Don’t think with your brain full

Remember when your mother would say, ‘don’t talk with your mouth full’ reminding you of your manners?  Or, what about, ‘chew your food. I was a hasty eater when I was a kid. Always anxious to get outside or go play with the toy of the moment, I’d shove food into my face faster than I could swallow it — a foreshadowing of course that I would live a teenage and young adult life always in a hurry to get to the next activity.  In fact, there was a time or two where I literally couldn’t have fit one more bite of food into my mouth if I’d tried.   So what does this have to do with brain activity?

When you spend most of your time constantly biting off big chunks of information — be it experience, emotion, or thought — without letting it digest, you risk ‘choking’ on mental chatter. What you’re left with is brain bile that leaves you with feelings of unease, anger, frustration, or fear. What if you slowed down a bit, let your brain digest just a few nibbles of your day, and leave the rest on your mental plate?  What would happen?  Would you cease to exist because you WEREN’T thinking about something?  Probably not.

Why not let your brain process what’s already in there, and allow it to evacuate what it doesn’t need before you jump into the pool of unconsciousness yet again.

A great way to let your mind “eliminate” unnecessary activity is through a walking meditation. There are a variety of meditation techniques, but I find that when my brain is at capacity, I’m also likely buzzing with an overabundance of energy.  Going for a 10 to 20 minute walk alone helps to get things moving.  Watching the birds carry on, feeling the breeze on my face, and the ground under my feet brings my attention to the present and everything else tends to fall away.

There’s a quote by Mahatma Ghandi that says, “Chew your drink, and drink your food. “Let your knife & fork do the work of your teeth and let your teeth do the work of your stomach.”

Why not let the body do the work of the mind? That is, have faith that your body will do what it needs to survive without you thinking about it all of the time.

Namaste.

– Your Charmed Yogi

(Photo: UVM Blog)

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