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Stop Multitasking To Reduce Stress, Part 1

Stop Multitasking To Reduce Stress, Part 1

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Most people are overwhelmed by the amount of distractions in their lives. When you’re trying to work, you’re interrupted by phone calls, texts, or a problem suddenly needing an immediate solution or decision. All of this diverts your attention and keeps you from focusing on one thing at a time.

You’re trying to multi-task to be more efficient and you’re accomplishing exactly the opposite. Your attention is split between all of the distractions, and nothing gets your best effort. So everything suffers from a lack of your full capabilities.

Unfortunately, your fast-paced lifestyle promotes stress and anxiety. This engages the Fight or Flight mechanism that causes you to be in survival mode. Everything that happens is then considered to be a threat. You can’t keep things in their proper perspective.

For instance, let’s say you’re expecting a busy day at work. In the morning, you take the trash bag out of the trashcan and the bag breaks. Now you have to clean it up before you can leave. On the freeway, you’re caught in an unexpected traffic jam and get to work late.

You’d planned to have plenty of time to print out a report for a meeting. But because of the morning’s delays, you’re hurrying to get it done. The printer jams and you’re ready to throw it through the window. Due to the accumulated frustrations, an insignificant problem (the printer) has been blown up out of proportion. It takes on monumental importance, when it actually may simply take a couple of minutes to fix.

When your mental reserves are completely used up and you’re in survival mode, stress monopolizes resources in the brain. It’s like a huge program that consumes all the available memory in a computer. There’s nothing left over to make rational decisions.

Being stressed and in overwhelm means that you can’t think straight, be creative, resourceful, or plan effectively. You’re reacting from your past experience and conditioning and can’t choose a different response.

Read part 2 of Stop Multitasking to Reduce Stress.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

The Curse Of Social Connection

The Curse Of Social Connection

Television, ipods, and Internet all take up our attention. Texting, email, and cell phones keep us connected to each other all the time. All the noise, contacts and distractions fill up our consciousness to make a never ending din that prevents us from having any privacy or quiet time.

It takes time and energy to stay current with all our social networks. Unfortunately, it also  keeps us from turning inward and listening to our inner selves. With this much social interaction, there’s little mental space left to be introspective, creative or productive.

Businesses and schools encourage group interaction to learn and create. But creativity blooms in solitude and quiet. “An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude,” says Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way.”

In “The Artist’s Way,” a 12 week course for blocked creatives, there is one week where the reader cannot read anything or watch television. This assignment allows the mind to fill the well of creativity. If the mind is drunk on others’ creativity, it gets lazy or overwhelmed. Details drug the mind and it won’t have enough resources to hear the still small voice of the inner self.

Many companies are now insisting their workers have time away from email, phones and other interuptions. They’re more efficient and able to get more done in less time, because they’re more productive.

Social interaction, teams and groups have a place and a role to play. But if individuals are to be more productive, they need to have some privacy. They need to be alone with their thoughts and their projects to let their mental processes simmer. Once they’ve had time to work, they can surface to bounce ideas off of friends and coworkers.

Too much solitude encourages stagnation. Too much collaberation discourages individual ideas. We need to balance both. And if we want to be able to listen to our inner selves, we need to turn off all the devices that constantly scream for our attention. Instead of our focus being outwardly directed to our social networks, we need to turn it inward and allow the well of our inner life to be filled.

Inspired by:
The Rise Of The New Groupthink
Tame The Email Beast

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

The Problem Solving Capacity of Your Subconsious Mind

The Problem Solving Capacity of Your Subconsious Mind

Have you ever walked away from a problem, then had a light bulb go off in your head and had the answer? That’s the way the mind works when it’s looking for solutions. Several recent studies have validated that your subconscious mind is hard at work while your conscious mind is otherwise engaged.

Apparently, your subconscious has been hard-wired to accumulate information to make the best decisions for you. According to research, the conscious mind does a better job at making analytic decisions. But the subconscious mind is more capable of solving greater challenges and making discoveries.

Learning to trust the subconscious is key to allowing it to dealing with complex problems. If your conscious mind keeps turning the issue over and over again and keeps it front and center in your attention, the subconscious never has a chance to work on it.

Just like when you try to remember someone’s name and let it go. Shortly thereafter, while you’re in the middle of doing the dishes, it pops into your mind. You have to be able to let go of the problem.

The subconscious also helps you make better decisions. It uses the same process as with problem solving. Evaluate all the information, and then go on to some other task. This allows the subconscious to process the data. If no insight comes to the surface, reassess or gather more information and let it go again. Eventually, you’ll get a sense of which direction you want to go.

