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Ana Maria González
An Empty Mind Does a Better Job of Thinking — and feels relaxed...
I had the opportunity to speak and be interviewed at the recent International Stress Conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil. After talking about Getting Things Done methodology, I could see that one of the most intriguing aspects was the concept of MIND LIKE WATER and what that would look like. In sharing more about that, people were fascinated with the process known as a mind sweep.
Some people were sort of "perplexed" and even a little skeptical that productivity had anything to do with lower stress levels. But I insisted: being productive is, precisely, about being stress-free and still getting things done.
Some of my clients from the conference really resonated with the stress alleviating quality-effect of emptying their mind. One client shared with me, “By simply writing down whatever pops into my head, I’m doing my brain a big favor--it is almost like massaging its shoulders!” I thought this was a great analogy. Think about getting a massage for a moment… you remove yourself from the busy-ness of the world for a brief amount of time; it relieves tension, tightness, constriction; it works out the knots and enhances your muscle tone; it’s relaxing, it feels good and it leaves you feeling clear, focused, relaxed and ready to face the world. Does this describe how you think about your work? It could …
The ability of having a "mind like water" is comprehensive process – it involves more than just doing a mind sweeping itself-- anyone that wants to get on the productivity track could start by doing a thorough "spring-cleaning” mind sweep, process it (decide what’s actionable and what isn’t, decide what the next action is, and enter that action into a system you trust), and review the system thereby keeping it current, active and alive. Along with keeping one’s commitments, one of the basic things that individuals can do to improve the quality of their "thinking" is to have an empty mind.
There is a tendency in business (and in life) to actively engage in the process of creation, the activity of "getting things done", of figuring out what is next and how we most efficiently get ourselves to succeed. Sometimes clients ask, “How can I think about my stuff, when I’m always so busy doing my stuff?”
In the midst of a mind fully engaged in reminding us of things to remember and of desperately wanting our attention to support us more, if we just took time to take some of its burden off, the rewards are so abundant! Think about that massage again, you know you’re going to get up off the massage table when it’s over, and return to the world re-energized, rejuvenated and restored. Having an empty mind doesn’t mean you’re not thinking anymore or not able to put together a cohesive thought. Far from that; it means your thinking is a skillful, mindful, meaningful process that you do to move yourself forward in life.
What I’m experiencing personally and observing in the corporate climates where I facilitate trainings, having an empty mind, similar to the massage, is to stay energized, enlivened and calm, so that we can tap the mind for its best thinking. It is as though our mind seems to connect-when it is quiet-to a source of geniality, creativity, poignancy and sharpness.
I’m including the following excerpt from David’s book, Getting Things Done, for those of you who would like to have a thorough description of Mind Like Water…
The “Mind Like Water” Simile
In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriate to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact.
The power in a karate punch comes from speed, not muscle; it comes from a focused “pop” at the end of the whip. That’s why petite people can learn to break board and bricks with their hands: it doesn’t take calluses or brute strength, just the ability to generate a focused thrust with speed. But a tense muscle is a slow one. So the high levels of training in the martial arts teach and demand balance and relaxation as much as anything else. Clearing the mind and being flexible are key.
Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does. Responding inappropriately to your e-mail, your staff, your projects, your unread magazines your thoughts about what you need to do, your children, your boss will lead to less effective results than you’d like. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they don’t operate with a “mind like water.”
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