Most crucially, heed not to overthink anything as I tend to - at least not anything mission critical such as power plants, space rockets or alchemic processes. In 499 out of 500 cases, that probably doesn’t apply to you.
One might live pragmatically in action, yet be a pedantic in thought. And the other way around. I’m not sure which is the more toxic to the self.
Naturally that applies to this very survey of energy drainers. I can’t express how extensively I’ve exhausted a few brainstorming sessions yet not come up with anything inherently novel that I’d not already conceived a dozen times prior.
Thus in effort to tame any further draining cognition not conductive to the task, I’ve turned up the album Force by Archie Shepp and Max Roach. Anything but ambiental is the drum-and-sax Jazz duo recording.
To continue. In the first part of this post, we’d already considered the invariable walking route technique, the brainless wardrobe selection, the being of 100% your boring self at social gatherings, and the merits of alcohol avoidance for the remainder of your life and afterlife.
The eating
Though likely harmful to your system if practiced in the long run, for the interim, if sparing your mental resources is the goal, it makes sense to consume the same bloody ingredients daily, and prepare them nearly identically, if you have the means. But I reemphasize the first part of the long prior sentence.
However, if you put this in action, nutrition becomes fairly auto-pilot and you’ll soon attain world class precision with the singular motions of the knife, the spatula, or in some of your cases, the microwave oven button combination.
Music
I’d alluded to this in an old posting, but some of us channel too much energy into music management. And since I wrote that, I’d fallen off the wagon, hopped back on and nearly fallen back off once more, with one foot dragging on the dusty pavement.
What I mean to say, if you’re like me and listen to compact disks and MP3s (and sometimes vinyls), or even if you’d outsourced your entire listening (or entire life) to online providers, more likely than not you’ve already accumulated thousands to tens of thousands of hours of listening extravaganza.
I say, quit hunting for more. Cease the music discovery. Which I adhere to. However, I still spend unnecessary cycles in the selection process.
What genre would I now prefer? What subgenre? What nature of orchestration? What degree of conventionalism or the avant-garde? What level of intrusiveness or ambientalism?
All of that drains precious resources. Potential solutions:
Suspend your listening, as I have for long periods. Until a month back, I think I spent a two/three-month streak of virtually no self-initiated music listening.
This wasn’t through force or discipline. I genuinely didn’t wish to hear music. It quiet singularly interfered with my thinking in ways that I haven’t perceived before or since.
Get into the habit of shuffling your music lists. Either shuffle the entire selection, or at least the album choice, if your player so facilitates.
Even the very act of listening can be draining. Personally, I reach a point, and this arrives relatively quickly (one or two albums max), that I begin to feel drained just listening to even something that I have a thousand times prior.
Reading
* Aviso. Contenido controvertido:
Assuming you read materials that actually see the printing press, I say, stick to one book at time. Definitely don’t get clever with parallel reading as I have during long periods. And forget E-Readers. Too much tempting selection at your fingertips.
If you travel, all the more reason to forget them. Pick one book, carry it with you, and commit. Naturally, if you dislike it mid-course, halt. Nothing can drain like undesirable reading.
Rather, find some used-book store and have a blast, if that’s your sort of fun. If not, reading might not be that important to you to begin with.
Anyway, I detect too contrived of a reading philosophy in this section that bears an implication too many. I personally have known passionate reading fanatics that would disown this approach. And I’ve met individuals (maybe one or two) who E-read a book a day (for some notion of a book).
To be continued
I’ve done it again … What I intended for a brief commentary, I’ve turned into a whole essay. Though to my relief, the Shepp/Roach album is still five minutes short of completion. To be continued …
Questions, comments? Connect.