Posting this mostly for the sake of finding out if anyone else experiences the following syndrome, and if they do, what strategies they use for dealing with it.
When referring to the syndrome as it happens to me personally, I call it the “mental paralysis” syndrome. It is a state of mind characterized by frenzied mental activity that occurs simultaneously with no apparent productivity other than staring at something, be it a book, a piece of work one is supposed to be doing, or a computer screen. If one’s brain were a copy machine, it would be the equivalent of a paper jam.
For me, there are several things that are guaranteed to bring on this wheel-spinning mess. One is a complete state of overwhelm—when the “to do” list reaches a certain point, the “memory full” prompt goes on and all activity ceases. The same thing can be caused by a fit of depression, a disappointment, a really positive and exciting thing that has now completely taken over my untrainable mind, something that is worrying me, or a personal or relationship-related conflict with someone (even a remarkably minor one -- or, I confess, one that turns out to have been imagined.)
A previous boss of mine once told me in an informal job evaluation that her only concern about me in terms of my employment performance was time management. I knew exactly what she meant, but I didn’t let on that the “time management” problems I have are almost always a result of this incredibly annoying “stop the presses” thing that my brain does.
You’d think meditation would help…it probably has; God knows what my brain would be like otherwise, but it hasn’t licked it. I want it to Stop Now. Does anyone have any suggestions? Anyone have this problem, and found a way to overcome it? I have a hell of a lot of work to do and it ain’t gonna stop anytime soon.
8 comments:
Yes. God do I know what this feels like......and it's triggered by most of the same things: work overload or (and we'll just lump these all together) "emotional/personal" issues. I cope with it better at some points than at others, and both of these require different types of coping behaviors.
Work Overload: I call this the one foot in front of the other coping mechanism. If I think of everything I have to do (or have done) in a given week/month/term/year, I freak out. I think you've seen my crazy color coded schedule system. At the end of every term/month/week I break everything that needs to be done into smaller doable tasks. You schedule these, and then you ONLY worry about the task IN FRONT OF YOU. Throw away your massive to-do list, because it'll only freak you out. (Note: sometimes this approach works, and sometimes it doesn't, but it got me through my thesis and my first term on the quarter system.)
Emotional/Personal Issues: You know I've taken martial arts, so my general thought is "Discipline the Body to Discipline the Mind." It seems counter-intuitive, but generally these are things I need to think about to gain enough emotional space to be productive on anything else. Generally that means I go run for an hour. I take my ipod and nothing else.....no cell phone, no watch, and go somewhere you won't be found (hence running and not the gym). Again, this doesn't work all of the time.
It's helpful to know someone else gets sidetracked by stuff like this, and it's not just me. :)
Lauren, thank you. This is helpful. I probably need the run around the block more than anything else. I have been super-overwhelmed, to the point where I missed an incredibly important meeting last Monday. Sure, I miss things sometimes, but for me to screw up the time of a meeting with CVPA to discuss a certificate proposal that I had worked on for WEEKS was so uncharacteristic of me that I was mentally reeling for hours afterwards. I noticed that the psycho-paralysis problem was much worse the next day, so it got the wheels turning. Your advice is really good.
Hydrate. Thoughts are electric and water conducts electricity. When I get stressed out I forget to drink! As a result my memory suffers, I can't form coherent sentences, and my muscles sometimes cramp. It's also vata season and we're all feeling vata deranged! I know this seems too simple, but it may help!
And if it makes you feel any better, I showed up for the Ballet Lubbock outreach performance wearing green. Everyone else was wearing black.
Lisa, thanks for the tip. It's a good point, and I am susceptible to both not getting enough water and vata imbalance (probably related.)Funny how all the flute players are coming to my aid! Krishna Krishna hare hare?
Ummm.....What's vata?
Lauren-google "ayurveda"
This afflicts me all the time. With me, it is most often noted when I forget something important I needed to do (missing the meeting) or when quiet in my own head (re-reading the same page four times and still not knowing what it says.) This is when I know I'm in trouble.
Multi-tasking, while sometimes necessary, is bad for us. This is gonna sound weird, but I practice NOT doing it unless I have to (he writes this while eating breakfast... bad boy!) and then when I do have to it it's so onerous that it motivates me to "get stuff done" so that it's "overwith." I make a list, start with the simple stuff so I can cross a lot of stuff off, then when it feels like the list is getting shorter (even if the tasks are big) I can at least breathe again.
There is a greater problem when the stuff that needs to get done is stuff I WANT to do... juggling the artistic end of a career against its business end is hard enough, and I'm trying to do it with three disciplines - writing, music, and visual art! What was I thinking!? In this case I have to do two things: remind myself that I WANTED to be where I am, so I'd better deal with it, and slow down, breathe, (hydrate! yes!) and allow myself to not "work like an American" and take at least a little time for my own mental health... that usually means actually making some art - or at least taking some in that somebody else made - even if it means deferring something else that "needs to be done."
I think that from the standpoint of our psycho-emotional health, not running around like crazy people trying to do fifteen things at one does, in fact, "need to be done!"
Hope this helps, sis!
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