How to Scrub Out Your Brain
I know I’ve been guilty of this: if I don’t have anyone to go have an adventure with, I shrug and fill my time with work, chores, or anything that is a Have To instead of a Want To.
I did that for years. Worked seven days a week, whether for someone else’s business or my own…to the point that when I couldn’t work for whatever reason (no work to do, no clients to read, or I just didn’t feel up to it) I absolutely freaked out.
I did two things about it: first, I enforced a Day Off every week so I can find myself again. (To this day, don’t expect to schedule an appointment with me on Wednesday; won’t happen.)
And then I decided to find ways to have adventures with myself. These little adventures “scrubbed out my brain” when I needed a refresh, or when I needed to look at the world through a different lens to get my creative heart beating again.
In case you’re like me, here are some ideas for you:
A walk through the senses. If you had but one, how would your world expand? How would you build it to accent what would be your reach into the world?
Go someplace you have never been within fifty miles of home. Make a point of NOT eating at places that you might normally eat (a McDonald’s in Fresno is no different from a McDonald’s in Sausalito, Des Moines or the Bronx), or doing things you might normally do (mall-crawling, visiting a bookstore). Most importantly, leave the judgments at home (“this is better where I live…that should be changed,” etc.) Treat it as if your destination was halfway across the world; find things unique, fascinating, or just plain enjoyable. And talk to the locals.
Write a letter to someone famous (but dead) that you would have loved to know. Not a gushing fan letter, but a letter as if you and he/she were normal correspondents. What would your thoughts be on something important that happened to them? What would you like them to know about your life right now? What advice might you ask for?
Today You Are Six: find and do something basic that a six-year-old might enjoy. Make a kite from scratch. Tape five big poster boards to your living room wall and color with crayons or markers. Make a box into something fantastical (example: my nephew often made a time machine out of the biggest box in the house and took himself on some wild adventures).
Reread a children’s book from your childhood as if you read it out loud to a favorite younger person.
Design the outfit you would want to wear to your one hundredth birthday. Assume you are hale, hearty, and still have all your faculties!
Practice “looking small.” Find an object in nature, a portion of a building, a sculpture in a park. See all the details — large and small, obvious and subtle. Explore your object for at least a half an hour. If you “drift” into imagination, so much the better. Bring a pad and pen and write down what you see.
Turn off all electronics and take a vow of silence for the day. (For years, actor Larry Hagman used to do this once a week.) The inward journey is one of the greatest adventures — and learning to communicate in looks, touches, gestures is an experience that will take you utterly out of the ordinary.
We can’t all afford vacations. We don’t always have our besties to hand to go gallivanting with.
But you might discover that the person in the mirror is just as delightful a companion as someone else when your brain and heart need to wander in new vistas.
