“Empty time is not a vacuum to be filled. It is the thing that enables the other things on your mind to be creatively rearranged, like the empty square in the 4 x 4 puzzle that makes it possible to move the other fifteen pieces around.”
— Harry Lewis
Thinking Your Way Out
Picture this, an intellectual protagonist stuck in a spot where they’re threatened from all sides. Surely there’s no way out. Yet, somehow, through sheer brainpower alone, they outmanoeuvre their enemies and win the day.
It’s a romantic notion — a mastermind who can force their own mind to push beyond itself. But it’s strength in one direction only. There is another…
Nag a Ram
I both feel for and envy those who have never found themselves wrestling in the dark recesses of their Sunday newspaper with a cryptic crossword. Phonetic devilry, slippery double meanings and of course, anagrams. What’s curious about the latter is how they’re best approached — with an empty mind.
My grandmother is the person who first turned me on… [I got interrupted whilst typing this line and came back to it very confused as to where I was going with it]… to cryptic crosswords. I was struggling with a particular anagram for ages one time and she gave me some advice that has served me in many areas: “don’t try to force it, just let your mind wander.” I wandered further beyond the cryptic confines right into daydream territory. Eventually, I just sat there staring and thinking about nothing at all.
I’m British so inevitably I got up to make a tea. Whilst walking to the kettle the solution came to me. It’s an eerie feeling, to be struck by something effortlessly when you’d been trying hard to conjure it up for a long time before. I wondered whether that hard work beforehand was a necessary part of the process too or if I could have dodged that altogether.
Either way, letting go led me to the answer.
Brain Breaking
Meditation advocates emptying your mind. To a pathologically “thinkery” person such as myself, that’s deeply alien. Any time spent not thinking feels like lost time. But, there is clearly wisdom in it, and great foolishness in ignoring it.
Trying to out-think yourself is sometimes impossible because thoughts themselves can be the enemy.
This topic is right up my alley and I love the little interruptions you mention. Some anecdotes from a MBTI perspective which has both challenged and frustrated me:
1. My acting coach (ISTP) once brutally said to me "You CAN'T think your way to a solution!" I've always resented that advice, it's like dismissing my core element as being something 'I can't trust' or that 'I'm not doing it right'. I guess he meant, 'be more spontaneous' or 'don't overthink it' but then again, I am very analytical, I love to think!
2. I recently read about a billionaire who couldn't find happiness because his 'rational' mind couldn't make any 'sense' of all the advice he was reading. Finally he gave up and wrote out his own mathematical formula for happiness, with the help of his young adult son.
Now, here's the messed up part...just as he is putting the finishing touches on his formula, his son died tragically in hospital from a very routine appendix operation. 5 basic things went horribly wrong.
The father as you can imagine was completely and utterly distraught. Finally he worked through his grief to understand the situation from his son's perspective, applying all the advice his son gave him.
He says now he is the happiest he has even been since the tragedy. He regularly appears on podcasts and talk shows, giving talks about his formula.
IDK if a mathematical formula would suit every personality type and for every situation, such as the one he experienced, but it makes total sense that our own thoughts get in the way of our ability to process pleasure. More to say but that's plenty for now.
As someone borderline obsessed with efficiency, productivity, and rapidly solving problems, I can be my own enemy. If I fill every moment of the day with a goal or activity, I start spinning in circles. I agree that there is wisdom in taking a break and allowing your brain to wander aimlessly. I became committed to learning how to mediate, so I bought an EEG brain scanner (MUSE) device. Needless to say, I’m still not good a mediating. For me, taking my dog for a walk in the park is the best way to take a brain break. In this way, my dog is truly my emotional support animal.