Time to get pretzely.......

Everyday I play scrabble on line and I

do this because I read somewhere that the brain, 

much like other muscles, needs exercise.

To challenge myself and to increase my vocabulary,

I have decided that each game I play I must use at least 

one word I have never used before.

Yesterday one of my ''new'' words was pretzel.

However, it was not accepted.

This was strange to me as the ''computer expert'' had

 played it just last week.

I mean, pretzel is just the word for a type of bread

isn't it?

Mind you, I once had a friend say to me ''I'll have to turn

myself into a pretzel to get into your car''(At that time I was driving 

a low to the ground, two-door sporty little number.).

From that comment I concluded, well, more assumed perhaps,

 that pretzel can also mean to ''be very flexible''.

As the beginning of a new year is just a few hours away,

I have a feeling that in order to be able to keep up 

and cope with the many twists and turns that life may 

toss my way, I may have to turn myself into a ''pretzel''.

To be flexible is to be able to ''bend without breaking''

some say, and to me that sounds very much like 

becoming ''pretze-ly.

According to some: ''Psychological flexibility is the

ability to distance oneself from one's current mindset

and consider other possible mindsets.''

So, being very pretzely.....

Mindset is the established attitudes, opinions, views,

perspectives, etc. etc. we all have about...... well,

....... most things.

Although, commonly we don't experience our ''mindsets'',

to us ''it's just the way things/people/politics/etc. etc. are''.

A helpful way to ascertain whether we are ''set in our ways''

or flexible is to challenge or mindsets by asking ourselves

a simple question now and then: ''But what if.......?''

But what if there is another way, perspective, possibility, solution,

way to think about it, do it, view it, etc. etc.?

(Sometimes ''negative'' rather than ''positive'' what if's 

show up..... what if: I fail, make a mistake, trip, fall, etc. etc.

May I suggest that those what if's are best met with a stern

''what if I don't''....fall, slip, trip, fail, etc. etc.)

Us humans like routines, habits, and patterns.

It feels comfortable, easy and ''safe'' and any kind

of challenge to those (routines, habits, and patterns)

 often feels uncomfortable, complicated and uncertain.

However, even the smallest of changes can alter our perspectives.

For instance: ''what if today I try a short black instead

of a flat white coffee?'' and hey presto, suddenly we may discover

ourselves facing the world ''wearing roller skates rather than shoes''.

What if today I ..........insert here something that you usually

don't do.....................?

Some say that when we are psychologically flexible we

become better at making choices and decisions based on

our core values rather than our emotions.

So how does one become more psychologically flexible?

Some suggestions: developing an open mindset,

trying new things, challenging one's opinions/views,

seeking out new experiences, learning a new language,

doing things differently, being open to finding alternative solutions,

 etc. etc.

If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get

what we've always got.

''Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked,

while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with

the wind.''

(Bruce Lee)

''Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the

face of confusion. All of these attributes are choices

not talents, and all of them are available to you.''

(Seth Codin)

Time to get pretzely methinks.

And, oh, by the way, Happy New Year to

everyone.

about the image: graphite sketch on paper and

edited in Elements

Although the ballet dancer in the image is not

pretzely I reckon the position demands a lot of flexibility.

Being in the Zone...........huh?.

This bird goes by the name ''Talgoxe'' in Swedish and

''Great Tit'' in English.

It's not a rare bird, it's ''song'' is not particularly

beautiful, it's quite small and can be found almost everywhere.

(Scandinavia, Europe, West, Central and North Africa, etc.)

When it comes to being able to adjust to changes in it's 

environment, this little bird(12-14cm)however, is doing so 

particularly successfully.

Though the image of this little bird may not be ''special'' or rare,

what is special about it to me is, that this is the first ''painting''

that I have managed to create not by using brushes, pens,

paper, canvas or paints, but by using digital technology.

Some years ago I bought a small Wacom Tablet determined

to embrace a new way(for me) of creating images.

After I had installed the tablet and all the necessary software 

I realized that I had no clue as how to use it.

I made a few feeble attempts but it just didn't feel ''right''.

Slapping paints on a fresh, white canvas or cardboard

feels so tangible, so physical, so invigorating and so

''freeing'' ......whereas moving a ''fake'' pen on a

little black plastic pad while staring at a screen just

felt artificial and impersonal.

I decided that I would learn the basics of how

to use the tablet for photo editing 

purposes and left it at that.

Until a few days ago.

Intending to paint a Red breasted Wren, I googled the net

 for some images to use as a reference. 

While doing so I suddenly thought: why not paint a Swedish bird?

I typed in Talgoxe in the search bar and found a nice

photo of one that I thought would work well as a

reference.

Using a pencil and a sketchpad I made a sketch

of the little bird. Happy with the sketch I grabbed

my water colour pencils, some brushes, a glass of fresh 

water and some proper water colour paper.

Then another a new thought.

What if I just scan in the sketch and then do the ''painting''

on the tablet?

A few minutes later I was staring at the sketch in Photoshop

Elements.

Okay, I thought, where do I begin?

Well, I need a brush and I need some colour.

Although the ''fake'' black pen felt strange in my hand,

I choose a ''wet media brush'', a colour and then began to ''paint''.

