With excess mental noise, students and employees can hardly expect to process course work or job tasks properly. People obsessed with constant noise-- watching TV, social networking, being busy, having music playing, and always searching for new fashionable things should consider taking a week-long fast from the devices that cause the most mental noise for them.
Taking a break from bad noise is like going on a diet. An obese person does not diet by starving himself; he replaces bad food with good food. Some types of noises can be good if they help stimulate brain acitivity.
So what are some good noises?
Making out a list of good types of noises is actually one good type of noise. Forcing the brain to think produces creativity.
Ideas:
Do something completely new (learn magic tricks, new boardgame, new hobby)
Find an exercise niche (jogging, swimming, skiing, ice skating, active games like soccer)
Find an exercise buddy or start up a game team.
Clean your surroundings until they sparkle!Organize old photos into goofy photo albums.
Go to a small restaurant downtown with a friend.
Cook a meal for a family.
Gingerbread house! Invite a friend to decorate!
Do a puzzle, and then frame it.
Build a fort out of snow or wood.
Go to the lake with subs.
Create a movie for YouTube.
Write a book or a play for children.
Invent something ridiculous.
Make reasonable new-years resolutions.
Google a different type of culture you've always wondered about; get a book out of the library about it.
Help someone; spend a day doing things that benefit others, not yourself.
Create your own improv everywhere scene with friends just to put a smile on someone's face.
Take a class in something that has always interested you - CPR for $30 at a highschool counts!
Volunteer somewhere: Red Cross, Animal Shelter, homeless shelter, church, or school.
Dress in black, shoot 100 photos at a park and then publish them online.
Spend $5 on someone randomly.
Look up long-lost relatives on facebook.
Send a letter to a soldier.
Upload photos on Shutterfly and order a calendar or mug of a picture of the person you love most.
Buy Rosetta Stone and at least try to learn a language.
Try something you always thought you hated: food, golf, piano, classic book/video, camping.
Go horseback riding with a friend.
Get a pot, plant something, put the name of a friend/enemy/family member on the pot and put it somewhere you will remember to water it.
Buy a book with daily wisdom nuggets or Bible verses and put the ones you like on the fridge or door.
Paint something: a wall, a painting, a wood carving, a computer document.
Set Starbucks aside and try a different coffee place.
For every 5 gifts you get, regift one.
Rewatch a cartoon you loved when you were little.
Make a list of all your dream careers, make a list of organizations within each dream career, and then apply for at least one dream-job or a class that would train you for that job.
Shop at a thrift store for a creative painting, piece of furniture, or book.
Invest in a new bedspread.
Watch a movie in the language that you're learning.
Attend a concert, live theatre, or band performance with someone you want to get closer to.
Learn or teach someone how to dive.
Post a corny joke as your facebook status.
Use a different kind of laundry detergent.
Invent a random survey for your neighbors and get to know them better.
See a solar eclipse.
Take your family downtown to a museum.
Give away old treasures you no longer enjoy.
Completely redecorate a room.
Rescue something: a puppy, a child, an old piece of furniture, or a friend.
Go up on the roof somewhere.
Never stop adding to the list.Create a movie for YouTube.
Write a book or a play for children.
Invent something ridiculous.
Make reasonable new-years resolutions.
Google a different type of culture you've always wondered about; get a book out of the library about it.
Help someone; spend a day doing things that benefit others, not yourself.
Create your own improv everywhere scene with friends just to put a smile on someone's face.
Take a class in something that has always interested you - CPR for $30 at a highschool counts!
Volunteer somewhere: Red Cross, Animal Shelter, homeless shelter, church, or school.
Dress in black, shoot 100 photos at a park and then publish them online.
Spend $5 on someone randomly.
Look up long-lost relatives on facebook.
Send a letter to a soldier.
Upload photos on Shutterfly and order a calendar or mug of a picture of the person you love most.
Buy Rosetta Stone and at least try to learn a language.
Try something you always thought you hated: food, golf, piano, classic book/video, camping.
Go horseback riding with a friend.
Get a pot, plant something, put the name of a friend/enemy/family member on the pot and put it somewhere you will remember to water it.
Buy a book with daily wisdom nuggets or Bible verses and put the ones you like on the fridge or door.
Paint something: a wall, a painting, a wood carving, a computer document.
Set Starbucks aside and try a different coffee place.
For every 5 gifts you get, regift one.
Rewatch a cartoon you loved when you were little.
Make a list of all your dream careers, make a list of organizations within each dream career, and then apply for at least one dream-job or a class that would train you for that job.
Shop at a thrift store for a creative painting, piece of furniture, or book.
Invest in a new bedspread.
Watch a movie in the language that you're learning.
Attend a concert, live theatre, or band performance with someone you want to get closer to.
Learn or teach someone how to dive.
Post a corny joke as your facebook status.
Use a different kind of laundry detergent.
Invent a random survey for your neighbors and get to know them better.
See a solar eclipse.
Take your family downtown to a museum.
Give away old treasures you no longer enjoy.
Completely redecorate a room.
Rescue something: a puppy, a child, an old piece of furniture, or a friend.
Go up on the roof somewhere.
Nice list indeed!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try and do the goofy photo album idea this week.
I could add:
Try and write a song.
Create 100 origami cranes or paper lanterns for the next party you go to.
Try two or three new recipes.
Collect shells off the beach, or collect the corks from any champagne/wine you have and fill up a big glass vase.
Book a night at an observatory and star-gaze with an astronomer.
Find a day and spend it cooking/eating something you'd never eat, watching a movie you would never watch, listening to music you'd never listen to, reading a book you'd never normally read.
Ring someone you haven't rung in ages, but should have.
Go to the opera.
Join a meditation class.
The list your provided added further stimulation to all of the ideas whirling around in my head. Writing a song intrigues me and trying new recipes I like, because both ideas are so doable.
ReplyDeleteSomehow completing something on a list is satisfying ;)