How to close the tabs that are open in your mind
Literally and metaphorically, tabs mean trouble
I have too many tabs open.
Without looking, without waking my computer up from her slumber, I know it. What is it this morning, twelve? Nineteen? Twenty-five? I’d bet a second cup of coffee that it’s more than ten.
They say that a person’s internet browser is a window to the brain, so it must be true: I’m processing half a dozen things minimum at any given time. (Don’t worry if you’re not caught up on this science—in this case, I am “they” and I am full of baloney). But my strengths have never lied in putting something down after I set it aside. Things stick in my mind like, well, like bologna sticks to white bread.
A yoga teacher once told my class to lay in the quiet, and imagine our bodies as apartments just before bedtime. “Slowly,” she said, “put each part of you to rest like you’re moving through your space, flicking off the lights in each room.” I quite like that, because it means I get to keep all the things that remind me to think of everything, all the time. But I also get to tuck them into darkness when I wrap myself into rest.
Closing my tabs doesn’t mean I can’t open up my history to revisit them, Lord only knows that Google remembers better than I do. But there are better ways to use my energy I spend on things that do me no good; like not at all.
Whatever’s processing today, here is your invitation to close it out, to give it a rest. Protect your memory reserves for what counts, like chocolate basil ice cream or those apple-patterned leggings you had as a girl.
⌘ + w = ❤️
Next Steps: Drink a glass of water, sit at your computer a little early today to breathe in the week, and to dust off the extra tabs that litter your windows.