FEELING GREAT: Doing less boring things could boost health and creativity

I’m going to tell you about the merits of creating a new mindset.

People go on diets all the time, I’m sure you or your friends have done it. As in, if you don’t like your weight, you stop eating certain foods.

Perhaps if spending on credit cards was out of control, you’d cut up the cards?

Or if you needed a bit of quiet time, you’d maybe take a walk on your own?

Now you could argue that they are all changes to your life in some form. And they are all good for your mental and physical health, but what about your creative health? How much of that do we need? I read a book by a New York dancer and choreographer called The Creative Habit.

The author suggests that most of us would do our creativity (and health) some good just by switching off from a few everyday things that lead to dullness and boredom.

Switching off from our phones and social media has become a regular thing for many of late.

So think about this… in enhancing your health and creativity in mind, could you go a week without any of these?

Mirrors: Could you manage a week without looking into one? And you’re thinking “what would my hair look like?” Well, no-one cares but you! You’ll stop looking at yourself and spend more time focusing on others.

Clocks: Could you turn your eyes from one? If you’re engaged in what you’re doing, time doesn’t really matter. And if you’re late? So what: most people are too busy checking Facebook to notice anyway!

Magazines: Could you do without knowing what’s coming up on TV and wait for it to unfold in front of your eyes, learning whose dating who in the celebrity world?

TV: How much of your thinking time is being taken up by focusing on who hit who or who is fighting with who in Emmerdale, Coronation Street or EastEnders?

I’m sure you get the idea.

There are a lot of distractions out there, and nearly all of them we can live without for a while.