Breaks and Neuronal Shift

An artist I knew sometime back would always work on multiple artworks simultaneously. He would tell me that in his break from one painting he would work on the other, allow it to physically dry and perceptually harden in his mind.

When we work on a particular task there is a set amount of neuronal activity that is taking place and a bunch of neurons lighting up in our brains. Our feeling of getting stuck is probably our need and inability to move beyond this set bunch. Thats where breaks come into picture.

A break need not be whiling away time or sitting empty. Most times the best breaks are the ones that include set tasks as they take you a good distance away from your primary task and engulf you into a new world of neurons somewhere far away. Picking up that guitar, organizing a small corner of your room, tending to your plants, etc. can feel much more rejuvenating as such. One can even pick up a mundane task that requires less effort to be executed in a break. (Probably something my artist friend would do)

The idea is to engulf yourself in another world without draining your energies down so that you can return to your primary task rejuvenated.

Art is your small cabin within the infinite

Any tool that provides limitless possibilities provides an ability to create art. There can be millions of combinations of notes on a guitar or a piano, words can be combined almost infinitely to make some sort of sense, code can be written for computers in countless ways, a line can be bent in limitless possibilities and colours can be combined in infinite unique combinations.

Approaching any such tool can also feel daunting for the same reason. In front of it we can come across as inadequate or ill-equipped. Definite and puny in front of the colossally undefinable. We can never master the whole of it. If we accept that though and respect whats in front of us, we try to find a small place in it. A place defined by our experiences. We strive to find a corner in it that allows us to express our limited being in this cosmic space. The more we express the bigger our space grows and we learn to explore more. Walking new landscapes within and without.

Separating Thinking from Doing

Thinking can be good at the start of any project. It helps set direction and allows to plan out the tools needed on the journey. But by standing on the starting line and hoping to plan out everything that might go right or wrong on the relay ahead doesn’t take things forward. Setting a direction has its own purpose and actually running has its own. One needs to end for the other to start.

To overcome the attachment to thinking, a resolution has to be made. To start with the bare essentials and trust that we are capable of handling most other things while in the flow of execution. If at all we come across something that makes us regret our ill preparation, include that on the thinking list before the next journey. Any thought beyond acting and reacting while in execution mode is bound to drain energy, slow you down or even mislead you from your earlier defined goals.

What though when the task is not a relay but a marathon? Split it into relays and at each break, use the consolidated learnings from the last stretch to get better in the next.

Just like inhaling without exhaling, thinking without doing can be fatal for your mind.