10 minutes of oblivion
Instagram, Facebook, Netflix, Hotstar, work, family, friends, dreams, aspirations, plans, cooking, food… our mind wanders through a myriad of things in a matter of a few hours. Ever wondered what 24 hours of constant thoughts could do to your brain? It is safe to say that Covid has topped it all. There has been so much uncertainty around the world in the past couple of years. So much suffering has only worsened strain on our brain.
We consume so much information in a matter of a few hours - if it is not work, it's the internet, mindless scrolling, binge-watching, socialising - when do you get to rest? Sleep is a good way to give our conscious minds a good rest but that doesn’t necessarily mean that our brains are not working. I won’t go into the mechanics of sleep here but just going to say that our brain is active during a part of our sleep cycle too. And don’t get me wrong - I love to sleep, sleep is one of the most essential processes. The more deeply we sleep, the more effectively the brain clears itself and lack of sleep puts us at risk of various medical conditions - NO amount of meditation can replace sleep. Nonetheless, to properly function in the remaining 18 hours, it’s essential we give our brain a few breaks from time to time. Because we consume so much information in those 18 hours, there is a very high chance that the information gets all messed up in our brains. We start pondering over one thought and 100 thoughts appear in our brain concurrently or worse - brain fog!
Overuse of anything can lead to exhaustion, wear and tear. As such, it is important that we take regular breaks. Now if you are going to complain vehemently about no time I would say that ten minutes of no phone today would help you organise your thoughts - organise your thoughts in such a way that it actually makes you feel better. Wouldn’t you want to do it if it clears your mind and achieves emotional stability?
After a long day of work - I usually used to feel very frustrated and tired. It was decision fatigue, information overload among other things. On one melancholy day, I stumbled upon an article on the power of meditation. After a lot of resistance - because obviously, I had to sacrifice 10 minutes of no social media platforms or TV, I started giving myself 10 minutes every day, 10 minutes of nothing, which means no thoughts whatsoever. And believe me, when I say this, it has significantly changed my thought process. It has ignited the creativity area of my brain.
I completely agree that it’s onerous to start - you would give yourself 1000 reasons to not do it but when you begin, your thoughts would take time to settle but don’t give up - don’t let your thoughts win. Your mind would wander across thoughts but the good thing is it will eventually learn to not think about anything in those 10 minutes. If sitting in one place doesn’t work for you, try running. Different things work for different people. Believe it or not, cleaning has therapeutic effects too - give that a try, you might hit two targets with one arrow.
Maybe after reading this article, give yourself 10 minutes - 10 minutes of nothingness. Maybe keep doing that for a few days and then perhaps a couple of times a day. 10 minutes of oblivion might unfold beautiful things for you!