#boredandbrilliant

[faizbashir14]

Wun kangaroo, two emu...” 😆 These global takes on “One Mississippi” are hilarious AND creative! See the best ones:

27 Folks All Over The World Reveal Their Equivalent Of “One Mississippi”

Not everyone uses “one Mississippi, two Mississippi” to count time, apparently; it varies all over the world.

[phoenixwritings]

I’m roughly a fourth way through this book. I loved the TED talk on it. I just love things that challenge our daily habits and our creative thinking processes. #boredandbrilliant #manoushzomorodi #creativity #cognitivethinking #digital https://www.instagram.com/p/CDPXQAxp_Dz/?igshid=1ufa2y5rd3wbg

[thedirtbagdad]

Well, taking the thoughtful advice of @elizabeth_gilbert_writer, I’ve started taking myself to breakfast once a week for solitude and reading time. It has already borne fruit... ... @brainpicker on the prescient (of our times) Kierkegaard and boredom, idleness, busyness (business), and how to go about approaching our existence. Reminiscent of @note_to_self_radio’s #boredandbrilliant project; it probes much deeper. ... Kierkegaard’s limitation/resourcefulness dichotomy reminds me of the Kris Kristopherson lyrics so memorably sung by Janis Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” ... Serendipitous that Kierkegaard and I share this day. Perhaps I garnered a touch of his soul somewhere along this journey. #isoundlikeiamincollegeagain #waitiAMincollegeagain! #nothingquickaboutthisreading, so #takeyourselftobreakfast! https://www.instagram.com/p/BxGYQ71jKB9ncuIcY3YO-2xmoLJAkYkycD4Wr40/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1i0w6tjz1w0lb

[aubrielegault-blog]

TV vs. Table

Our TV did not work tonight.  

Picture a “no power” situation, as if you were sitting in a thunderstorm with candles lighting your hallways.  Okay, so we had power, just no TV. We had started a fire before we knew our TV was out so our ambience was already set.  Typically we have dinner in front of the TV, watching... something...anything.  It can range from movies to new TV shows, to something on Netflix...to reruns of Big Bang Theory.  Almost all of our dinners are in front of the tube.  Which I use to love, I use to look forward to the day being done and to just sit mindlessly and relax with a meal.  But in the past few months, I have been experiencing a change- I’m not quite sure what to call it or what to reference it to, but just that I needed a change in what I was doing with my downtime.  See- we don’t have kids.  So we don’t “need” to sit down to a table for our meal and talk about our day.  Or so I thought.  I thought that allowing our brains to have a vacation every night from work, from life, from thought, from just about anything (picture a flat line on a cardiopulmonary monitor... beeeeeeeeep) was good for us.  It was a much-needed break from reality.  We didn’t have to think, we didn’t have to do much of anything but sit mesmerized by flashing pictures and sound coming from a rectangle screen.  (Sorry, but “box” isn’t cutting it anymore for the shape of a TV- we’re all rocking a 2:3 ratio now.) 

Now, first, you’re going to think to yourself that my marriage is a piece of shit.  When I say “we” I am referring to my husband and myself (and my dog).  I already mentioned no kids.  So it’s just the two/three of us.  It sounds like we ignore each other and are focused on TV shows.  Which, to be honest, is probably the case come later evening.  But- I want to cushion the blow a bit and tell you that it’s nothing like you’re assuming.  We go to bed with each other every night, we always sleep together, we cuddle in the beginning, there isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t kiss and even flirt (boob grabbing, ass smacking, teasing, the whole bit).  We have sex on a regular basis- although I would have it more- but I am a rare, randy/horny female.... and my husband is 9 years older than me.  When we are not “traveling” (or for me, at a shoot) we work from home- so we see each other and we have a good idea on what is going on with our work lives.  We also love to go on drives and hikes (more so in the summertime) and that’s where we do one of two things- we either enjoy music (occasional podcasts) or we chat- about all sorts of stuff.  So it’s not like we don’t have conversations.  We’re also both independent people- in the sense of we don’t need to share or divulge every tiny little thing to someone, we’re perfectly fine with what’s going on in our heads... and we also are perfectly content with enjoying our own muses.  Like- my husband can watch YouTube videos on Jeeps climbing boulders, the best way to chop wood, tiny houses in Alaska and drummers with one hand.  And I- well I can swim, do yoga, read, write, listen to music.... shit, I can go to concerts, movies, dinner, you name it- by myself.  And it doesn’t bother me.  ...As I said, two independent people.  On the flip side- I rely on David for many things (outside of just good ol’ companionship) and he relies on me for things as well.  Basically, a long-winded paragraph to say, that I don’t think there is anything wrong with my marriage or my relationship with my husband.  Could it be better?  Always.  When is that not the answer?  Usually, things can always improve.  But I am not writing this as a red flag to my marriage.  More of an observation.  

