Direct flight to simple...

So I'm taking a holiday in my mind. That's what I've decided. Given I have neither the funds nor the inclination to jet off to someplace sunny right at this moment in time, I've decided to embrace the old 'change is as good as a holiday' mantra and try out a new mindset. A new template, if you will, to which I'll apply my thoughts. I've decided I'm going to go 'simple;' not the unintelligent or ignorant kind of simple, but the kind of simple that negates the urge to scrutinize life's complexities whilst lying in bed still awake at 3 o'clock in the morning. Apart from leaving you sleep-deprived and tetchy, it's a hell of a drag thinking so deeply so often and for so long.

So sitting here bleary-eyed and longing for bed (despite it being the place where I will inevitably begin my exhausting dose of world-pondering again) I'm vowing to sandblast the residual angst from the far corners of my frontal lobe and 'holiday' in simplicity of thought. Such a luxury is usually reserved for those much less highly strung than I, but I figure I can do 'less is more' when it comes to shoes and clothes, so why shouldn't I be able to tastefully simplify the inner workings of my busy brain? I'll be the Audrey Hepburn of thought processing.

Now such an undertaking is no easy feat, nor should one embark upon it with any less than a careful and wary approach. To strip complex thoughts away one must of course have them in the first place, and the having of such intensely insightful ponderings is as much a blessing as it is a burden. To simplify is to remove, not to erase - to set aside, not replace. I am vacationing, not immigrating. I'll hold on to all this mind-numbing garble I pollute my senses (and sometimes other people's) with, but place it somewhere far away from my consciousness where I can live like it isn't there - particularly at 3am. Because God forgive I should lose my hour-length ponderings over whether glasses really make me look smarter, or that theory I once devised about taxi-drivers and their secret plan for world domination. The world couldn't possibly go on without someone whose level of insight is so deeply profound. Forensic psychologists have nothing on spectacle-wearing cabbies.

So for my trip I shall pack only the bare necessities for daily functioning - plenty of 'walk,' breathe' and 'smile,' but no room for 'worry,' 'stress' or 'everybody panic the world's coming to an end.' It's carry-on luggage only, but no 'carrying-on' allowed. If a thought of that nature should creep into my mind I'll ignore it and move on; like when you unknowingly sit next to an over-friendly, overweight tourist taking up way too much room and oxygen on the mini-bus, I shall simply shift to another seat. Nothing will spoil my all-inclusive tour of La-La-Land. Free from the shackles of over-analysing, overthinking, and micro-rationalisation, I shall sip on cocktails of blissful nothingness and burn my shoulders raw under the rays of thoughtless, carefree numbness.