(c) Kebba Buckley Button 2010. World Rights Reserved.
We’ve been talking about feeling stale vs. getting refreshed. Your brain, your metabolism, and your soul all need to be recharged sometimes. Microshift, or very small change, can be delightful and give you a great re-set. Do you want to experiment with refreshing your brain? How bored, stuck, or stale do you feel right now? Pick your own scale, such as the “Stale-o-meter,” where “ten” is feeling completely stale, bored, stagnant, or flat and “zero” is feeling totally vital, refreshed, stimulated, inspired, and generally excited with life. On the scale you’ve picked, write down your self-score for your current state. Now offer your mind some microshift as you consider some of the new phenomena in different aspects of life:
- The Smithsonian Institute, once only a site to visit in Washington, D.C., now has Culturefest programs around the country. The Smithsonian Associates now take cultural and scientific treasures on tour with speakers and concert presentations.
- There is now a science of fragrance and flavor generation. The City Museum of Stockholm recently had a British scientist create a “disgusting” odor for an exhibit on ancient medicines featuring mummification. In British nursing homes, a fragrance called “granny’s kitchen” and one called “coal fire” are used therapeutically to assist elderly dementia patients.
- In Florida and the Caribbean, after recent hurricanes, there have been ecosystem shifts. These have resulted in a population explosion for the spadefoot toad, with many millions of baby spadefoot toadlets now hopping around the landscape.
- In the world of wine, the next oenophile horizon is Geneva—yes, Geneva, Switzerland. While only 1% of the annual wine output of Switzerland gets exported, a target market has recently been found in Brussels, since Belgium is too cold for growing grapes.
- In Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, the temperature often gets to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. An indoor Alpine-skiing facility has been built, attached to a major shopping mall, by an international team.
- The newest “green” textiles are made from bamboo. Not only can you buy bamboo flooring, you can now purchase pillows and fashions made from bamboo fiber.
So, now how is your Stale-o-meter self-score? I hope that, after looking at novel information, it is noticeably lower. This is “microshift,” tiny changes created with little time, effort, or cost. What would happen if you actually did something different today? Call an old friend, try a new friend, visit a new restaurant, or order a different dish. See a movie someone else picked. Plan a vacation or conference trip. Just thinking out the details will refresh your mind, whether or not you actually go.
Join a special interest organization. Clean out a closet and take the extras to a charity. Visit a new church or local meetings of a political party. Go to a lecture, an art opening, or a student concert. Volunteer to serve at a soup kitchen, to work in a food bank, or to deliver senior lunches. Inquire about having your dog trained as a therapy dog. Offer a course at a senior center or community college. Invite a few people over to watch a provocative film, fiction or documentary. Thinking about this list, has your Stale-o-meter score shifted? Are you perhaps feeling more energized?
If not, consider changing your input sources and settings. Novelty stimulates. Try Microshift for Upliftsm, daily for seven days, and check your Stale-o-meter again. If you’re enjoying yourself so much that you forget to note your Stale-o-meter score, it’s definitely working. We need shift, and we can make shift happen. The quality of your life depends on you. Why not choose the greatest quality now?
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Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.
Healthy Happy Loving Life! 