“...Taking me into a place
Where they turn my life down”


(Jorma Kaukonen 1969) 


As anybody who has read a few of these posts will have gathered, my motivation for their contents is often, some things that I have, recently been doing. 

 

Yesterday afternoon, was spent playing the synthesizer.

 

Now I find it quite challenging to play and programme a single synthesizer. Trying to do it with these 3 at the same time, is another thing altogether! Nevertheless, I was trying to do it!

 

This is actually quite reflective of an issue that troubles Phil v2.0 – namely, too much going on at the same time.

 

This can be either, doing too much or thinking too much.

 

So far as the former is concerned, this is not a very big problem and I have developed strategies to address this, including detailed and self-articulated, forward planning of future activities, so as to space them out.

 

Further, our lives are easier in this respect - we know when we are engaging in too much physical activity because it makes us feel tired and our efforts become less effective. 

 

Time to take a breather!

 

Thinking about too many things at the same time though, is less easy to spot, as the negative effects of mental fatigue are not evidenced by physical tiredness and are quite easy to blame on some other source.

 

I know very well from personal experience that mental fatigue has a very negative effect on my emotional state, so I do need to take anticipatory steps in order to de-clutter my mind, sometimes.

 

“...Taking me into a place
Where they turn my life down” 

 

My mind is frequently very full and racing. I might not notice that it is and even if I do, can feel helpless to ease it. I must nevertheless, from time to time do what I can, in order to mentally slow down.

 

So far as strategies for dealing with this are concerned, I find that they are rather different to those that work with physical fatigue.

 

I can’t plan out future thinking. 

 

I can also tell myself to stop thinking, as much as I like – but to no avail!

 

What I need to do though is to undertake rather more mentally restful, yet nevertheless, quite absorbing activities.

 

I say “absorbing”, because a wholly empty mind is impossible – it should though, be occupied by more of the right (more relaxing) thoughts. If it is - then there is less space left, for mentally taxing thoughts.

 

It has taken rather an effort to get used to the adoption of this kind of strategy. We are taught from childhood, that laziness is a bad thing and the kind of activities that seem to work best for me, can easily be considered to be lazy. Of course, we all need (and hopefully take) some leisure-based downtime. Actually, making myself take more of this (when there seems to be more productive things to be thinking about and doing) has not been desperately easy!

 

So, what are some of the things that help to de-clutter my mind? There are quite a few, but I will just mention a couple:

 

·      I enjoy reading and am a member of a book club. I love most of its chosen books, but they are actually, rather “grown up”! I should therefore take my time over them, and perhaps intersperse with some more trivial literature. So long as I do things like this, their contents fill up quite a lot of headspace (in a calming way) to the partial exclusion of more, tiring thought – this can take a backseat for a while. 

 

·      Another thing that gives me a lot of pleasure is listening to recorded music and I do find that engaging in this can keep some superfluous thought at bay. There are some caveats though:

 

First the music must be more than mere background. It will only occupy a significant part of my mind, if I actually “listen” to it!

 

Secondly, it should be the right kind of music, and by this, I mean restful. As with reading, I need to make sure that I am stimulating the right kind of thoughts, in order to reduce mental fatigue. Like an interjection of some light reading, I should keep complex and aggressive music down to a sensible level.

 

I find classical music works pretty well here. 

 

Getting back to synthesizers, I have also developed a helpful taste, for ambient techno music. 




This is one, such album, that enjoy listening to – does that make me “down with the kids”?

 

Actually, on reflection – I think of this as a “modern” album, and hence, it puts me in such a position. This view, however is one held by a “man of a certain age”! The recording is actually almost, 30 years old and the “kids” wouldn’t consider me to be “down” with them, for a moment! 

 

 

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