Have you ever thought of doing chores such as doing the dishes, or the laundry can be both inspirational and easy for you to get your brain’s creative juices flowing?
Yeah, me neither.
However, I can explain through a neurological lens as to why it can be both beneficial and how it can lead you to wanting to do it again and again.
Part of our brain, there is an area which is known as the “little brain” called the cerebellum.
It is the size of your fist and lives in the posterior and inferior portion of our brain, right underneath the occipital lobe.
This area is activated when you receive any sort of stimulus such as (sensory, vision, smelling etc. ) It will transmit that stimulus from the cerebellum to the appropriate area of the cortex to be processed.
The cerebellum also makes sure that you are accurately receiving the stimulus and that you are moving the body in an accurate manner. Have you ever had the opportunity for a police officer to observe you walking in a straight line on a late Friday/Saturday evening? Well he/she is observing how well your cerebellum is functioning, even when alcohol is involved.
Your cerebellum has a strong connection with your vision and balance but most importantly it has the ability to inhibit unwanted thoughts.
Have you ever had moments in your day where you have a negative thought in your head?
Maybe, you wanted to try something new but after trying it for a brief period of time, you are starting to reconsider attempting that new goal?
Or maybe you are having some negative emotions at the time and you seem like you can’t break off or release from that feeling?
All of this is saying that your cerebellum is not doing its job properly and is not inhibiting those unwanted thoughts.
One way to improve the cerebellum is to move your hands/feet/eyes in a coordinated manner.
When you are doing a tedious activity such as washing the dishes or folding your laundry, you are inadvertently providing activation to that ““little brain”” of yours. The outcome might surprise you, as you might notice that your behavior has changed during this activity. You might be feeling more creative, more imaginative, being able to solve for answers that have once made you feel stuck. You will also have your brain limit the negative or unwanted thoughts that you had in the past.
You get the opportunity to be more focused on how to achieve certain tasks that you find somewhat challenging.
For myself, I didn’t know what I should write about for my next blog post. I was in a mental block.
However, when I was taking a break from brainstorming about my subject, I decided to wash the dishes. When I was about halfway completed, I realized how much my mind was flowing with creativity.
It was like all of the questions I had regarding what to write about were answered at this very moment.
I just needed to clean my thoughts and my dishes in order to make it happen.
Everyone receives a benefit from moving their eyes and body, not only in being productive but also they can be more creative and gather more insight on challenging tasks that they have ahead of them.
As an example,
I had a client who survived a stroke, many years ago. I was there to help improve his strength, movement and coordination of his affected hand and leg.
After seeing him several times, I noticed that he gets extremely frustrated with himself when he can’t accomplish a task. I had him try and pick up coins from the table. He got to the point where he was using his ring and pinky finger but it felt impossible to him and led to him feeling angry and that he would give up and quit.
When I finished therapy with him, I noticed that his family left a plate of food for him to eat. He mainly ate with his fingers, which gave him an incredible amount of sensory and motor activation to his hands and fingers for each bite.
I noticed in the consecutive sessions afterwards that his ability to pick up the coins had improved immensely and that he wasn’t showing signs of anger anymore. He became more excited for any challenge I gave him, which improved his motivation and morale to be able to do more activities using his hand.
Another example is that my parents are dog breeders and love to present their dogs to the national dog shows during the summer. Last week, they mentioned that they have been busy grooming their dogs, which takes about 3 hours per dog and they have 6 Irish Wolfhounds.
So you can imagine the daunting task my parents have to face when clipping and grooming each dog. I asked them if they felt creative or inspired during that process. They actually said yes, we talked about our future and made some collective agreements on certain scenarios.
I was delighted when I heard this because not only did this daunting chore of grooming their loved ones allowed their creativity to flow, they were able to make plans about their future in a constructive manner.
The next time that you feel you are in a rut or experiencing a major challenge in your life, remember to take a break from what you are doing and to do something that you have habitually done several times by moving your hands, feet and eyes in a coordinated manner.
You might get your brain creativity flowing too and be inspired to do more things.
Just make sure that when you complete that activity, that you should enhance the dopamine and endorphin effect by rewarding yourself with something that is sweet to taste or something that you love to experience to keep the cycle flowing and to get you excited to do that activity for an infinite amount of times in the future.
Are you looking for more inspiration or need assistance to keep you motivated to achieve your goals? With my 6 years professional expertise in applied neurology, I can help you overcome the barriers that might be holding you back from reaching your goals. You can message me to book a free 30 minute consultation and to see how well we can accomplish your goals together. Email me at mack@ntperformance.ca
Have a great week!
Neuro Training Performance LTD. 