Mental Health Goal Day: Disconnect

The other day I was thinking about what a good mental health goal
would be and I asked my husband what were some ways to improve your
mental health. He responded with...

If Train A leaves the station at 9:00 am traveling at 50 mph and Train
B leaves the station at 11:00 am traveling at 75 mph both travelling
to the same destination 700 miles away will
1) Train B catch up with Train A and
2) If so, at what time?

I couldn't help but laugh because here I was figuring out the dreaded
math question of all time and I didn't have to be! I even prolonged my
Mothers Day nap yesterday so I could figure it out. And it felt good
to come up with the answer. I figured it out by visualizing it spaced
out in my head. Now my challenge is to figure out the standard
equation that the numbers could simply be plugged in to.

Ahh. Math. I always liked math. Figuring something like that out
surprisingly felt refreshing. My brain feels renewed and not so fuzzy.
Now I know why they say doing something new or meeting someone new or
figuring out a puzzle is so good for you. Not only does it send those
liitle brain-vein things buzzing to make more grey matter, but it I
think it creates some kind of endorphin or something that makes you
feel better physically and emotionally.

So, no, the goal this week isn't to figure out the train puzzle, but I
do highly recommend it!

This week's goal is to disconnect - at least some of the time.

You know that part on WALL-E where the captain says "Open Man-u-el...
Manuel?!" and is then astonished to see thin little pages that he
actually has to read and his little robot friend "Manuel" is actually
a book. Yeah, that's what we're trying to avoid here people. The
constant need to be entertained or assisted.

I have no doubt that you cam learn and read using things that plug in,
but I know that you have a different experience reading a screen that
glares with white spotlight-like intensity than a page with
printed-with-ink letters. I also know we do more contemplating after
reading from the ink than the screen. And more contemplating means
more brain waves. I also know we do a lot of mindless time wasting
with items that plug in. Not that there can't or shouldn't be relaxing
things, but there are ways to relax that don't intensify our mind's
journey to mush.

So the goal for improving our mental health is to disconnect a little
more this week. When Baby goes to sleep that means I'll need to pick
up a book or magazine or simply think and contemplate and not be
entertained by something for a while instead of immediately grabbing
the iPod. It just might kill me to not be easily entertained, but then
again it might be my clearest week in years. Either way, I'm sure my
grey matter will be growing.