Detox your mind
29/12/10 16:01
As the ‘silly season’ winds to a close, you may be thinking about a ‘detox’ after the annual festivities. I can’t offer much advice in the area of liver function, but thought instead I’d offer some suggestions about how to help your mind recover from the tumult of the season.
The whole point of a detox seems to be to spend a short period of time being ‘healthy’, so as to make up for a period of time spent doing ‘unhealthy’ things. So, here are seven ideas for detoxing your mind in the next week or two before work kicks back in:
1. Preserve some old habits. This may be at odds with the idea of taking a break, but it’s a fact that many people find christmas/new year the most stressful time of year, and this is mainly for one reason: all your routines grind to a halt. You will find yourself doing things that you only ever do once a year, and not doing familiar things that you were doing daily, before christmas arrived. Even the absence of simple routines such as getting up and dressed in the morning, or driving the familiar route to work, can add to the mental effort of the holidays. An easy way to reduce this effort is to do what you can to preserve some of these routines. If you find yourself waking up too early or late, or feeling aimless at times, then try going through some of your normal morning rituals, as if you were going to work. You might even (shock, horror!) spend an hour going over your work diary, or reading e-mails, or making mental contact with work in some other way. Such small touchstones can in fact soothe your mind, by re-establishing contact with familiar things.
2. Reduce your caffeine intake. If you drink coffee, switch to decaf for a few days. If you drink tea, switch to herbal (green tea has a lot of caffeine in it too). If you drink coke or energy drinks, you might not be interested in detox regimes in the first place! The benefit of cutting back on caffeine is simply that it will help you relax. You’ll probably find it easier to get to sleep in the evening as well. The effect of caffeine on your brain is a bit like the effect of putting more wood on a raging fire; it will generate more heat and energy, but then you will find that a bigger, hotter fire also keeps needing more wood to maintain its high output. Since you’re not at work, why not slow the process down a little?
3. Balance solo time with family time. One way or another, Christmas time is family time, and the hurly-burly of interactions can take a mental toll. If you’re on holidays with family, make sure you give yourself an hour or two away from everyone, or just with your partner, doing something simple and enjoyable. This will make the family time all the more fun once you return.
On the other hand, If you are missing family this year, then make some time to connect with them, even if it isn’t in person. Write, call, visit a familiar spot. If you get an invitation from someone else around you to do something, accept it, even if it’s not your usual crowd.
4. Use your brain. Human beings are stimulated by productivity. Being on holidays often means the complete cessation of productive activity, and this can eventually lead to boredom or restlessness. By all means, veg out on the sofa or in a banana lounge for most of the time, but do your brain a favour and give it something interesting or stimulating to do once in a while. Cook a nice meal; play a game of cards; do a crossword puzzle or soduku; or for something more social, find a game to play with others.
5. Commune with nature. Most people, when asked to think of a safe or soothing place, think of a nature setting. Some think of a lake, or ocean; some think of a forest or park. What do you think of? Perhaps this is the once time of year that you have the space and time to actually go somewhere like that for an hour or two. This doesn’t have to involve camping or long trips; it can be as simple as taking a rug to a park and lying down under a tree to listen to the birds.
6. Reduce your retail intake. There are bargains galore after christmas, but if you sat down on christmas eve and wrote a list of essential items you needed to buy, how many things would there be on it? Before you dive into the sales, write a shopping list, and then confine your shopping expeditions to those things only. Retail outlets are, by their nature, designed to create conflict in your mind and undermine your capacity to plan and make calm decisions. Shop in moderation.
7. Sleep. The best way to catch up on lost sleep is to go to bed earlier. If you’re planning to stay up on New Years’ Eve, see if you can plan one or more early nights prior, so you’ll be at your partying best on the night. If you have trouble sleeping, there are some tips for getting to sleep here.
I hope you’ve had a rewarding christmas, and wish you creativity, comfort and safety in the new year.
