10 minutes to make this count

Last week was a week of squish followed by Thanksgiving and my brother's wedding. A whirlwind. I thought I might have been able to squeeze in some time for the blog once Amelia went to sleep some evening, but she is still on California time and then some, staying up past midnight every night, so both of us are going to sleep at the same time.

This week is a continued blur. I am working full time plus some with a major release coming up, we are still away from home (so my husband is off watching Amelia), and we are off to a Christmas party weekend in D.C. on Friday, so I will miss some crucial work time. It has been and is going to continue to be a whirlwind of activity from the  moment I wake up each morning until the moment I go to sleep.

Tonight I asked Padhraic to give Amelia her bath so I could squeeze in 10 minutes - and I am using those 10 minutes to make this blog count. Only problem is that life is so full, I don't have to time to process it.

That is the theme of this blog - the beauty of life that is in motion so much so that your mind becomes this thing of precision. I might not be able to remember some of the basic stuff right now, like my debit card or phone number, or whether the place where I live is on a street or an avenue, but I am able to focus intently to finish a project much faster than as per normal, reviewing with an intensity, level of detail, that is reserved for these moments.

I wanted to capture one thought in this blog, which I hope to talk about later in more detail. I got into this very cool conversation with my dad and aunt one night over a couple of glasses of wine. I was talking to my aunt about my experiment with running, textpad, and a few good ideas, and my dad mentioned this guy in Harvard who did an entire study on this very thing.

I need to get the name again and develop the blog more, but I have put it here as a placeholder - essentially there is more science to my madness. It has been proven, in theory at least, that the mind has the capacity to be its most creative during physical exercise when the focus is taken off the moment and onto the other-else of the body. I am counting life intensity in that category along with my runs. Dad, seeing that you are one of my followers now, can you please comment and say who the guy's name is, and quote the paper/talk if possible? Thanks.

10 minutes are nearly up and I need at least 2 minutes of editing. I promise, next week, I will be back properly, giving all I got. I didn't want to leave my imaginary audience hanging for too long.

Added in later:

The doctor's name is Herbert Benson. The concept is the 'breakout principle' (http://www.amazon.com/Breakout-Principle-Creativity-Performance-Productivity/dp/0743223977)

Timely enough, the New York Times published a piece covering a similar sentiment:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07brain.html?pagewanted=2