Amazing….simplicity at its very best. Thank you for every word….. So many times I switch the roles of my brain and my gut. My gut thinks all night long and my brain feels it the next day. Love the reading resources you share. Thank you!!
A great reminder! Especially important to start making this kind of space in the winter months when the schedule naturally allows for pauses.
There is an exercise that I did back in the Fall. It was part of the Artist's Way coursebook. It was a "no reading anything week". What?! How is this possible? Of course her students at that time, in the '90s, responded the same way. But I'm thinking, 'that was before the tech boom of computer screens and smart phones that incessantly crave our attention and responses. That was before mass addiction to social media and emails and text notifications.'
But, I decided to go for it anyway. No reading. Got it. I was on a vacation at the time that this exercise popped up and so the new fiction book sat unopened throughout the travels.
The idea of "no reading week" is to stop brining in stimuli day in and day out requiring us to respond whether we want to or not, externally or internally. This process of info in and response out keeps us from creating from our own resources within us.
This makes sense to me. I quiet quite all social media 1 1/2 years ago and was amazed at how it freed up my brain bandwidth.
So, I did it to the best of my ability. No reading. No reading emails, no checking texts messages. No reading anything as much as possible. Instead I focused on writing, journalling, coloring, conversation, instead of texting back I used the microphone on text and recorded my responses and asked my closest friends and family to record and send their messages. Just for 1 week! I thought I would be met with sideways glances but they all supported this and agreed.
It was very hard and also very liberating. In fact I plan to do this from time to time. My 2nd week of no reading starts tomorrow! Wish me luck! 🙃
All that to say, I encourage everyone to try a "no reading week" and let the journal take you on an adventure!
Karen- Thanks for sharing your thoughts on thinking!
I love this! Thank you for sharing. What a great challenge. Another thing Brendon talked about at the conference I referenced was the idea of mental fatigue. We don’t realize how ‘tired’ we are in our minds from the constant barrage of inputs. Enjoy your next round of no reading. I’m glad you popped in to share with us. Keep us posted!
I just finished my "reading deprivation week" an exercise in the coursebook Artist's Way. Here's your update:
It was harder this time around. I think because the weather has been gross and I was waiting on my period, cause ya know, perimenopause. and the combo really had me spinning my wheels wanting to read to distract. I got some writing done but not as much as I wanted.
I completed a puzzle, did a lot more chores around the house and spent more time helping my son with his math homework and had some lovely coffee conversations with my husband. And I hit the gym almost everyday to walk and stretch.
The hardest part was staying away from reading phone texts. I didn't. I did stay off social media and substack and emails. Funny how sneaky I am. Found myself reading vitamin bottles. Lol
I think I may do this again in the spring, it definitely makes room for creative thought.
Thanks for checking back in! So funny about the vitamin bottles! Lol! Overall, sounds like a successful experiment. I think it’s always good to mix up our routines and patterns here and there. To see what really serves us and what weighs us down. And how to approach some of those behaviors more intentionally. Love hearing how you leaned into other activities with the extra time you gained. Did you ‘re enter’ feeling like you had to play catch up on emails and substack etc?
Great resources, Karen! I'm excited to dive in! Thank you!
Your reminder about what Brendon shared was quite timely as I'm working on giving my week more structure with non negotiable time blocks, and a thinking block is something I know will lead to good things, so it's going on my calendar!
I appreciate you and your commitment to showing up consistently!
Enjoy the resources...I am still chewing on a lot of it myself. And, allowing that thinking time to digest. Can't wait to hear how your thinking block serves you (and the world). :)
Amazing….simplicity at its very best. Thank you for every word….. So many times I switch the roles of my brain and my gut. My gut thinks all night long and my brain feels it the next day. Love the reading resources you share. Thank you!!
A great reminder! Especially important to start making this kind of space in the winter months when the schedule naturally allows for pauses.
There is an exercise that I did back in the Fall. It was part of the Artist's Way coursebook. It was a "no reading anything week". What?! How is this possible? Of course her students at that time, in the '90s, responded the same way. But I'm thinking, 'that was before the tech boom of computer screens and smart phones that incessantly crave our attention and responses. That was before mass addiction to social media and emails and text notifications.'
But, I decided to go for it anyway. No reading. Got it. I was on a vacation at the time that this exercise popped up and so the new fiction book sat unopened throughout the travels.
The idea of "no reading week" is to stop brining in stimuli day in and day out requiring us to respond whether we want to or not, externally or internally. This process of info in and response out keeps us from creating from our own resources within us.
This makes sense to me. I quiet quite all social media 1 1/2 years ago and was amazed at how it freed up my brain bandwidth.
So, I did it to the best of my ability. No reading. No reading emails, no checking texts messages. No reading anything as much as possible. Instead I focused on writing, journalling, coloring, conversation, instead of texting back I used the microphone on text and recorded my responses and asked my closest friends and family to record and send their messages. Just for 1 week! I thought I would be met with sideways glances but they all supported this and agreed.
It was very hard and also very liberating. In fact I plan to do this from time to time. My 2nd week of no reading starts tomorrow! Wish me luck! 🙃
All that to say, I encourage everyone to try a "no reading week" and let the journal take you on an adventure!
Karen- Thanks for sharing your thoughts on thinking!
I love this! Thank you for sharing. What a great challenge. Another thing Brendon talked about at the conference I referenced was the idea of mental fatigue. We don’t realize how ‘tired’ we are in our minds from the constant barrage of inputs. Enjoy your next round of no reading. I’m glad you popped in to share with us. Keep us posted!
I just finished my "reading deprivation week" an exercise in the coursebook Artist's Way. Here's your update:
It was harder this time around. I think because the weather has been gross and I was waiting on my period, cause ya know, perimenopause. and the combo really had me spinning my wheels wanting to read to distract. I got some writing done but not as much as I wanted.
I completed a puzzle, did a lot more chores around the house and spent more time helping my son with his math homework and had some lovely coffee conversations with my husband. And I hit the gym almost everyday to walk and stretch.
The hardest part was staying away from reading phone texts. I didn't. I did stay off social media and substack and emails. Funny how sneaky I am. Found myself reading vitamin bottles. Lol
I think I may do this again in the spring, it definitely makes room for creative thought.
Hope you are still making time to just 🤔 think!
Thanks for checking back in! So funny about the vitamin bottles! Lol! Overall, sounds like a successful experiment. I think it’s always good to mix up our routines and patterns here and there. To see what really serves us and what weighs us down. And how to approach some of those behaviors more intentionally. Love hearing how you leaned into other activities with the extra time you gained. Did you ‘re enter’ feeling like you had to play catch up on emails and substack etc?
Great resources, Karen! I'm excited to dive in! Thank you!
Your reminder about what Brendon shared was quite timely as I'm working on giving my week more structure with non negotiable time blocks, and a thinking block is something I know will lead to good things, so it's going on my calendar!
I appreciate you and your commitment to showing up consistently!
Enjoy the resources...I am still chewing on a lot of it myself. And, allowing that thinking time to digest. Can't wait to hear how your thinking block serves you (and the world). :)