This text is a visitor submit written by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Founder of Ness Labs.
In an period of knowledge overload and passive consumption, our brains can typically really feel overwhelmed and overworked, cluttered with random ideas and numerous photos we’ve seen while mindlessly scrolling social media. The psychological burnout is actual!
Enter: thoughts gardening – an idea that embraces the practices of gardening comparable to cultivating, nurturing and pruning, with a view to create a extra aware method to the best way we interact with the world round us and the content material we eat.
We spoke to Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Founder of Ness Labs, a platform devoted to aware productiveness, to search out out extra about harnessing the facility of thoughts gardening to domesticate creativity and have a tendency to an overworked – or overgrown – thoughts.
Thoughts Gardening 101:
I got here up with the idea of thoughts gardening a few years ago. In French, we now have an expression which means to are inclined to your inside backyard – “cultiver son jardin intérieur”. There’s additionally this quote from one among my favorite authors:
So plant your individual gardens and embellish your individual soul, as an alternative of ready for somebody to carry you flowers.
Jorge Luis Borges
After I take into consideration how we should always care for our thoughts, the backyard metaphor feels excellent: taking good care of your thoughts includes cultivating your curiosity (the seeds), rising your information (the timber), and producing new ideas (the fruits).
The Necessities:
As a substitute of letting weeds develop in your thoughts backyard, you’ll want to be intentional concerning the content material you eat, and resolve what to plant in your thoughts, and what’s not serving you. That may imply curating your feed on social media, spending extra time with folks with whom you will have nice conversations, or selecting to spend a night studying a great guide as an alternative of watching a TV present.
As a substitute of simply passively consuming different folks’s concepts – you’ll want to interact with what conjures up you.Anne-Laure Le Cunff
To ensure you keep in mind the issues that matter to you and encourage you, it’s essential to proactively plant these seeds in your thoughts. Notice-taking and journaling are nice methods to do that. It may be a fast notice in your cellphone or writing it in your journal. Lastly, to develop your information and produce your individual concepts – as an alternative of simply passively consuming different folks’s concepts – you’ll want to interact with what conjures up you. Join these concepts collectively, write your individual little tweets or Instagram posts or poems… It doesn’t actually matter what format you select, so long as you ensure you’re not only a collector, but in addition a creator.
Why is it essential to are inclined to your thoughts backyard?
Tending to your thoughts backyard will can help you have a extra aware method to the best way you interact with the world round you. It places you again in charge of the concepts that reside in your thoughts, and may also help scale back the sense of overwhelm we now have in in the present day’s hectic setting. Thoughts gardening signifies that you get to make sense of the world and contribute your individual authentic concepts – sure, issues are chaotic, however you’ll be able to nonetheless create your individual little haven of creativity and mindfulness.
Enhance productiveness and creativity:
There are many books that describe productiveness as one thing mechanical, the place you want a inflexible system that forces you to do the stuff you’re alleged to do.
Thoughts gardening, in distinction, embraces the messy nature of actuality.Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Thoughts gardening, in distinction, embraces the messy nature of actuality. Issues change on a regular basis, and that features your targets, your pursuits, and even your tastes. Relying on the present context, you’ll be able to resolve to plant completely different seeds and develop completely different concepts. In in the present day’s world, that can make you a way more versatile individual, which can contribute to your productiveness and your creativity. As a substitute of simply passively consuming content material and churning duties, you’ll be capable to discover new concepts, join the dots, and turn out to be the individual within the room who’s typically contributing authentic concepts.
A instrument for mindfulness:
Thoughts gardening is simply one other instrument you’ll be able to add to your mindfulness toolbox, alongside different nice instruments comparable to meditation and journaling. It’s particularly designed to cope with info overload, which a few of the older instruments – that are nonetheless nice – don’t instantly deal with.
Embrace the ‘seasons’ like a real gardener:
Typically, you’ll have numerous vitality, and it will translate into excessive ranges of curiosity – studying numerous books, listening to podcasts, taking notes and writing. However, identical to you’ll want to let the soil replenish its vitamins and gardens go into “sleep mode” throughout the winter, it’s additionally essential to take heed to your physique when your vitality ranges are decrease.
You don’t all the time have to be at your most efficient and inventive. It’s okay to take a break. Identical to seasons, your vitality ranges will change and fluctuate, and shortly sufficient Spring can be again once more.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
