The 1 Day Refund. Donna McGeorge

brainwaves are accessed when you sleep, and more specifically in the rapid eye movement (REM) state. It's how we transfer things from short‐term to long‐term memory. If you meditate, you will be aware of the blissful feelings that result when you are able to access this state of consciousness. This is where aha! experiences live. It's where healing begins and it fosters feelings of deep inner peace. And it's also where creativity lives.

       Delta brainwaves are the slowest and they belong mainly in the realm of the unconscious mind. They are present when all other frequencies are turned off, giving you the chance to get a good night's sleep. They can sometimes be present in waking states, showing up as intuition, empathy and instinct. When people say that, despite the evidence, ‘I just knew …’, they are probably accessing delta brainwaves.

      In a nutshell, if you are not accessing these brainwaves at the appropriate time, you will not have access to the ability to be creative, innovative and intuitive.

       So we need to STOP!

      To sum up chapter 1 in a sentence: we are told that we need to operate at 100 per cent capacity all the time, and anything less is less than optimal — but it's not true!

      In chapter 2 we learn that there are forms of capacity other than working flat out at 100 per cent!

       Begin to reframe boredom as necessary rest. It's okay to have nothing to do.

      Wakeup call

      ‘I can't afford to get sick!’ I'm sure we've all said this from time to time. It was Deborah's catchcry. Her household was a typically busy one with two working parents and school‐aged kids.

      Deborah is a nursing unit manager at a major hospital and she was 100 per cent ‘on’ pretty much from the moment she arrived at work until her shift finished. She prided herself on being able to nip illness in the bud! Until she experienced an immune system breakdown due to prolonged stress and overload and the varicella virus, or shingles, reactivated in her body.

      Because shingles is contagious, she had to take time off work. It was the first time in her life she had taken the time to heal and she saw it as the wakeup call it was. It was time to create some capacity in her world not just to slow down but to give her body a chance to rest. She began to focus on developing the abilities of her team so the workload was more evenly distributed, and this gave her the space to think and lead.

      At home, because in the early stages her shingles had been quite severe, the family had had to step up. Once she got better, she didn't take back all the responsibilities she had relinquished.

      EXPERIMENT 1

Encourage your mind to wander:

      1 Grab a notebook (or paper) and pen and set a timer for 10 minutes. (A 30‐minute stretch works best, but baby steps, eh?)

      2 Write whatever comes into your head. Just release the flow of consciousness. It doesn't matter if what you write doesn't make sense, or even if you admit, ‘I'm writing stuff but I don't know why and this feels stupid, and now I'm thinking about giraffes.’ Keep writing until the alarm goes off.

      3 If you can eventually get to a full 30 minutes each day, particularly when you first wake, you'll notice the benefit.

      This exercise is based on Julia Cameron's ‘Morning Pages’ from The Artist's Way: ‘They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind — and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritise and synchronise the day at hand.’

Remembering that daydreaming and boredom can be necessary to promote creativity, are you actually bored or is this essential downtime?

      How could looking after yourself enable you to serve others better?

      What mindfulness technique might you start with? You might begin by simply sitting with stillness and observing the detail around you.