Forget thinking and pull weeds

We all get into thought loops. Over and over the same thoughts. Many times this is our mind examining a problem or evidence and forcing current facts into some previously solved problem or situation. I imagine people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with horribly repetitive mind looping, a circle with no end. Really tight, inescapable loops. Yikes.

In our busy lives we are called on for new thinking to create new things to solve today’s problems. I find that creativity comes best when my mind is quiet. Real change in thinking is possible when looping thought stops. For me, creativity comes from this silence (comes out from the silence), from the place where those looping thoughts were. As a professional, I stuck to certain loops, and solved old problems without creating anything new. Many professions will have a mantra for repetitive thought. In marketing the mantra was “test, measure, refine, test, measure, refine, …

That mantra served me very well on old problems. Pulling weeds helped me solve new problems.

Getting my mind to shut off is pretty easy. I weed in the garden. Pull up weeds and set them in a pile. It is mechanical, a physical loop: hand to weed, grasp root, pull, shake, pile (repeated). I lose hearing first and some looping thoughts stop. Tunnel vision begins and my field of view narrows: I see only the top of one weed. My sense of awareness shrinks to the bed being cleared. Taste and smell are dull and more loopy thoughts stop.

It is in this very unfocused state that often would bring the: “Oh”. The ah-ha moment of clarity.

So if you need to solve a new problem or new situation, take up gardening and weed your garden often.