me, a task which requires little or no thought to carry out works best. Repetitive, monotonous, or something you've done so many times that you do not need to think about what you are doing - nothing that can distract me from my thought process.
So, for me, I wash dishes, stacks of them. Or let me say I USED to. I've not been able to do that ever since we were able to afford domestic staff to deal with the otherwise distasteful household tasks involved in housekeeping (what? because I'm female I must like domesticity - cleaning, cooking etc that come with being a woman in our society? I don't think so!) I had to find something else.
So, I tried taking walks but the scenery - people, vegetation, traffic, birds, God's awesomeness that is apparent in the world we live in but are too preoccupied and involved in the rat race to see and/or appreciate - always distracted me. I decided that walks would be great for exercise and for relaxation.
Then I tried watching football (or soccer, depending on what country you live in). I see many of you are confused. Let me explain - football, to me, is mindless. I mean, what's the point of 20 adults chasing each other round the field just to get possession of a ball? Anyway, that did not work - it's so mindless that I promptly drift off to sleep. Now I watch football if I have trouble sleeping!
I find cartoons really funny and sometimes fascinating - the animation artists just keep getting better, so much so that for some of them, you have moments where you are wondering if the characters are real actors or not. Obviously cartoons were not the answer!
Tried thinking while on the bug. I spend a lot of time in there - reading, updating my to-do lists, planning my day, making decisions. That did not really work for me - seems my brain goes into over-drive while I'm in there. Weird, but true!
Some folks go for a drive. To me, that's really dangerous. Driving is anything but a mindless activity, what with all the crazy road users that are out there. One could literally think ones self to an early grave!
Anyway, I went through a lot of activities but none worked. Then I remembered the one thing I used to do when really upset and needed an outlet (other than decking the person who upset me!). Bake. I baked when angry or upset. And the angrier or more upset I was, the better the product (conversely, if I cook regular food when I'm angry, the food is NASTY - bitter and sometimes acidic. ReallY!!) I once made a chocolate cake so moist and light and sweet and filled with chocolate butter cream that if Martha Stewart had tasted it, she'd have BEGGED for the recipe. Not been that mad again, therefore, never baked like that again.
I figured that since I could bake particular pastries without thinking, then baking would be great for when I needed to think.
Tried it a couple of times and it worked - not as well as I hoped, but it worked. So, I did that for a while. But, recently, it has become distracting and so, I've begun to search for something else.
Sigh. I think I'll just send the kids over to their cousins' house, get those sleep masks and lie on my bed and think. Hope I do not doze off!
So, for me, I wash dishes, stacks of them. Or let me say I USED to. I've not been able to do that ever since we were able to afford domestic staff to deal with the otherwise distasteful household tasks involved in housekeeping (what? because I'm female I must like domesticity - cleaning, cooking etc that come with being a woman in our society? I don't think so!) I had to find something else.
So, I tried taking walks but the scenery - people, vegetation, traffic, birds, God's awesomeness that is apparent in the world we live in but are too preoccupied and involved in the rat race to see and/or appreciate - always distracted me. I decided that walks would be great for exercise and for relaxation.
Then I tried watching football (or soccer, depending on what country you live in). I see many of you are confused. Let me explain - football, to me, is mindless. I mean, what's the point of 20 adults chasing each other round the field just to get possession of a ball? Anyway, that did not work - it's so mindless that I promptly drift off to sleep. Now I watch football if I have trouble sleeping!
I find cartoons really funny and sometimes fascinating - the animation artists just keep getting better, so much so that for some of them, you have moments where you are wondering if the characters are real actors or not. Obviously cartoons were not the answer!
Tried thinking while on the bug. I spend a lot of time in there - reading, updating my to-do lists, planning my day, making decisions. That did not really work for me - seems my brain goes into over-drive while I'm in there. Weird, but true!
Some folks go for a drive. To me, that's really dangerous. Driving is anything but a mindless activity, what with all the crazy road users that are out there. One could literally think ones self to an early grave!
Anyway, I went through a lot of activities but none worked. Then I remembered the one thing I used to do when really upset and needed an outlet (other than decking the person who upset me!). Bake. I baked when angry or upset. And the angrier or more upset I was, the better the product (conversely, if I cook regular food when I'm angry, the food is NASTY - bitter and sometimes acidic. ReallY!!) I once made a chocolate cake so moist and light and sweet and filled with chocolate butter cream that if Martha Stewart had tasted it, she'd have BEGGED for the recipe. Not been that mad again, therefore, never baked like that again.
I figured that since I could bake particular pastries without thinking, then baking would be great for when I needed to think.
Tried it a couple of times and it worked - not as well as I hoped, but it worked. So, I did that for a while. But, recently, it has become distracting and so, I've begun to search for something else.
Sigh. I think I'll just send the kids over to their cousins' house, get those sleep masks and lie on my bed and think. Hope I do not doze off!
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