Throwing You For a Loop

Do you Wordle? Spelling Bee? Connect or Crossword?

As part of my health routine, I do them daily. I’ve read enough to know that keeping my brain nimble and building mental muscle is as (or more) important than my ERGS, pilates and weight training sessions.

Like all forms of exercise, some days are easier than others.

I’m not wired to quit and will pound out the last mile or obsessively try every letter combination on my screen over and over.

Sometimes, I make it to the end, but quite often, the relentless pursuit of the goal puts me in a cycle that makes it impossible to achieve it.

My body and mind adjust to the repetition and familiarity… and I get stuck.

I call it closed-loop living.

Closed-loop living follows the same pattern over and over, making growth so much harder.

In terms of exercise, experts have told me that the more I train with one specific exercise, the less benefit I’ll get from each additional training session – bodies become less responsive to the same stimuli over time. That’s one of the reasons that HIIT programs that mix up the exercise and incorporate time for training are popular with trainers and fitness buffs.

In terms of mental gymnastics, there are days when no matter how long I look at a puzzle or the number of iterations I think I’m trying, I can’t see the word. Sometimes, shuffling the letters helps, and that’s a form of mixing it up that sometimes breaks my natural pattern and gets me unstuck.

But like HITT training, I’m finding that I need a forced recovery program to get my mental muscles back into gear.

When I’m stuck, I walk away.

I’m not a quitter. I’m just shifting my perspective so that I can re-focus.

I might feed the chickens, cook some soup, play with clay, call a friend, or go for a walk.

It's incredible how revisiting a problem after an hour away from it shows that the answer was right in front of me all along. (And, amazingly, mixing up an exercise routine means that you can feel and see the results more often.)

I’ve also noticed how growth happens when I’m NOT trying.

The other day, when I was having an eyelash lift (yes guys, that’s a thing), I was “forced” to lie back with my eyes closed and could not look at my phone, check my calendar, or doom scroll.

I had just been throwing ceramics and trying to make a “frog” that would sit in the base of a vase to keep the flowers standing straight. It wasn’t working, and I was stuck.

With nothing else to distract me, I started to wonder why a frog needed to be hidden. Then, I started thinking about ways to make flowers stand up straight and integrate them into a vase's design. Suddenly, I developed a clear mental image of something I had never seen before, and I couldn’t wait to open my eyes and return to my studio to try to bring it to life.

My solution was a bit wonky for version 1.0. But I created a web that extends over my vase, visible and beautiful as it supports the delicate stems.

Yes, it was a minor breakthrough that needs much refinement, but it was fresh thinking nonetheless. It resulted from relaxing into something without a plan.

Open-loop living happened when I closed my eyes and gave up control.

It’s scary to let go after a lifetime of being in control, but with practice, I’m becoming more comfortable taking a step back occasionally.

Are you living in a closed loop? Try walking away when that happens.

I can’t wait to hear about your breakthroughs.

?