I’ve been mowing the lawn for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a home with 4 large trees in the backyard. There was a hammock between 2 of them and I have distinct memories of laying down in the hammock- a real crossed-rope kind of hammock- and looking up into the leaves between the trees. In a way, it was like looking up at the stars. There would be all of these holes and gaps of light coming through. Underneath, it was shady and cool. On the hammock, it was wonderful to just lay and look.
4 trees are wonderful for shade, but make it hard to grow grass. When I was a teenager, I took an affinity to gardening and yard work. As the trees were cut, or fell, I gained more sun and with that, more ability to grow grass. You see, this yard was dirt and clods of grass as a kid. Now, I was making a backyard oasis. Some elbow grease and the installation of in-ground sprinklers made the whole process a lot easier. Now when I travel back to my childhood home, there’s green grass everywhere. It’s pretty to look at, and gives me a glimpse of accomplishment.
Mowing the lawn is one of those menial tasks that leads to mind-wandering. Like washing the dishes or vacuuming, you can get lost in the task. You don’t need to specifically engage your brain and you’re still getting the job done. It’s both mentally refreshing and terribly taxing. That’s at least if you have a brain like mine.
For me, mind-wandering leads to a spiral of thoughts. Sometimes positive, but often negative, or just rehashing patterns of thought. In “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, you learn that the habits we create develop “grooves” in our brain and that is part of the reason why they are so hard to break. Here I am, pushing the machine over the grass, and now it is time to rehash fights. Or a song lyric that won’t get out of my head. Or me telling myself to “follow the line” and then being brought to “Follow the line duddits” in Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher. If you pay attention long enough, you start to see the same pattern. The same groove being dug deeper until there’s not many choices left for me, but to keep thinking the same thing. Over and over again.
Has this happened to you?
What parts of your day are repetitive? Can you find the same thoughts creeping up again and again? Are these thoughts positive, negative, or just neutral?
Think about engaging in a similar pattern daily, weekly, or monthly, and within that pattern you are stuck in a certain kind of thought. Could those thoughts be used to your advantage or will they stay mindless wanderings getting ever deeper in the “grooves” of your brain?
I decided to try something different.
An unintentional life accepts everything and does nothing. An intentional life embraces only the things that will add to the mission of significance.-John C Maxwell
It makes sense to live with intention, right? In idea and thoughts, it’s what we should be doing as adults, right? But it’s damn hard.
This is my experiment for those moments of mind-wandering. Those moments where the brain is less engaged and those “grooved” thoughts find their way in: use mantras/positive statements/affirmations.
What better time to develop new grooves when old ones don’t serve? This is living with intention.
I recently started using the Habit Tracker to more tabs on my gym, reading, work, and thought habits. I have reminders set up hourly with affirmations that I have been changing to keep up with how I want to change my mind.
The reality is this: I look at my phone way too much, and the more positivity, the more intention, and the more change I can use this tool to leverage, the better I will be in the end. It’s easy to scroll through Facebook and Instagram while it’s harder to make sure that I am reading more. The pull of social media apps is strong and without friction. The key is to make sure, with intention, that I am capable of making the best choice at the next juncture.
In the end, I can sing the praises of mindfulness and tell you to meditate more. I can ask you to focus your attention throughout the day, but there will still be moments when you fall off. Through the use of technology as a tool, I am working to bring more intention to those “mindless” moments of my day. By changing my thinking, I am working to change my life.