Much to my surprise I suddenly seemed to somehow

know how to use pen as if it was a real brush.

How was this possible?

I mean, I really had no idea what I was doing.

Then it dawned on me that I had once again stepped in to

 the ''Zone'',  I was in a state of flow.

Before I read a book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

called ''Flow'' I had never heard of ''being in the Zone'',

so when I read his definition of it: ''the essence of flow

is the removal of the interference of the thinking mind''

it suddenly made sense to me how time and place

always seemed to disappear when I was in the throws of 

creating ''stuff''.

Some define being in the zone/flow as: 

''a mental state of focused concentration

on the performance of an activity in which one dissociates

from distracting or irrelevant aspects of one's environment''.

 Painting the little bird there was no thinking,

only doing. 

 As the image more and more

started to look like the reference photo I realized

just how much fun I was having doing the ''doing''.

(Not only fun, but I also found it quite exciting.

 Only when my hand holding the ''pen/brush'' started to ache

did I notice how much time had passed.)

 I can't say that I remember exactly how or what I did

when I painted the little bird because more often than not,

when I do creative stuff I tend to lose myself in the

process, aka being in the zone/state of flow.

However, be that as it may, entering into it usually

begins with letting go of expectations and ''having a go''.

- Your computer crashed? my son asked.

- Yes, I've lost all my photos and my software, I answered.

- So, paint instead, he said.

-Paint? I don't know how to paint.

- Do it anyway, he said and with those words a new chapter

in my life began.

''Do it anyway'' opened my mind to a much larger

world, a world full of possibilities.

Wanna dance but don't know how?

Do it anyway.

Wanna sing but don't know how?

Do it anyway.

Wanna .....insert here what you want to do.........

but don't know how?

Do it anyway.

Throw open the gates of possibilities.

About the images: Boy dancer- ink on brown paper

Gates- photo

As a man thinks, so he is...........

Have you ever found yourself thinking: ''There's just too

much noise(going on) for me to think clearly. I've got to go

somewhere where I can focus my thinking.''

According to those ''in the know'' we make thousands of

decisions every day. Most of those decisions we make

unconsciously and can be categorized as habits.

Most of us get up about the same time, eat the same breakfast,

have the same hot drink, check our phones, emails, messages,

and the same media and social platforms.

According to some stats many of us sleep with our phones

next to us and when awake check our phones every six minutes 

without being aware of doing so.

(Some research suggests that only 10% of the decisions we make

every day are made consciously.)

Habits, once we have developed them, can be difficult to break.

According to Ann Graybiel, (professor at MIT) there's a part in the 

brain(basal ganglia)that assists us in developing habits so that

 they become automatic. This frees up space in our brains and

 memories so that we can take in all the other things 

we deal with every day.

Which is good, yes?

 Well, yes, if they are ''good'' (as in healthy/life-affirming)

habits...however, it does the same with ''bad''/unhealthy habits.

Habits can easily turn in to addictions, obsessions, and

mental health issues. ''Thinking'' our way out of such habits can

be very difficult which is why it is in my view a good idea to

scrutinize our habits now and then and ponder whether they are

 of benefit or detriment to our well-being.

''As a man thinks, so he is; as he continues to think,

so he remains.'' (James Allen)

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Thien Buddhist monk,

in one of his books writes about how we often do things

so automatically that even when we are eating or

drinking something hot, we don't actually taste it.

Mea culpa.

(I was actually drinking a coffee when I read that

and I was not really tasting it.)

Reading those wise words of Thich Nhat Hanh, I realized

just how much of my life was experienced on

automatic pilot.

And.....It didn't apply only to tasting, it applied just as much to

doing, feeling, and thinking.

When I got up in the morning, was I aware of my thoughts?

When I put my clothes on, did I feel the fabric on my skin?

When I ate my toast, did I actually taste it?

When I washed up my plate and cup, was I aware of doing it?

Nah, is the honest answer.

It became abundantly clear to me that I needed to get off

my automatic pilot and to start making sure that wherever

I was,.....I was there.

What about you?

When you had breakfast this morning, can you remember

tasting it?

If you woke up this morning feeling a bit ''down'', can you

remember what your thoughts were before you became 

aware of feeling a bit down?

Emotions/feelings, so some say, are our bodies response to

our thinking whether we are aware of it or not.

(Our belief systems and unconscious thoughts are on autopilot

a lot of the time which is why at times we may be

puzzled by our emotional responses.)

''In the egoic state, your sense of self, 

your identity, 

 is derived from your thinking mind 

- in other words,

 what your mind tells you

 about yourself:

the storyline about you, the memories,

 the expectations,

all the thoughts that goes through 

your head continuously

and all the emotions that 

reflect those thoughts.

All those things that make 

up your sense of self.''

(Eckhart Tolle)

It can be hard to think sometimes.

We do live in a noisy world.

But thinking about stuff is important.

Often we make ''better'' decisions

when we spend some in-depth thinking

before we act.

Whether we do our best thinking while

on the commode or on the beach,

the crux is - thinking about....

thinking.

about the image: ink on paper

Title: ''Rodin, what are you thinking about?''