💎 Friday Gems (Alpha Waves, The Power of 10 Minutes, Thoughts about Thinking)
The map is not the territory. The word is not the thing it represents!
Low Fidelity is a free weekly newsletter that provides fresh insights on mindset, mindfulness, and personal growth. Empowering you to show up, thrive, and achieve your full creative potential.
Hi everybody!
I have been on the fence about enabling paid subscriptions for quite some time, but this week, I decided to take the plunge and turn on paid subscriptions.
Please don’t panic!
All posts, including the Friday Gems issue, are still free and will be for the foreseeable future.
What caused this change? I recently received my first pledge; thank you, Mary! 🫶, and I want readers who can and want to support my writing to do so.
I will find ways to bring more value to ALL my readers, paid or free.
On to the gems from this week!
In this edition of Friday Gems:
🧠 Alpha State of Mind
⏰ Discover the Power of 10-Minute Writing Sessions
💭 A Few Thoughts about Thinking
🌟 Gem of Wisdom: Epictetus on being fully present at this moment in your life
🎵 A Gem of a Tune: Inner Peace by John Hopkins
Enjoy!
💎 Alpha State of Mind
Admittedly, until recently, I thought that any talk about brainwaves was woo-woo talk. This was my ignorance showing up as intelligence, and I was resistant to spending any time learning about them.
As I started learning more about deep work, the role brainwaves play in our ability to focus became clear, and my curiosity was piqued.
Most recently, I learned that theta brainwaves play a big role in Automatic writing, an exercise that involves writing from one's subconscious mind because they help keep your mind in a drowsy state.
This article by Atlassian helped me better understand the role of the different brainwaves and the various brain states they enable.
Before we get into the different brainwaves, let’s back up and learn more about them.
What are brain waves?
Brainwaves are produced by synchronized electrical pulses from masses of neurons communicating with each other.1
How are brain waves measured?
Brainwaves are measured using an electroencephalogram (EEG), a test that measures electrical activity in the brain using small, metal discs (electrodes) attached to the scalp.2 The electrodes don't transmit any current or sensations; they only record the brain waves as they happen.
Characteristics of brain waves
Gamma: Concentration (35 HZ)
Beta: Anxiety-dominant, active, external attention (12–35 Hz)
Alpha: Very relaxed, passive attention (8-12 HZ)
Theta: Deeply relaxed, inward-focused (4-8 HZ)
Delta: Sleep (0.5-4 HZ)
Alpha Waves, the gold standard
Right in the middle of all the brain waves are the Alpha waves, which help us absorb new information, relax, and be more creative:
When it comes to work performance, the most valuable brainwaves of them all, the gold standard, are your alpha waves.
Think of this state as a kind of work hypnosis, where you’re fully engaged with your subject matter, yet completely happy and relaxed as you calmly and deftly decimate deadlines.
It sounds like Alpha waves are the way to go when doing focused work. So, how can we tap into our alpha-wave frequency? Here are a few of the suggestions:
Create a ritual around your work. A ritual could be repeating a mantra, doing breathing exercises before starting, or repeating some action that cues your brain to pay attention and focus.
Remove all distractions around you. I struggle with this personally, but joining online co-working sessions using Flown has helped me remove distractions and get into a flow state.
Work at your biological peak time. Mornings are the best time for me to do creative work, so I try to block off time in the mornings when possible. By working during our peak times we can harness our energy levels and concentration to reach a flow state much quicker. I’m curious, what is your peak performance time of the day? Share it in the comments!
After reading about brain waves, I realize how fascinating of a topic this is, and I am kicking myself for not learning about them sooner; lesson learned!😅
What are your thoughts on brain waves? Have you tried tapping into them to make the best of them during your day?
Source: The Atlassian Blog
💎 Discover the Power of 10-Minute Writing Sessions
“I don’t have the time!”
Do these words sound familiar?
This is the cry of procrastination, of distraction, of busyness. I know this because I’ve used this excuse too often, and now I know how empty it sounds.
Was I too busy, or was I just not prioritizing my time?
Was I too busy, or was I avoiding having to face reality?