The whole point of a detox seems to be to spend a short period of time being ‘healthy’, so as to make up for a period of time spent doing ‘unhealthy’ things. So, here are seven ideas for detoxing your mind in the next week or two before work kicks back in:
1. Preserve some old habits. This may be at odds with the idea of taking a break, but it’s a fact that many people find christmas/new year the most stressful time of year, and this is mainly for one reason: all your routines grind to a halt. You will find yourself doing things that you only ever do once a year, and not doing familiar things that you were doing daily, before christmas arrived. Even the absence of simple routines such as getting up and dressed in the morning, or driving the familiar route to work, can add to the mental effort of the holidays. An easy way to reduce this effort is to do what you can to preserve some of these routines. If you find yourself waking up too early or late, or feeling aimless at times, then try going through some of your normal morning rituals, as if you were going to work. You might even (shock, horror!) spend an hour going over your work diary, or reading e-mails, or making mental contact with work in some other way. Such small touchstones can in fact soothe your mind, by re-establishing contact with familiar things.
2. Reduce your caffeine intake. If you drink coffee, switch to decaf for a few days. If you drink tea, switch to herbal (green tea has a lot of caffeine in it too). If you drink coke or energy drinks, you might not be interested in detox regimes in the first place! The benefit of cutting back on caffeine is simply that it will help you relax. You’ll probably find it easier to get to sleep in the evening as well. The effect of caffeine on your brain is a bit like the effect of putting more wood on a raging fire; it will generate more heat and energy, but then you will find that a bigger, hotter fire also keeps needing more wood to maintain its high output. Since you’re not at work, why not slow the process down a little?
3. Balance solo time with family time. One way or another, Christmas time is family time, and the hurly-burly of interactions can take a mental toll. If you’re on holidays with family, make sure you give yourself an hour or two away from everyone, or just with your partner, doing something simple and enjoyable. This will make the family time all the more fun once you return.
On the other hand, If you are missing family this year, then make some time to connect with them, even if it isn’t in person. Write, call, visit a familiar spot. If you get an invitation from someone else around you to do something, accept it, even if it’s not your usual crowd.
4. Use your brain. Human beings are stimulated by productivity. Being on holidays often means the complete cessation of productive activity, and this can eventually lead to boredom or restlessness. By all means, veg out on the sofa or in a banana lounge for most of the time, but do your brain a favour and give it something interesting or stimulating to do once in a while. Cook a nice meal; play a game of cards; do a crossword puzzle or soduku; or for something more social, find a game to play with others.
5. Commune with nature. Most people, when asked to think of a safe or soothing place, think of a nature setting. Some think of a lake, or ocean; some think of a forest or park. What do you think of? Perhaps this is the once time of year that you have the space and time to actually go somewhere like that for an hour or two. This doesn’t have to involve camping or long trips; it can be as simple as taking a rug to a park and lying down under a tree to listen to the birds.
6. Reduce your retail intake. There are bargains galore after christmas, but if you sat down on christmas eve and wrote a list of essential items you needed to buy, how many things would there be on it? Before you dive into the sales, write a shopping list, and then confine your shopping expeditions to those things only. Retail outlets are, by their nature, designed to create conflict in your mind and undermine your capacity to plan and make calm decisions. Shop in moderation.
7. Sleep. The best way to catch up on lost sleep is to go to bed earlier. If you’re planning to stay up on New Years’ Eve, see if you can plan one or more early nights prior, so you’ll be at your partying best on the night. If you have trouble sleeping, there are some tips for getting to sleep here.
I hope you’ve had a rewarding christmas, and wish you creativity, comfort and safety in the new year.
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Julia Gillard has kids after all...
14/07/10 19:44
Julia Gillard has now fulfilled her political destiny, to take the custodianship of the nation from a long line of men.
All of the PM’s before her were dads. Many, most notably Bob Hawke, expressed their regret at the way their careers took them away from their children. The most common reason for retiring from politics seems to be ‘to spend more time with my family’. Well, Julia has around 20 million of us in her care now. How does it feel? More to the point, with the nation being an electoral ‘tinderbox’ this week, it’s worth asking: What kind of mother will Julia turn out to be? Will she be an attachment parent, a helicopter mum, or Australia’s super-nanny? Are we in for some ‘tough love’, now that she’s overseeing the kitchen cabinet?
