Mindlessness
I hit the off switch on my brain occasionally, and it feels great.
Weekly Three
HEAR: Khalid’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
READ: “How Putin’s Oligarch’s Bought London” by Patrick Radden Keefe in the New Yorker
VIEW: I mentioned Bridgerton in my last letter without realizing season two had been released! Unsurprisingly, it's great.
No. 68: Mindlessness
I remember being younger and smaller and doing dangerous things like climbing up high rock walls to reach the highest cliff jump into whatever lake or beach I was exploring. As I nimbly scaled the wall, I wasn’t thinking about the consequences of slipping and falling, or about the placement of my feet and hands, or about the fatigue in my muscles. Instead, I climbed. I made decisions about the correct route on the fly. I reached the top. I leaped into the water. Then I did it over and over again. Pure joy and happiness. Not a thought running through my head. Totally present.
Contrast this flow state to activities that should have been performed mindlessly but were not. A swim race in which I thought to much about the things I had to do to be fast was a swim race lost. A downhill run on a bike in which I thought about avoiding the tree trunks flying by like a picket fence on either side of me was a Matt-to-tree collision waiting to happen. A drive in which I paid too much attention to the navigation instructions on my phone was bound to be interrupted numerous wrong turns.
I have to remind myself to shut off my mind — at least, occasionally. Birds don’t consider each stroke of their wings to fly. Fish don’t consider the correct angle of their fins to swim straight. Foxes don’t consider how beautiful they are, nor whether their coat is redder than other foxes. ♦
Mailbox
Have a question or response? Hit reply. Write-ups and questions from readers will be published here each week.