Dabbl

Another successful day of no Blahh (feel free to read, The Quarantine Times 1 for the full description of “Blahh”) during the day for me. And I’m trying to weed out what is an actual effect of the no Blahh and what is a placebo more or less. In other words, whenever I try something new there is usually an over-exaggerated effected when I first start something. I don’t think placebo is the right word, but it’s close. For example, if I try a new energy drink that I’m really excited about and then I have this great reaction and I’m super energized. Did I have that great reaction due to the energy drink itself or because I was excited about trying a new energy drink, or both? I guess excited would be the word then, not placebo. Well anyways, I’m still working out what is an effect due to the excitement of something new and what is an actual effect.

              Let’s talk about my experience yesterday and what the trends are so far. For starters, I’ve had two nights in a row of very vivid dreams. I wonder if this is due to the lack of external stimuli my brain is getting so it has to work harder for internal stimuli. I can see this happening during the day quite easily and wonder if this effect is overflowing into the night to provide me with these vivid dreams.

              Another effect that has been apparent during both days is I come up with ideas when I’m bored. I read a quick chapter from one of my favorite books yesterday and the advice was to allow yourself to be bored which stood out to me. When I found myself bored, in a weird way it was nice. I didn’t feel anxious at all, but I did feel my mind start to work to get the internal stimuli working. As a result, I came up with two new ideas for a different product design that I hadn’t come up with in 2 months of brainstorming. I had a sense of clarity. Furthermore, when it came to the time where I allowed myself to have some blahh, I wasn’t as drawn to it as I normally was. This tells me a few things. For one, blahh is addictive and once you start to immerse yourself in it, it is very difficult to get out of. And two, my brain was stimulated by my own ideas and I sort of had to force myself to watch YouTube again. My brain kept wanting to work at coming up with ideas of its own. I found myself working on my website for an hour or so at around 7pm, although that is around the time I allow myself to give myself blahh. I felt energized and felt I should use that energy. That is also when I started having a few ideas for products and marketing plans. If I can resist blahh until night time, I wonder if I’ll ever really need it again. I wonder if my thoughts are enough to give my brain the stimuli it craves. I’m not sure what the reason is behind this, but I feel comfortable on my theories so far. Although one thing is for sure, I like the effect it is currently having and I want to keep it up. If this is sustained, I believe it will make me more productive and creative as it has in the past two days.

              Allow yourself to be bored. Out of this boredom, your brain will turn to the only thing it can to provide it with the stimuli it craves, itself. If I felt tired, I simply laid in bed with my eyes closed for about 15 minutes. I never fell asleep and always opened my eyes naturally with more energy than when I closed them. Then after waking up, I did a quick physical activity to push my body in the right direction and it worked amazingly. I went from drowsy to energized in less than 30 minutes without any supplements, foods, or drinks. Instead a quick “bored nap” and a couple pushups afterwards got me up and going. I also liked stretching yesterday. When you’re not consuming any blahh, you look for things to take up your time. And stretching is one thing that is always available. It is one of those many things that you know is good for you but never feel like doing them. Well I can say this, when you’re bored and are looking for anything to occupy your mind, stretching becomes very appealing to you at that point.

              To sum up, allow yourself to be bored. In those times your brain turns to things to provide it with activity. Some of the most mundane tasks that you’ve been putting off for a while start to look pretty good at that point. Let’s see what day 3 has for us.