Friday Thought: Stupid Ideas

Stupid Ideas

Sometimes, your stupid ideas are not that stupid.

Occasionally, during sleep, I have a tendency to keep my mouth open and breathe. This leads to snoring, a dry throat, and waking up feeling not well rested. Since this was not a regular phenomenon, I didn't do much about it for a while.

And then, a few years back, I spent a few more minutes thinking about it. I wrote down what I ate or did the previous evening on mornings I woke up after mouth breathing during sleep.

I focus a lot on nasal breathing and diaphragmatic breathing. In spite of this, why am I doing this, and is there a simple way to do something about it?

There was, much to the chagrin of my wife. I taped my mouth shut at night with 3M micropore tape. And voila!

From then on, whenever I do something that fits the pattern of "gonna mouth breathe tonight" (drinking alcohol, for example) I tape my mouth.

Much later, I read James Nestor's book on this where he tried out the same tactic. It was reassuring to know I was not an idiot making up stupid ideas, and gave me more operating liberties with my wife who was often startled silly by my experiments.

Sometimes, stupid ideas are stupid. But many times, follow your gut. Coz your stupid ideas might be genius.

Fools try to make people like them; wise men strive to like others.

– Ruskin Bond

So put your books and formulas aside; dare to abandon your teacher whoever your teacher may be and see things for yourself. Dare to look at everything around you without fear and without formula and it won't be long before you see.

– Anthony de Mello