If Julia turns out to be a follower of the growing number of ‘Attachment parents’ out there, the model will be one of close involvement, frequent reassurance, and a focus on the relationship above all else. Attachment parents co-sleep with their kids, breast-feed for as long as possible, and make themselves unconditionally available to their charges. This ‘community consultation’ approach may turn out to be somewhat labour-intensive for Ms. Gillard, particularly when there are so many sibling rivalries going on at once. Perhaps last week’s problems with asylum-seeker policy showed that being all things to all of your kids is a tough ask for any parent. You simply can’t please everyone all the same time.
Perhaps Julia will be more of a disciplinarian. Kevin Rudd certainly knows what it feels like to be put on the naughty step by his own family. Julia’s magnanimous comment when announcing her cabinet reshuffle was that Kevin would be “most welcome” back to the front bench if Labour wins government at the upcoming election. ‘Until you’re ready to play nice, Kevin, you just need to sit on that bench there and have a think about your behaviour.’ I wonder if this model is more what Magda Szubanski had in mind when she likened Julia to a Catholic School Nun.
Having Julia Gillard as my new mum also casts some of my peers in a different light. Commentators such as Miranda Devine and Andrew Bolt feel even more like older siblings, sniping about mum: “The woman I’ve praised for warmth and directness has started her reign with the same cold deceit with which Dad, er, I mean, Rudd ended his,” Bolt wrote last week. Devine, the next day: “Gillard's speech (about asylum seeker policy) was astonishingly patronizing…” It feels like we’re witnessing some teenage rebellion – ‘I’m going out with Tony tonight, and you can’t stop me!’
This week our parent’s focus will move on to climate change policy. It will be interesting to see who we end up feeling safer with. Perhaps, on a purely psychological level, this election will be about choosing a guardian. Who would you prefer to be adopted by: Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott? Remember, either way, there’s always Uncle Bob Brown at the market garden down the street…
All of the PM’s before her were dads. Many, most notably Bob Hawke, expressed their regret at the way their careers took them away from their children. The most common reason for retiring from politics seems to be ‘to spend more time with my family’. Well, Julia has around 20 million of us in her care now. How does it feel? More to the point, with the nation being an electoral ‘tinderbox’ this week, it’s worth asking: What kind of mother will Julia turn out to be? Will she be an attachment parent, a helicopter mum, or Australia’s super-nanny? Are we in for some ‘tough love’, now that she’s overseeing the kitchen cabinet?
If Julia turns out to be a follower of the growing number of ‘Attachment parents’ out there, the model will be one of close involvement, frequent reassurance, and a focus on the relationship above all else. Attachment parents co-sleep with their kids, breast-feed for as long as possible, and make themselves unconditionally available to their charges. This ‘community consultation’ approach may turn out to be somewhat labour-intensive for Ms. Gillard, particularly when there are so many sibling rivalries going on at once. Perhaps last week’s problems with asylum-seeker policy showed that being all things to all of your kids is a tough ask for any parent. You simply can’t please everyone all the same time.
Perhaps Julia will be more of a disciplinarian. Kevin Rudd certainly knows what it feels like to be put on the naughty step by his own family. Julia’s magnanimous comment when announcing her cabinet reshuffle was that Kevin would be “most welcome” back to the front bench if Labour wins government at the upcoming election. ‘Until you’re ready to play nice, Kevin, you just need to sit on that bench there and have a think about your behaviour.’ I wonder if this model is more what Magda Szubanski had in mind when she likened Julia to a Catholic School Nun.
Having Julia Gillard as my new mum also casts some of my peers in a different light. Commentators such as Miranda Devine and Andrew Bolt feel even more like older siblings, sniping about mum: “The woman I’ve praised for warmth and directness has started her reign with the same cold deceit with which Dad, er, I mean, Rudd ended his,” Bolt wrote last week. Devine, the next day: “Gillard's speech (about asylum seeker policy) was astonishingly patronizing…” It feels like we’re witnessing some teenage rebellion – ‘I’m going out with Tony tonight, and you can’t stop me!’
This week our parent’s focus will move on to climate change policy. It will be interesting to see who we end up feeling safer with. Perhaps, on a purely psychological level, this election will be about choosing a guardian. Who would you prefer to be adopted by: Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott? Remember, either way, there’s always Uncle Bob Brown at the market garden down the street…