Think Outside the Box

A weekly assignment for one of my classes this term is to do something each week that is outside of my normal routine.  It could be anything - brush my teeth with my non-dominant hand, put one shoe on before the one I normally do, take a different route home from work, etc.

The purpose of this is to exercise our brain and not go on autopilot which inevitably happens in the daily grind.  For massage therapy purposes, it's with the aim of being equally capable to apply techniques with both hands, not just the dominant hand.

A couple weeks ago, I decided my "think outside the box" activity would be to use our back patio door, instead of the front door to our apartment.  That required me to open a metal gate that rarely gets used, and in doing so I discovered that with rain and cold temperatures, the latch had become pretty hard to open.  Since I'm a Yost, I had to of course muscle through it and not back down or alter my course.  With that approach, I successfully tried to cut the tip of my thumb off.  Ok, maybe that description is a little dramatic, but I did see several layers of skin peeled up that shouldn't ever be peeled up, and lots o' the red stuff.

So, this led to my second "think outside the box" exercise, which was vacuuming with my left hand -  while I held a towel in place on my thumb and held it above my heart to wait for the bleeding to stop.

This got me thinking about what it really means to think outside the box.  The reality is, it doesn't come naturally; it takes conscious effort, and it's uncomfortable - sometimes even painful.  But how amazing is it that we can adapt.....and heal.....and be re-wired to evolve out of our auto-pilot box building?

I dare you to try it.  Just be sure you know basic first aid beforehand :)