Was I too busy, or was I spending time distracted by overthinking social media, news, YouTube, Netflix, or a million other things?
Yes, the time in our day is limited, and we can’t do everything our hearts desire…but we can make time for what we love to do and to work towards our goals.
If we are honest with ourselves, we can find 10 minutes somewhere in the crevices of our busy days, between meetings, tasks, and chores.
The 10-minute rule
Don’t say: “I don’t have time to write”
Do say: “Today, I will spend at least 10 minutes on my project.”
This is where the idea of the 10-minute rule shines by helping us be prepared for a 10-minute slot of time whenever it appears in our day. Instead of spending the 10 minutes wondering what you need to do, it helps us plan ready-made tasks we can select from when needed.
How to apply the 10-minute rule
The article's example is for writing, but I think you can replace any other activity with it.
First, break down the project into categories.
Writing can be broken into 3 categories
Preparing
Drafting
Editing
Next, take each category and brainstorm smaller tasks you can slot into a 10-minute time slot.
So, the Preparation category could include tasks such as:
Thinking (in the shower, on school run, while waiting in a queue)
Outline your next article or chapter
Mind mapping
Outline an article
Taking notes
Reading
Email to a collaborator
Free-Writing (free flow writing) to generate ideas
Goal Setting for your writing week
Now, do the same for the Drafting and Editing categories.
Once you are done, you will have a backup list of tasks you can easily pick from when 10 minutes in your day suddenly open up.
It’s all about preparation!
"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." — Malcolm X
Let me know if you try the 10-minute rule or are already practicing something similar. Please share it in the comments!
Source: Dr. Nicole Janz
💎 A Few Thoughts about Thinking
I love how
describes the process of thinking in vivid detail:The bare activity itself—the pulsation of a thought—is amazingly ephemeral, impermanent, fleeting and without substance. A thought appears and instantly evaporates like an invisible and ungraspable little burst of invisible energy.
Joan reminds us that the activity of thinking is important for us humans, but problems occur when we start to identify and believe the content of our thinking because it seems so real to us.
They are sometimes functional and necessary, sometimes creative, sometimes relatively harmless, but very often, thinking—and believing what thought tells us—is the source of immense human suffering and confusion. The problematic type of thought (e.g., “I’m a hopeless failure” or “So-and-so is the devil and should be killed"), when believed, can cause enormous pain.
Suffering happens when we start to believe the stories we fall into because our thoughts seem real when, in fact, they are figments of our imagination and are not our reality.
The map is not the territory!
The word is not the thing it represents!
The name is not the person!
Instead of falling int the trap over and over again we can practice recognizing the trap and pull ourselves out of the stories our thoughts create and get back to the present moment and what our direct lived experience is.
We can free ourselves from the habitual thought patterns that keep us locked in a world of our own making.
Again, Joan explains this in simple terms,
We habitually search for special experiences, for certainty and something to grasp. But in holding on to nothing at all, there is immense openness and freedom.
We can break free.
We can be free.
We are free.
✊🏽
Read the full post:
Source: Right Now, Just As It Is
💎 Gem of Wisdom: Epictetus on being fully present at this moment in your life
Caretake this moment.
Immerse yourself in its particulars.
Respond to this person,
this challenge,
this deed.
Quit the evasions.
Stop giving yourself needless trouble.
It is time to really live;
to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
You are not some disinterested bystander.
Participate.
Exert yourself.
- Epictetus
💎 A Gem of a Tune: Inner Peace by John Hopkins
Each time I listen to this wonderful tune, I feel energized, engaged, and hopeful for the future. It helps me feel alive and encourages me to take a step forward through the uncertainty by knowing that we will make it through and come out changed for the better.
Feel free to send any recommendations for songs to include in the Low Fidelity playlist.
Enjoy!
That’s it for this week’s gems. Do you have a gem you would like to share? Hit reply and share, or DM me.
I’m thankful that you read this far.
Have a fantastic weekend!
https://brainworksneurotherapy.com/what-are-brainwaves/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/eeg/about/pac-20393875#:~:text=An%20electroencephalogram%20(EEG)%20is%20a,lines%20on%20an%20EEG%20recording.