Our brains are like any other muscle in our bodies (yes I know the brain isn’t an actual muscle but that’s besides the point). It needs to be exercised, flexed, stressed, worked, nurtured, and massaged like any other muscle in the body. Everyday I set out to do two simple things, or not simple depending on the days perspective, I freewrite a minimum of 1000 words and I learn something new. I’ve mentioned this pretty frequently at this point but I can’t stress how powerful this has been for me. What this does is exercise my brain, keep it primed and always ready for creativity. After doing this for well over a month now, I am actually seeing or rather feeling the results of these mental exercises. It is rather astonishing actually, things click faster and the connections happen quicker. It really is quite remarkable, much like the first time you see yourself in a full length mirror after exercising for a while.
What makes me happy is just keeping my brain challenged and stimulated and on its toes. ~ Seth MacFarlane
When I started out doing the 1000 word challenge everyday, the first few days were easy, I had so much running through my brain. With all of the things that I had been going through it made the ease in which I could write about them just flow out of me. Then it hit me, the proverbial brickwall, the gnawing question “what do I write about?”, this question alone plagued my writing for the first couple weeks. Frankly, it still does from time to time, but nothing like it use to, now my brain knows what it needs to do and it does it. I focus on a topic or thought that relates to my current feelings or emotions and I expel it through my fingertips. I just start writing, it’s the easiest thing in the world. Just write. It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes or even if it is any good. The point of the 1000 word challenge isn’t to write for anyone else it’s about writing for ourselves and getting our thoughts that plague our brains out of our heads and let them live somewhere else.
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. ~ Isaac Asimov
I’ve been starting to notice that the act of writing itself is a form of meditation. All the noise and clutter that gets bottled up into our own thoughts and subconscious can all be expelled, bringing me closer to an empty box and starting with an empty box in I can then refill it with the important things. It has helped me live more in the present, I don’t worry about the future or the past, I just live in the present. Of course I still plan for my future and make goals but I don’t worry about them, they aren’t my problem, they’re just an idea. Ideas shouldn’t bring us stress or depression, they should bring us joy and exuberance. Being able to have a creative objective every morning before any of the distractions kick in has brought me that peace and focus that I previously did not have.
Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
It doesn’t take much to write 1000 words, really it’s pretty easy. A thought, that’s all you need, one thought. One single, potentially insignificant thought can blossom into a brilliant insight that you previously didn’t have. When those moments happen, the rewarding emotions are extraordinary. The average novel is roughly 60000 words, the average self-help book is 30000 words, the average long form magazine article is between 5000-10000 words, the average blog post with substance is 800 words, the average click bait worthless blog post that we spend so much time consuming is 300-400 words. I have now been writing 1000 words everyday for more than 30 days, I have enough words to write the equivalent of a self-help book, by the end of this year I will have enough words to have written a novel AND a self-help book, by the time a full 365 days have passed I will have 365000 words written, to me that is incredible! It certainly is a far cry from my formative years; elementary school, middle school, and high school I HATED writing and reading for that matter. I avoided writing like the plague, it made me miserable anytime I had to write for a project or assignment. Now I am rather enjoying it, it has brought me untold benefits with the potential for massive future rewards.
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. ~ Ernest Hemingway
Writing isn’t the only thing that allows me to flex my brain and make it stronger but learning something new everyday as well makes the pathways in my brain work harder and multiple. The task of learning generates new synapses and pathways in our brains, reactivating and utilizing parts of our brains that have been typically neglected from under stimulation. When we are consistently doing the same thing day in day out and never go out of our way to stimulate our brains with new challenges and knowledge those connections become dulled. When we constantly bombard our brains with new information, pertinent information not mindless drivel, what we are doing is never allowing our brains to settle in a rut. The brain has an ability to adapt quickly and work to produce the most efficient pathway for any given task. What this does is starts building and nurturing under stimulated parts of our brains, we effectively use more of our brain capacity in a much more efficient and significant manner. By learning new things everyday your brain doesn’t have the ability to fall into stagnant pathways but is constantly working to build more efficient pathways. Just like a world class martial artist is trained to always be focused, at the ready, this helps builds balance and the skill to handle anything that is thrown at them. Same goes for the brain, focused, always at the ready, always building balance and stability, capable of handling anything we throw at it. This is why I learn something new everyday; while big or small it is always relevant and important to learn at least one thing new everyday.
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence. ~ Abigail Adams
The ROI on the 1000 word challenge, now a habit, and learning something new everyday is spectacular. I simply can’t express how fantastic it has been, to feel and notice the changes in my day to day life, the impact it has on my thoughts and creativity. My brain feels stronger, quicker, and more sturdy. As a result of the paths I have chosen to take and the challenges I have presented to myself on a daily basis, I have spent more time living in the present, experiencing every moment, and more efficiently work my way through any obstacle that falls upon me. Learning something new and 1000 words, who knew brain exercise could be so fun.