We want the mind to rest — I guess that is what is a hobby is for. After 10 hours in the office, where you face various issues, it is important that you get your mind off sometime when you get home so that when you awake the next morning, or when you tackle the issue again, you gain a fresh perspective.

Thus, it is not good to bring your work home. The only way you can always be refreshed ( and I believe the mind never rests) is to force your mind to think of other things. If your mind keeps hitting the same issues you are thinking about, you gain a warped perspective, and this is what is the basis of the Chinese water torture technique ( where focusing on a water drip suddenly becomes unbearable if it is persistent). That is why it is very important to get a hobby — to force your mind to think otherwise.

Before I tried the Relaxation Response, or meditation, in which you force something out of your mind, and force yourself to think of nothing. But this is difficult. Because the mind is a vacuum, and therefore it is hard to take things out. It is however, easier to replace what you are thinking with something, rather than nothing.

I tried reading, or TV, but sometimes they don’t challenge the mind enough that you can still be reading or watching, and still thinking about your problem. Thus, the more effective are really activities that literally challenges the mind so much that it effective pushes what you are thinking out.

I guess that is why hard physical exercise is actually effective in relaxing the mind.

The other activity in which I feel increasingly effective is playing the piano. I used to play when I was in high school, but not much after that. But piano playing forces you to read notes, coordinate your fingers, and try to listen to music at the same time. So it won’t be too long into the playing when your full concentration actually there.

The other is video games, whether those in the PC, or those in PS2 or Xbox.

Solving engrossing puzzles, and also the number puzzle, sudoku also does the job.

Do you regularly refresh your mind? Do you consciously get your brains to think otherwise than your problem, in order to solve your problem?