So back to... our TV isn’t working.  It started off with each of us enjoying a gin martini while working- David was working on setting up the new TV and I was finishing some editing.  The fire was already roaring and most of the dinner was cooking.  I cam out to finish dinner- throw some salmon on the skillet and steam some broccoli.  David could not get the TV to connect.  So the centerpiece in our living room was a black hole for the night.  I joked that he might actually have to have dinner with me at the table- which is now shoved in a corner and will only fit two people comfortably unless I pull it away from the wall.  (I did this on purpose- more open space.)  ...And so, we did.  I plated our meal and we actually sat at the dinner table.  We happened to have a growler of our all-time favorite beer, so we poured that and enjoyed a nice 12% Triple IPA with our salmon and baked potato.  It was nice- like a typical dinner at a restaurant where we chatted and enjoyed a beer... only we didn’t have to tip and we had to load our own dishwasher.  I knew instantly though, that we needed to incorporate this back into our lives.  Do we need to do it every night?  No, I don’t think we do.  I’m fine with finding some sort of happy medium between enjoying some TV programs and having dinner with conversation. 

After dinner... we still didn’t have a TV.  At one point both of us were on the floor in front of the fireplace.  We stroked our dog and spent a little time with him, after all, he is dying of cancer.  The fireplace was nice.  I busted out my foam roller and rolled out my back and did a few stretches.  David cleaned up the kitchen.  And then, we grabbed our devices.  David sat down on the couch and pulled out his phone.  I was inspired by the way our night went + books/podcasts that I’ve been listening too on minimalism and less tech that I grabbed my laptop to write this piece.  I will say that I didn’t grab my phone and I actually did not open up my laptop and look at any social media or email sites.  I simply started writing.  

Even so- here we were on a random Wednesday night and after some quality time spent together we couldn’t help but to retreat to some sort of technical device. ...Or vise.  And that’s really the overwhelming theme of what I have been listening and reading about- this technology that we own in our pockets are vises and we cannot live without them.  

Me included.  

I am slowly trying to grasp and practice this idea that life doesn’t revolve around my iPhone or my Instagram or my Facebook. Instead, those apps can be included, sporadically, into my life. And yes, I have to have Gmail to conduct business, there is no other way.   But emails and social media and the internet, in general, shouldn’t BE my life.  

I have a long way to go.  The world has a long way to go.  But I can see a small shift in how we treat those wonderful little things we call smartphones.  Over time I think a lot of the population will come to the realization that we were inundated by the sheer brilliance of this technology and we were mesmerized by what it could do for us that we let it consume our lives.  And, after some time, perhaps a long honeymoon phase, we are now slowly realizing that our attachment to these devices is not as worthwhile as we thought.  We need balance in our lives. (One of my all-time favorite words for life is a balance.)  We need to be able to use our smartphones and our technology to benefit it us in business aspects and perhaps to make a few tasks in every-day-life a little easier.  But we also need to step away, turn off the TV, turn on the fireplace, and put our phones away and enjoy one another.  

Random Thoughts (and quotes) on Minimalism and Less-Tech Lives

Just by trying to read a book, a good book that I am generally interested in reading, it has cut my screen time down a lot.  Over the past month every time my “screen time analysis” pops up it says I am down ___ percentage.  It’s been going down consistently for weeks now.  

The book, Bored and Brilliant, is so far... brilliant and not at all boring. 

I took a few very nice (like Portland boutique expensive) clothes items out of my closet this week.  Sometimes- it just looks fantastic on while in the store and then at home, it just doesn’t work.  This is what bothers me about clothes shopping... I’m all for quality over quantity.  I am the type of person that doesn't mind dropping $$$ on a great pair of pants or a perfect blouse if I know that it will last a while and stay looking nice after I wash it ten times.   I don’t need hundreds of options in my closet. Um, I don’t even need more than ten options.  But sometimes- I fail.  I buy something that in the end just doesn’t work out.  And those are the pieces that are so hard to let go of.  Even though I don’t love the clothes and I don’t wear them I don’t want to give them up because they cost a lot of money.  ...But what good are they doing in my closet?  They are taking up space.  Which in the end, it takes up my time.  And I want all of my time.  So... the three shirts that I was clinging to, are now officially out of my closet. Now there is room for something I WILL wear. 

