The Clarity of a Fuzzy Mind

“The imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”

Journalist and author of If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, Brenda Ueland gave us that astute advice, even making up a word along the way.

How do you “moodle” and what helps you come up with ideas and solve problems?

Time to Think

I’ve just returned from backpacking a section of the 1,500-mile Florida Trail.

Yup, you guessed it. Florida is flat. Very flat. And there are a lot of alligators. Everywhere.

Still, I walked through spectacularly unique landscapes, like the Big Cypress Preserve, where for ten miles I was in the water, sloshing through with those aforementioned alligators.

And the Kissimmee River dotted oak hammocks, land only inches above the floodplain which supports long-limbed trees festooned with Spanish moss and best suited for the setting of a Flannery O’Connor novella. It was like walking through a terrarium.

But in between these soulful locations, I walked some less-than-compelling bits along canals and around massive Lake Okeechobee, on relentless paths that distorted any sense of distance – and, for that matter, time.

The funny thing, though, is that it was precisely in these long, exposed, conventionally boring sections, that I did my best thinking.

Moodling

You know how an idea will suddenly flash into your head while you’re in the shower or standing over a stove – or on a walk? While walking those endless flat expanses, there was no need to watch where I was walking or even to consider my location. And just like in the shower or over the stove, my mind was free to wander.

Biologically, we have a need to let our minds wander. Note I didn’t say ruminate. What I’m talking about is daydreaming, disconnecting from trying to think and allowing our imaginations to run wild.

And why do we need to disconnect? Well it’s because at these times we are able to activate the “default mode network” (DMN) in the brain. Opposite of the executive control network, the DMN is all about introspection, memory retrieval, and creative thinking. It’s here that we’re more prone to those aha! moments.

The DMN fosters free association of ideas, making new connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. This opens us up to different perspectives and possibilities without the constraint that comes from focused attention – which, of course, was essential when I was in the water with alligators!

Problem Solving

On the canals and lake, the steady, unchanging rhythm of my plodding was as soothing as a lullaby and it signaled my brain to let go and just chill out. In that relaxed space I was more able to generate novel ideas and solutions to problems that might not have come up when I was focused on not getting eaten by a large reptile.

Bu to be honest, it was hot out there on the canals and my mind wasn’t totally free of its executive control networks. I still needed to chart out my day insofar as how far I had to walk before the next water source and where I’d find shade for a break.

But as my mind turned over ideas, dreams, plans, and most importantly problems, a really interesting thing happened: the thought that there were only a finite number of ideas or solutions to choose from, fell away completely.

Seemingly out of nowhere, new, radical and, until then, unconsidered options arose. On those long days walking the canals, binary thinking was totally nixed and I began to feel more flexible in my approach to just about everything.

Clear the Mind

Carl Jung points out that we can’t create something new by intellect alone. He posits that we need to make time for play. And I would say, make time to let our minds play, far away from the task at hand to see what might bubble forth.

As astonishingly beautiful and challenging the swamps and hammocks of the trail were, I loved walking the canals for the way it cleared my head and helped me focus.

Obviously fo me, it’s walking that leads me to moments of clarity. What about you?