Accidental Self Care

I've been feeling very stupid lately. Unable to connect with either my creativity or what I always trusted as my intelligence. I understand that this has come primarily from recurring job stress over the past year; I've been longing for activities through which I can engage the familiar parts of my mind that let me know I can still think and still learn.

I attended three fine performances in the past week without the energizing response I used to find so satisfying. But driven by something less cognitive than instinctual during this strange time, I have started doing two things that are good for me.

I discovered this by reading posts by Luciano Passuello, a philosopher living in Brazil. His website, Litemind: Exploring ways to use our minds efficiently, gently explores topics such as creativity, problem-solving, visual thinking, memory and self-mastery. I'm not usually one for self-help guides, but his articles are well-written, immediately relevant and useful, and generous to all the people whose works he has read and responded to. I can dip into his archives and find ideas that resonate. Tonight I stumbled upon "The Deliberate Practice Formula," part of a larger post about the relationship between talent and achievement.

I realized that two practices I have begun in the past six months meet the criteria he describes: taking voice lessons again for the first time in many years and teaching myself to knit. The fascinating but accidental element of these two endeavors is that while I do have to think about both of them, they each involve my body so fundamentally that too much thinking can actually derail my progress.

Now I feel just a little bit smarter, a little bit more connected to my body, and a little more nurturing of my creativity and how it is fueled by practice.

The Deliberate Practice Formula

[1] Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it. Set goals that are just beyond your level of competency.

[2] As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way you are. After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Don’t get emotional about it, and make changes in your behavior as necessary.

[3] Continually build mental models of your situation – of your industry, your company, your career. Expand the models to encompass more factors.

[4] Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work. Consistency is the key here.

My next challenge is to see if understanding this construct intellectually gets in the way of doing and being present.