3 Ways I Think Less, Notice More, And Keep My Head From Exploding
Have you ever heard this riddle?
You’re in the basement of a three-story building.
In front of you is a light switch panel with three switches, each one belonging to a different light on one of the floors above you.
The switches aren’t labeled so you don’t know what switch goes with what floor.
You can only leave the basement once to figure out what switch goes to each floor.
How can this be done?
You don’t need to figure it out. I’m going to give you the answer.
But first a quick story:
I watched the movie, Lucy, the other night.
Storyline: Girl gets pumped full of nootropic, cognitive enhancers, only a million times stronger, and her brain capacity goes through the roof.
Next, she’s a kung-fu master catching bullets with her teeth while memorizing encyclopedias in different languages.
Lucy hits her cerebral “peak” and starts “firing on all cylinders.” At one point, Lucy says:
“I’ve accessed 28% of my cerebral capacity. I can feel every living thing.”
Ugh… I don’t want to be like Lucy. I want to use less of my brain.
In the film, they talk about how we only use about 10% of our brain. Other studies claim this isn’t true, and that people use 90% of the brain’s capacity.
It doesn’t matter to me. 10% or 90%, it’s still too much.
I want to think less and notice more.
I want to call in sick to my brain and all the useless thoughts screaming out for attention. None of them wait in line or play nice with each other.
I’m making breakfast and the part of my brain that manages responsibility starts creating a to-do list. All of a sudden, I’m thinking about everything I didn’t get done yesterday. Cue the guilt switch. But I need to pay attention , the bacon is burning.
I’m at a stop light checking Instagram. There’s a honk behind me. I’m sorry — I didn’t see the light. Now, the other driver is angry with me and I’m angry at him for being angry with me.
My boss is talking and I’m thinking of something else. I wonder if my girlfriend loves me as much today as she did yesterday. What part of the brain handles insecurity?
What a haunted carousel of goals, reflections, resentments, and regrets!
My “cylinders are firing” too fast. There’re too many light bulbs on in my head at once and I don’t know which switch belongs to which light. I’m stuck in the basement.
Did I mention that at the end of the movie Lucy’s head explodes?
Here are the 3 things I do that help me think less, notice more, and keep my head from exploding:
Journal
Journaling lets me grab thoughts out of mid-air. Once I scribble them out, I can hold them in my hand and see them for what they are. Are they useful?
Another great thing about journaling is that you get to look back it later. You can put time between you and your words and re-read them as if they were written by someone else.
Sometimes I go back and read old journal entries and think, “Wow, this guy’s a big baby.”
Meditate
There’s already a ton of great stuff out there on the benefits of meditation. I’m not an expert. I use the Headspace app and (try to) meditate every morning.
For me, I don’t really notice the benefits of meditation until I stop meditating. It’s when I find myself particularly pissy or stressed, I realize, “I haven’t been meditating lately.”
Read
Reading gets you out of your own head and into someone else’s. It gives you the chance to try on different lives and learn from other people’s mistakes and success.
Your imagination is a muscle. Reading exercises it in ways that watching TV can’t.
“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.” -Kurt Vonnegut
“Hey, what about that riddle?”
Go to the light switch panel, turn on the first switch and wait ten minutes. Then turn it back off.
Next, turn on the second switch.
Go upstairs.
The floor with the light off and a warm bulb belongs to the first switch.
The floor with a light on belongs to the second.
You know the rest.
This post is already too long, and I’ve already thought too much today.
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