Sometimes after a busy day I just want to come home, relax, and unplug my brain for a while. During times like this I watch TV, play video games, or take a nap. Then there are other times when I have an over-abundance of busyness and it’s hard to find a moment to reflect on things that matter, to think about life beyond what I’m going to do in the next 30 minutes. Even though it’s hard to put down certain tasks when I’m on a deadline, it can be helpful to be able to stop and take a thinking-break. When there are things to do and I can’t hike to the top of a mountain to ponder, these are a few of my favorite activities to do, to encourage my mind to wander towards the sublime.
5. Reading. Reading a book or an article can be helpful to stimulate thought on a particular topic, but it can also be a distractor–so reading is a lower spot on my list. I suppose it really depends on whether you’re engaged in active reading (maybe taking notes or going back later to spots where you disagree with the point the author makes), but then this is also the kind of thing that distinguishes “mindless escapism” from something more… Still I’d recommend reading over not-reading any day for stimulation of the ol’ thinker.
4. Mowing the lawn. When I was in high school I dreaded Saturday mornings during the summer. Every Saturday my brother and I had to mow the grass in my parents’ two acre yard. With push-mowers. It was sometimes an all-day event, depending on whether there was the normal Florida rain in the afternoon, so I spent a lot of time pushing that darn lawn mower. And even though it was hot, sweaty, grass-covered work, I did enjoy one thing about it: I had time to think. Now I wasn’t a particularly busy high school student, but I can look back fondly on the time I spent mowing that huge yard as time well spent, because I worked through a lot of problems while I worked up some nice callouses on my hands.
3. Running. There was a time when I could run 400 meters in under 60 seconds. There was a time when I ran two or three miles at least three times a week, just because I liked to run. And then there came a time when I started law school, got married, and gained the freshman-fifteen that I had kept off for so long. Bleh. But even though running is more of a chore for me now than it used to be, it’s still something I like to do to clear my head. Last summer I did legal internship at Patrick AFB, near Cocoa Beach Florida, and we did physical training three times a week. Two of these days we’d run between five and fifteen kilometers, and some days it seemed like torture… But other days I really enjoyed getting out in the early morning, while the dew was still on the grass and the sun wasn’t baking the pavement yet, and just running. I guess running, for me, is a mix of totally not-thinking, and having some important conversations with myself. I love to run (even when I don’t) because it is one of the best ways to focus one part of your brain on doing a mundane, repetitive task, while freeing another part of the mind to ponder bigger issues.
2. Writing. I’ve kept a journal since I was in the first grade. I have entries where I write about school, girls, college, my hopes for a future wife, and God. And as I’ve looked back on older entries I notice patterns in my thought habits, patterns in how I journey through life. This is one of the great advantages of journaling. But the other great advantage is that journaling forces me to express abstract ideas, to capture wisps of thought and cogently communicate them. Blogging is a similar, though less private, experience, and I recommend trying out your own blog, or journaling for the benefit of channeling your thoughts. The one catch here is that if you really want to stimulate thinking, writing plays off of the thoughts you already have–it just helps you develop them into more than they are on their own.
1. Doing the dishes. There’s a great quote from the TV show Lost, and no it’s not about polar bears. The quote is from Jack (the character who’s a surgeon) in one of the flashbacks; Jack comes home from a stressful day and starts to do the dishes–his wife protests and he says “No I like to do the dishes; and it’s cheaper than a therapist.” I guess this is probably the simplest but truest example of why doing the dishes is such a good way to spend time thinking. I know that getting my hands greasy or splashing soapy water on a favorite shirt is not the most pleasant aspect of “washing up”, but I have time to think while doing the dishes, and that’s sometimes a precious commodity. Try it out, if you’ve never done the dishes (and if you haven’t, be sure to tip your servants!), I promise you’ll find you have lots of thoughts just waiting to bubble up.
Posted by Micah McMillan 
