How to stretch the mind on airport floors

On my last flight home I sat next to a Canadian. (Damn nice nationality, those Canadians! 🙂
At first he looked like a reserved Swede so I thought I’d sleep through the hours from Paris, but we ended up talking the whole flight. As we walked into the airport I almost apologized for it’s boringness when he said “wow, nice floors”. I think the Landvetter floors are extremely grey, bland and boring and said so. But his comment made me look at them in a different way. Maybe they are actually not so bad. All I had to do was to question my view and see them from a different view. I could feel my mind stretching, almost like a mental yoga.

How do you stretch your mind?

I woke up and realized again how traveling is such a good teacher. You will learn so much by traveling that is virtually impossible to learn in any other way. In order to stretch your mind you have to stretch yourself, your comfort zone and maybe even your location. Changing environment and talking to new people is very helpful to think new thoughts and see the world in a different way. But there’s different ways of traveling. Maybe you don’t have to go to a new country to stretch the mind.

6 ways of stretching your mind

– trying something new; a new sport, activity, playing a game, cooking new food
– reading books, a sort of mental traveling and imagining
– asking questions about yourself and your surroundings
– making an effort to pay attention to details or  your surroundings without judging them
– learn a new language. Imagine thinking in a new language
– writing, painting or other creative work will help you think in a different way