I think that one of the biggest perks of being a PhD student is that I am being forced to think.
When is there time, otherwise? Between running a household, raising kids, having a business, seeing clients, documentation, learning new songs, going to the grocery store, checking social media streams, buying birthday gifts,….WHEW! Our thinking has moved into the territory of survival mode. We are thinking about what need to be done this day and in this moment so that we can get to the next day and the next moment.
It seems rare that we have the opportunity to sit and think. To reflect, to process, to let ideas swim and percolate.
The irony is that it’s not the “doing and doing more” times that move things forward, it’s these thinking and processing times. It’s giving yourself the time and the space that really lets your creative juices flow.
This is where I feel a large part of my academic work is right now. Just processing, thinking about, and integrating information from theory, practice, and experience. I have a germ of an idea that I began to develop in my last year in Colorado. Right now, this semester, I have the opportunity to further develop this idea and test it.
I am sure I will be writing more about this process as I continue on this journey. In the meantime, I am grateful for this opportunity to think.
What about you? When do you allow yourself the time and space to think? How does it help?
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I have been lucky enough to be able to bike to work (weather permitting), and since I cannot listen to music or podcasts or read while I bike (things I do on bus/train), my thoughts end up taking over….and for some reason, I find this time is when I get into those deeper integrating thinking processes. So yay exercise and lessening our carbon foot print as well for brain power!
What a great idea! I think there is something, too, about moving that can open up the creative juices, especially if you are moving in nature. I remember hearing or reading that Albert Einstein would take long walks to think. That’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? ~Kimberly
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