Is your mind tired? Do you feel overwhelmed?

Dr. David Rock, Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute and author of Your Brain at Work says we are now facing “an epidemic of overwhelm” … we are living in a “time when too many people’s mental well-being is being stretched through multi-tasking, fragmented attention and information overload.”

But there are 7 activities to refresh your mind and help it function at it’s very best. To help others move towards optimal mental health, Dr. Rock and a colleague, Dr. Dan Siegel, created the Healthy Mind Platter.

These seven activities make up the full set of ‘mental nutrients’ that your brain needs to function at it’s best. By engaging regularly in each of these servings, you enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities, which strengthens your brain’s internal connections and your connections with other people. — Dr. David Rock

Homeostasis is an internal equilibrium which releases health and soundness. Consider the Old Testament word shalom. Among other things, it means an inner peace and well-being which releases the full faculties and potential of the human being. Sounds good!

Here they are … the 7 activities of the Healthy Mind Platter:

FOCUS TIME

When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, taking on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.

PLAY TIME

When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, which helps make new connections in the brain.

CONNECTING TIME

When we connect with other people, ideally in person, richly activating the brain’s social circuitry.

PHYSICAL TIME

When we move our bodies, aerobically if possible, which strengthens the brain in many ways.

TIME IN

When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, helping to better integrate the brain.

DOWN TIME

When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, which helps our brain recharge.

SLEEP TIME

When we give the brain the rest it needs to consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.

As we create opportunities to experience the full spectrum of these essential mental activities, we start moving towards the mental well-being we desire.

As the Scriptures say, “As a man thinks, so is he.” Reflect on what benefits can flow in your life and those you are connected with as you refresh your mind.

Questing is a primal thing.  Every human is “wired” to quest.

Questing … searching, pursuing, journeying, venturing forth, the enterprise, the high endeavor.

The Creation Commission

The Creator’s calling given to the first couple was to increase, fill the earth, reign – drawing out the latent potential of all things.  Through their descendants, and through time, they were to extend the design and beauty of a cultivated garden throughout the earth.

Clearly this is a dynamic Kingdom concept at the outset of human history – a partnership between heaven and earth.

This is original stuff.  It’s deep within every child, woman and man …

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“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased.”

-  C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

photo credit: las – initially (Creative Commons)

I’ve only just a minute,

Only sixty seconds in it.

Forced upon me, can’t refuse it,

Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it,

But it’s up to me to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it,

Give an account if I abuse it,

Just a tiny little minute,

But eternity is in it.

Benjamin E. Mays lived with a conviction about the sacredness of time – even one minute of time.  How could our lives change if we had the same belief?

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