intermittent fasting for the mind
I typically have my first meal of the day around 2-4pm, and have my last meal around 8-10pm. this gives me a roughly ~18 hour window where my body is not ingesting any food.
there's lots of benefits to an intermittent fast, including but not limited to: enhanced mental clarity, effective weight loss, and improved insulin resistance.
but the point of this post isn't to convince you that you should intermittent fast. it's to ponder the idea of implementing some sort of intermittent fast for the mind. if we shouldn't be stuffing ourselves with food for all of our waking hours, then why stuff our minds with information & chatter all day?
we're so distracted and our minds are so filled that we even came up with a term not so long ago for the little time that we actually have solitude [1] - shower thoughts.
my hypothesis (I am experimenting with myself right now and finding it to be true) is that by abstaining from feeding your mind for all hours of the day, you would experience the shower thought bliss a lot more. you'll flow with ideas, question why things are the way that they are, and build a much more meditative life. [2]
think about how your day goes & how much downtime you actually have. I'd bet that nowadays, this averages between 10-20 minutes, and happens primarily in the shower. you'll probably never get this number over 2-4 waking hours per day (unless you're a monk), but that's fine.
I've been experimenting with a few different ways of increasing downtime, and have found them to be quite helpful: this gives me some good separation in my life between being able to consume information, and having time for solitude and thinking. it's a lot more fun!
- no phone in bed, or immediately after waking up
- I try not to touch my phone until after my first work session
- 0 notifications outside of calls
- I'm an intentionally bad texter.
- silent walks
- I go on ~3 walks a day. I try and do at least one of these silently.
- less music for everyday activities (driving, gym, etc.)
- check my slack and/or emails at specific times, rather than throughout the day.
[1] solitude - the state of being alone with ones thoughts
[2] there's also some science behind neuroplasticity increasing as solitude increases. you learn much better & quicker with downtime.