Have you ever had a leg fall asleep? Of course you have. I think I might have seen you once at a restaurant, limping away from your table in agony...
My grandfather, who lived to 100 years old, scared us one morning as we saw the fear in his face upon waking from a nap. He had fallen asleep leaning on his arm, and of course, when he woke, his arm had those familiar pins and needles and numbness that we all know so well. Well, it wasn’t familiar to him! In over 98 years, he had never ONCE had an arm or a leg fall asleep! Imagine how alarming it would be to first experience that intense sensation at 98 years old!!
When your arm falls asleep sometimes it’s more than just an unpleasant tingling sensation. Sometimes, it really, really hurts. Self-preservation says to sit still, don’t move! Just leave it alone and it won’t hurt! You’ll never catch, throw, grab, scratch, reach, grasp, or eat finger-foods again, but at least you’ll avoid that throbbing, tingling sensation.
Not a good trade off! You’ve got to move it, experience the pain, and get your arm back to itself.
Our thinking can fall asleep too. We get entrenched in unworkable thought patterns. And it can be painful to alter those patterns, because while we’re in them, we’re so sure they are right. And we believe that the downstream effects of being “wrong” are too catastrophic. But what of the effects of being stuck in one perspective? A dedication to being “right” limits us. In keeping with the metaphor, it cuts off blood flow to creativity, ingenuity, brilliance, freedom, and thinking without boxes.
You have to move your thoughts like you move your limbs to keep them alive and vital. If you don’t move them, change them, let them shift and grow, you are limiting what you can create, contribute to, enhance, and produce. How do you keep the blood flowing to your thoughts, perspectives, and beliefs?
