Focus

A few months ago, I attended a development session around maximizing our own brain power. A PhD on brain development was the main speaker, and what she was sharing fascinated me. She shared new research findings that show our brains MUST have down time, interruption from the constant bombardment of input we experience in a day. She discussed a concept called the "Twitter Curve" - basically in the past 20 years or so, from the advent of pagers to cell phones to email to Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter, we have arrived at a place where during waking ours we are literally bombarded with input with almost 0 seconds of brain rest in between. 

She then went on to describe what brain rest can look like - reading, creating artwork, gardening, exercise, meditation, listening to music, driving in the car in silence, etc.  These purposeful times of being completely present without having to make decisions or judgments about anything allow our brains to rest, and that rest allows our brains to form new patterns of thought, new behaviours, helps us learn new things and absorb/internalize information we've taken in recently.

The biggest thing I took away from this discussion? That I need to give myself permission more often to just be at rest in my own head, and that I need to create periods of brain rest for Poppy Anne as well, quiet time for her to focus.  She may focus on examining and chewing the tail of her Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz, or she may see how many toes she can get in her mouth at once, or maybe she just wants to watch the light from the mobile in the window dance on the wall.  But I am convinced that one of the best things I can do for her as her mom is teach her how to be quiet within herself, how to be okay with silence and the lack of distraction, how to let her brain naturally process all that she is absorbing during her day.

In applying that concept to my work, I've been thinking a lot about the phrase, "Keep the main thing the main thing."  We are constantly being bombarded with the latest and greatest new "have to" on so many levels, and many of those are attractive, new shiny objects that seem fun to chase.  But I'm really starting to focus hard on keeping the main things the main things - with my daughter, with myself, with my team at work.  And I have a feeling that when those priorities stay fairly straight, when we are focusing on the main things and not getting sidetracked by all the distractions coming at us, then the other things that feel like main things will most likely take care of themselves in time.  At least that is my current theory, and if it plays out, then in 12 months I should look like a size 2 super model, our office will be perfect, and my baby girl will be learning 3rd grade material at 18 months. Ah...I forgot that key ingredient called patience.  Well, I need to hurry up and get some, eh?

Signing off now - an absolutely fantastic first day at work. I love what I do!!