Your subconscious mind is creative, resourceful, and a problem solver. It processes the information that your conscious mind has given it and comes up with a solution. Now, research and studies are validating what many of us have known for decades.

Information in this article based on these studies from Science Daily:
Decision-Making May Be Surprisingly Unconscious Activity
Our Unconscious Brain Makes The Best Decisions Possible
Eureka! How Distractions Facilitate Creative Problem-Solving
Profound Impact Of Our Unconscious On Reaching Goals Revealed

Lesson Learned: Creativity Feeds The Soul

Lesson Learned: Creativity Feeds The Soul

I love weaving and embroidery, but have been so focused on work that I haven’t had time for either for a very long time. Also, my loom is in storage because it’s too big for our condo. So I’ve spent my free time hiking and doing other enjoyable things. But it hasn’t been the same or given me the same fulfillment.

Recently, I took a class that included doing a little bit of simple embroidery on some felt. I didn’t finish it in class but worked on it a few days later. Unfortunately, I found out that the embroidery floss supplied by the class was about 6 inches too short to finish the project.

I had to wait for several weeks until we went to a nearby city to get the needed embroidery thread. During that time, the project sat on the table, as a reminder that it needed to be completed. Every time I went by and glanced at it, I got a thrill of joy, excitement and satisfaction. The same feelings I had when I actually worked on it.

I realized that I needed to make the time to do some of the fiber handiwork that feeds my soul. Eventually, I need to find a smaller loom. Until then, I’m designing an embroidery project that will satisfy my need to create.

And I wasn’t the only one in my life to come to this conclusion. A friend of mine loves music and hasn’t been able to play her piano for quite some time. A few days ago, she went to play it, and once again discovered how it makes her heart sing. She’s committed herself to practicing again because it’s so important to her emotional health.

Creativity helps keep a person young and their brains active. It’s when we block our creativity that we begin to shrivel up inside.

What creative pursuit have you abandoned to focus on family, work, or other pastimes? How can you begin to include that activity in your life again? When you do, it will enhance your relationships, reduce stress, and give you more energy because you’re being authentic and attending to your soul’s needs.

Vacation In Vegas – Love the Creativity There

Vacation In Vegas – Love the Creativity There

Jeff and I took a short vacation in Las Vegas. Over the years, we’ve puzzled about why we are drawn to this glitzy, showy town. When I visited it in the early 1990’s, I couldn’t wait to leave. Jeff and I first visited in 2000 to enjoy the Star Trek ride (yes, I love Star Trek), and we expected that one extra day would be all we could stand.

Instead, we were enthralled with the themed casinos: Luxor, Excalibur, New York/New York, Treasure Island, and the Venetian. The waste of electricity and water violated our green sensibilities, and yet we loved the lights and Bellagio Dancing Waters.

After mulling over it, we finally realized that we love the creativity and sense of design. The details in some of the themed casinos are beautiful. Unfortunately, the new business attitude in Vegas wants to erase the themes. This is unfortunate, because most of the crowds were in the casinos and shopping areas that still looked different.

We found enough in Vegas to again want to return. This year, we went to Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay. I touched Stingrays, Horseshoe Crabs, and baby Zebra or Leopard Sharks. Our feet hurt from the miles we walked each day and we’re nursing blisters, but we’re elated from our adventure.

3 Tips To Get Back In The Flow

3 Tips To Get Back In The Flow

We’ve all had days where nothing seemed to go right. And the harder we tried to make things better, the worse they got. Unfortunately, by focusing on the negative, it just creates an atmosphere that draws more of it to you. The fear something will go wrong makes sure it will. Here are 3 tips to get out of that frame of mind and back on track.



Copyright 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Book Review – “Higher Creativity”

Book Review – “Higher Creativity”

“Higher Creativity: Liberating the Unconscious for Breakthrough Insight”
by Willis Harman, Ph.D. and Howard Rheingold

This book describes the process of creativity. It gives an understanding of the different stages that a person’s mind goes through from the start of working through a problem to the end result of a solution.

The authors describe the conditions that are necessary to access creativity, as well as how the mind works through a challenge. They state that the subconscious is just waiting for you to tell it what to do, and it will follow your instructions.

In this book, there are many examples of people who have been able to foster creativity in their lives. The only thing preventing you from experiencing what the author’s call “breakthrough insight” is a disbelief in your own abilities in this area.

I believe this is true, not only for creativity, but for any area of life in which you need some direction or innovative idea. Doubt will short-circuit the connection to listen to and understand the inspiration you get.

This book helps to dispel those concerns, and gives a “toolkit” of ways to go about cultivating creativity in your life. If you have challenges in your business, personal, or creative life, the information contained in this book could give you the breakthrough you need.