At a recent girls’ night, the question was posed: Which character from Inside Out is the most dominant in YOUR head? It sparked a lively conversation, so I want to know what you think! Which character has the most control over your mental switchboard? Let me know in the comments!

It took me a little while to answer the question when it was posed to me, and I think that is in part because the switchboard managers in my head are all working overtime most days because I force them. I operate under a “too many cooks in the kitchen is a good thing” work ethic. Only there are both too many cooks and too many things for those cooks to do. So while they trip over each other, the bread is burning, the stove is on fire, and everything we threw in the trash has been knocked out onto the floor. This realization made me feel bad for the little guys! Naturally, being the good boss that I am, I instantly set out in search of a way to lighten their work load. That’s possible, right?

I soon stumbled upon an article by E. Corinne Rogero called “I Should Be Engaged.” (Read it here.) She plays with words so you think she’s hoping to get a rock from the love of her life, until you realize she’s discussing a much bigger topic: the idea of being engaged with the world around us. She quotes the villain from C.S. Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters:

The present is the point at which time touches eternity…It is far better to make [humans] live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities.

The poor overworked bursts of color in my head! They spend SO MUCH TIME preparing for the impending destruction of tomorrow that they rarely get a chance to sit back and watch the peaceful events of the present play out. But even if I remove tomorrow’s worries from today’s to-do list, they are still almost as preoccupied as before. So what’s up?

We underestimate the overpopulation of clutter in our world. My favorite game to play is to sort my day’s priorities into categories of “Good,” “Better,” and “Best.” My favorite follow up exercise is to completely ignore those categorizations. Why do we do this? Why is taking the perfect Instagram photo more important than stopping to get to know our neighbor?

Yesterday I posted the following TED Talk:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1lqFXHvqI?rel=0]

I asked several people how they felt about what he said.

I don’t mind not knowing that my neighbor was in that same spot 6 hours ago!

It’s pretty cool technology but I can’t quite wrap my brain around it.

Very interesting work this fellow is involved with. I have no doubt our brains are woefully underutilized.

This is an interesting concept that is not particularly cataloged as new thought.

I actually wondered whether there might be a way to teach our brains to observe things in those lower or higher ranges, like infrared or ultraviolet. It’s cool to see the possibility of application to other things like changes in body health not normally detected by our senses.

All very valid thoughts! The technology he discusses is amazing. The potential to help so many people is obviously there. But my overworked brain had to wonder if being aware of even more sensory input than we already are could be detrimental to the workers in our head.

Meet Enthusiasm. He’s the sixth worker in my head. We call him the pep talk leader of our squad, because he’s the one who wakes up in the morning broadcasting our best intentions for the day. He’s the head of my To-Do list manufacturing department. Right now he’s on probation for napping too much in the afternoon and taking time off unexpectedly. I think he has great potential, and he gets very excited about revelations like the TED Talk. I believe that if I can train him to prioritize and give 100% to the task at hand, he would be an excellent worker. So maybe the point is not to stop adding to our lives, but to recognize that there is a time and a place for innovation, addition, and overachieving. By extension, there is a time and a place for relaxation and taking care of our souls.

Let’s all go make friends with a yogi!