Zone Out. Please.

Here's a news flash: Your brain is doing unsupervised things. Things that you're not aware of. Silly, strange, creative things.

But there's a problem. It's called noise. Noise from phones, and earphones, and televisions, and Blackberries, and other people chattering on the same stuff. Noise from games, and advertising, and people demanding your attention for their own reasons.

Please, turn this stuff off for part of each day. Maybe when you're waking up and going to sleep. Maybe at lunch. But do it.

No, you can't zone "to" something. Like, zoning to your Ipod. Or zoning in front of email. Doesn't work that way. You've gotta turn it all off.

Hear your surroundings. See them too. We've got this idea these days that a person just sitting is somehow worthless, or should be poked and prodded. I have done this with my kids. In fact, I notice that often kids stop and just stare. I used to get really frustrated with it - but then I realized, their brains are just processing right now. Let it happen. Don't be so pushy!

Give yourself some head space. This is where many of the best ideas will come from. Brenda Ueland talks about this in "If You Want to Write."

It is unhealthy to never allow space to just zone. Don't fill every minute with noise. Because somewhere in between all that stuff are wonderful ideas and stories and experiments and curiosity that you don't want to drown out.

So zone out regularly. Please!