brain pushups

From Wellsphere:

We all yawn when we're tired, but who knew that it was actually good for us? In fact, it is essential for maintaining optimal brain health, says neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, MD, director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania.

Yawning triggers neural activity in parts of the brain that control its temperature and metabolism.

Newberg recommends yawning 10 times in a row per day. He claims that combining this ritual with a healthy lifestyle will help you relax more effectively than meditation, stay focused on important ideas and concepts, and generate more compassion and empathy for others.

So here it is almost the middle of April and I have yet to post anything to my blog this month. And the reason is.... because.... because.... I've been, yAwn, exercising my brain. Yup. Incessant yawning as I find myself in one of those sleepyhead-foggy-brained-can't-wake-up periods, sleep walking through life, and all the energy I can muster goes to getting through the day. Nothing excites me, nothing makes me wonder, and there are no creative musings on the world around me. As a matter of fact, I don't think I can wring one ounce of creativity from this old brain.

Which, ironically, does make me wonder... what is creativity all about? That is a subject that has always intrigued me. Why can one be so full of it one day, and the next, it is gone. Poof. Just gone. And no matter what you do, you can't get it back. So you go on about your life, sleepwalking, until just as quickly as it left, poof, it is back! An uncreative dry spell, that is where I am.

But according to Elizabeth Gilbert (you know her - Eat, Pray, Love), creativity or no, you gotta keep showing up. Whether your creativity shows up or not, YOU have to show up. Because one never knows at what moment creativity might sneak back into your life.

So... here I am.... just showing up.

YAwn.