#reverb15 // Day 16 // Free writing: Blink

I'm joining pals Sarah and Elizabeth to write every day in the month of December, feel free to join in any time! Today's prompt: Five minutes free write. Set a timer and write for five minutes on the word “blink.”

Oh god... 5 minutes to write freely on a one word topic? My worst nightmare! There aren't enough boundaries! I'll just pause here for a worthwhile 30 seconds of my 5 minutes to say that anytime you feel uncomfortable about something, as I do right now, it's a growth opportunity and should be invited instead of dreaded. I needed to give myself a little pep talk!! So onward...

Blink!

The first thing that comes to mind honestly is time. Like, don't blink, your life will have flashed before your eyes. In the blink of an eye, it's suddenly going to be Christmas here next week. NEXT WEEK! I can't afford to close my eyes again for at least 7 more days.

I read something very interesting about time several years ago, specifically about the phenomenon about our perception about time. When we have the same experiences over and over again - like the routines and monotonous days that we wrote about on Day 13- our brains don't slow down to processes any new information. Like a hard drive, if the information already exists, you just need a link, an arrow, to point back to what you already know. And because there's nothing new there, the time lapse in your brain is very compact and it feels very fast. It's monday. Then it's suddenly monday again. And again. And again. And then it's 2016, gosh!

But when you have a brand new experience, learn something new, see something new... those memories have to be stored fresh. And they take up lots of space. Lots of space in your brain feels like a longer period of time. So, while my time in New Zealand was not nearly long enough, I can look back and say that while I was there, and even looking back, 3 weeks there was a substantial amount of time. It is taking up a lot of space in my head - which I absolutely love. It felt like it was a long time to be away from home. Every single day was stimulating and a learning experience in so many different ways.

To wrap up my 5 minutes, I just want to leave you with a thought. We've all heard "do something you're scared of every day." This is a great piece of advice, but I don't know if it's really possible to challenge ourselves that way every single day. We're not out there conquering every fear we have every moment. I think what we need is to do something NEW every single day. Make different choices, take different paths - even towards the same end goal or destination. It will expand the space in your brain, make the time seem like it actually happened, and then you can just Blink! and your current moment will still be there waiting in front of you.

#reverb15 #Reflect