Brain exercise

I mentioned to my friend today that I've found that writing these daily posts has been really beneficial for me.  She asked me why.  I told her it's helped me to know myself better -- to be able to see the patterns and recurring themes in my daily thoughts.

But just this evening, as I struggled to write my daily post while sitting in front of the television, and then struggled again in another room where I could still hear the television in the background, and then finally moved to another room and closed the door so I can hear myself think, I've found another reason.  Writing every day forces me to sit and think and concentrate and stop listening to the noise and stop reading yet another entertaining book or article.  It forces me to think and hear my own thoughts.  And record them.  And arrange them.  And expand on them.  And link them together.  And evaluate them.  So that I can write something and post it.

With so much to learn and read and so many distractions and options for entertainment, it's easy to lose yourself in this feast of information -- to just take in more and more and more.  But just as it's not healthy to simply eat and never exercise, I don't think it's healthy to simply absorb external input into the brain and leave it sitting there.  The brain needs its exercise too.