I will have to continue my thoughts on this phenomenon- and share a lot more about the book, Bored and Brilliant.  But right now, my bed is calling me.  That 12% beer is telling me to close my eyes, and so I will obey its command. 

[krissosphotography]

Mini Adventure to Stillwater & Roseville #boredandbrilliant #dragonfly #postcards #amomentintime #goodnight🌙 #minneapolis #august #minnesota #summer #nature #photography #stillwater #roseville #adventure #krissosphotography #photographybykrisso #sunday #grateful #2018 (at Minneapolis, Minnesota)

[mariaharman]

If you try to do a bit of everything you’re going to make a millimeter of progress in a million directions.

Greg McKeown

[digitalmark360-blog]

How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas

Do you sometimes have your most creative ideas while folding laundry, washing dishes or doing nothing in particular? It's because when your body goes on autopilot, your brain gets busy forming new neural connections that connect ideas and solve problems. Learn to love being bored as Manoush Zomorodi explains the connection between spacing out and creativity.

Did you know that the human brain is at its most active when you’re bored?  Manoush Zomorodi talks about how & why this happens.

[splitnibs]

Bored and Brilliant(ish)

Remember how impossibly long and boring summer seemed when you were a kid? It was a good sort of boring. You’d lay on your bed, staring at the ceiling. Then you’d lay on the couch for a while, staring at the ceiling. Then your mom came in and told you to go outside. Then you’d go outside and stare at the clouds. It was boring, and it was awesome, and you were a tiny galaxy of creative thought. What if the neighbor with the green van, the creepy guy who sleeps when everyone else is awake and is awake when everyone else is asleep, is the one who abducted the Three Missing Women? What would happen if you stepped through these two old trees and entered an alternate reality that looked just like this one but nobody could see or hear you, and you lived the rest of your life a ghost? If you hit these two rocks together hard enough, would it make a fire? Is that how fire is made? In Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self, Manoush Zomorodi (host of the podcast Note to Self) argues for the importance of letting your mind wander. Time spent in “default mode” -- i.e. not focusing on any particular task, i.e. staring at the ceiling -- is when our brain does its best creative thinking. If our brain is constantly engaged, if every little in-between moment of waiting is occupied by the easy gratification of a newsfeed, our brilliance takes a serious hit.

I have this habit that I really hate: when I pull up to a red light, I reach for my phone, tap on any notification that pops up, and just sort of mindlessly dart from one app to another. Seeking the shallow confirmation of a like, I guess; grasping for some tiny human connection. (Or not human, exactly. Human...y.) I bet you do this, too. I bet when you’re waiting in a doctor’s office you scroll through your newsfeed to pass the time instead of just sitting there on the ugly mauve chair being bored and finding patterns in the equally ugly wallpaper. Who can blame you? You want to know what’s going on with people who are not currently sitting on an ugly mauve chair. It’s a human weakness. It’s the same impulse that made women in Jane Austen novels agonize by the mailbox, waiting for word from Mr. Hotbreeches to arrive with the afternoon post, except that now the post can come any time, anywhere. We agonize by the mailbox (so to speak) 24/7. We’re not inherently less disciplined or shallower than our foremothers, we just have more opportunity to be undisciplined and shallow.

I live alone, and sometimes I imagine what someone walking by my house would think if they peeped in my window (not hard to do: my cats have obliterated the blinds). They’d see a woman, hunched over her little glowing screen, slack-jawed, staring, scrolling dumbly. I am not a sad and lonely person, but getting lost in the smartphone makes me *feel* sad and lonely. It makes me feel like the least interesting Black Mirror episode.

Zomorodi’s book started as a challenge that she gave her podcast listeners, a seven-step program for reclaiming your default mode. Step Two is “Keep your devices out of reach while in motion,” so obviously it’s resonating with me. A dutiful challengee, I’ve been resisting the urge to reach for the phone at the stoplight, and instead just sitting there with my thoughts. Am I brilliant now, as Zomorodi promised? Well, no (NOT YET), but I feel like I have a little bit more control, at least. My brain feels less cluttered, good conditions for creativity to eventually take root. I feel like the Jane Austen heroine who, while secretly very anxious to receive word from Hotbreeches, has the dignity and presence of mind to pretend to care more about her embroidery than whether the post has arrived. I feel...human-y.