Since I’ve been spending most of my time at home of late, and as I live alone, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my own head. It’s inevitable when you’re alone, that attention tends to be internal. In the absence of someone to talk to, most of us talk to ourselves.
That’s ok. It’s also beneficial to spend time in the privacy and solitude of your own mind if you spend most of your time with other people. The time to ‘digest’ our experiences helps with long term memory and enables us to learn.
But how much alone time is too much?
I figured I was spending too much time in my own head when I notched up the following demonstrations of absent-mindedness in the space of a few weeks:
I completely forgot about a telephone call I had planned with a colleague. It was in my diary but I hadn’t looked at my diary. Embarrassing!
I woke up one morning to discover I had slept in my contact lenses. Messy!
I was bagging up food to go in the freezer and realised I had no idea of the date. No idea. Scary!
Now, before you conclude that I’ve entered the early stages of dementia, just ask yourself if you’ve done more of this kind of thing of late too. I’ve asked a few people and the answer has always been yes.
It’s because a lot of us are spending too much time in our own heads. We have a reduced connection to the here-and-now and reduced awareness of the passing of time.
The antidote?
Get out of your mind and come to your senses! (That’s built on a quote from Fritz Perls – ‘lose your mind and come to your senses’)
You can ‘come to your senses’ via any activity that requires you to engage with the external world. Go for a walk and pay attention to what you see and hear. Get in the kitchen and start cooking or baking, pay attention to the recipe, to the ingredients, to the taste. Talk to another person. If you can’t do it ‘in person’ then the phone is ok, but give your full attention to what the other person is saying. Avoid doing other tasks as you chat.
You get the idea? Paying attention to what you can see, hear, feel, taste or smell brings you out of the conceptual world in your mind and grounds you in the here and now. Notice the date and time while you’re here…
Feel free to post in the comments with your own indicators that you’ve been in your head too much.
Hello Dianne, I have noticed another effect of the current snowstorm of information and opinion drifting down on me. It is that many of the things that had been part of my unconscious competence could not be relied on because of processing overload. Many medical professionals have reported heightened levels of distress seemingly caused by having to think about so-called guidelines (i.e. heaven help you if you don’t follow them) during treatments. Doing one’s best to carry out daily caring procedures whilst worrying about unseen and unimaginable consequences of “getting something wrong”. Regulations and complicated Standard Operating Procedures that are modified weekly as the wind changes. Demands for record keeping that occupy more time than the treatment itself. The threat that inadequate paper trails will be punished even when clinical outcomes are good. Mental hamstringing caused by juggling seemingly unworkable ancilliary tasks in addition to clinical work. All these things threaten good care. Add all this to the thought that the deskbound generators of regulations that purport to avoid unlikely problems based on vague theory do not bear any responsibility when things go wrong or businesses are caused to fail. I am in a position where I could walk away albeit with a heavy heart and some financial loss. Many face dire financial and psychological trauma.
Hello Peter,
I noticed the same thing when I went for an acupuncture treatment last week. My acupuncturist stopped and checked herself several times and also lost her train of thought more than once. We agreed that this was a consequence of introducing new elements into well-established routines (Strategies in NLP terms). What used to be unconscious competences need conscious attention because of the changes in protocol. I can see how that would become stressful for any Healthcare Practitioner. Look after yourself!