The magic of small tasks

Small tasks can do wonders to alleviate a sense of sadness or melancholy. By doing so, our brain is distracted preventing the front lobe to seek negative thoughts from long term memory. The trick is to pick a small task that we are most likely to finish, it is not the time to make important decisions, but to get things done!

When we are sad our body feels like shutting down. It is in those times of reflection that the front lobe wants to make sure the feeling is valid. To so, it calls the long term memory and brings up images from times where the emotion was similar… Chances are that because we are alive, we do accumulate both positive and negative memories.

The search on the bank of memories –yes, at the back of our brain- happens when we are down, have you noticed that when we are positive we do not need to rely on previous experiences? We don’t need reassurance when we are ecstatic or thrilled. It seems that we do not store overjoy anywhere. We just feel it.

When we are gloomy, frustrated or sad, our brain gets very busy leveraging on our misery, bringing past experiences that have nothing to do with the present to validate our feelings. In such circumstances our body asks for inactivity, so it can do the energy-depleting exercise of sorting out our memories to find exactly the ones that are aligned with the emotion that is holding us down.

Perhaps that was a good coping mechanism when we lived in caverns, and we weren’t able to sit and watch TV and open the fridge to grab a bite. It was probably the time to paint, to think, and to sulk. Without any activity, however, our brain keeps wiring back and validating our emotions. In the times of the caverns –or actually in some regions- the sense of sadness can only last as long as we don’t have to get up and go out to seek food.

Unlike the pre-historic times, however, we are now aware of how our brain works and how we can manage our thoughts to manage our feelings.

When our ancestors painted and did manual work they were counteracting sadness and melancholy. It is because both problem solving uses the same area in our brain that is used to search in the bank of our term memory. Without much energy to embark in problem solving, we might as well rest. Yet, inaction, even mental inaction is not a cure for sadness. That is when small tasks become a blessing.

When we are gloomy, taking care of a small short task is magical. We get our brain to work on finishing a small task instead of allowing it to seek for reasons or validations that we can’t change, as they are in the past. Whether it is cleaning a drawer, making a pie, fixing that door, planting a pot, or completing a puzzle, keeping your mind occupied on doing something that you can finish magically wipes away the sadness.

A moment of sadness is the perfect time to finish up that small task that has been in our to-do list. Your brain will be busy sorting out how to finish it, and you will feel accomplished… this is one of the secrets of finding happiness and preventing depression.

If you are sad, take action and embark on a small task.