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One thing every woman in her 40s must do: Shut your 'system' down and reboot

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Anjoo Mohun
Anjoo MohunJul 29, 2017 | 09:17

One thing every woman in her 40s must do: Shut your 'system' down and reboot

Even those like me who managed to understand Matrix minus the techno-Hollywood imagination, have to confess that the idea of the mind as a hard drive was absolutely smashing. That you could feed in a program to learn Jujutsu to flying a helicopter is exactly what we women need.

The other day someone was getting a laptop fixed. It was too slow apparently, the screen would go black or take forever to save, just get stuck – hanging in the middle of nowhere.  I smirked in a corner, I have been consistently slowing down, and the boy without even a hint of facial hair was bobbing away beta, meta, data, and the other millennials nodded knowingly in a language that only aliens would understand.

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But there seemed a parallel between Matrix and Keanu Reeves's hard drive and what we women should do with our own head tops - I mean mental laptops.

First, get rid of all the temp files. That’s how a computer slows down. All the stuff it downloads gets stuck somewhere in its nether region and stays there. A lot like us females. Things that we heard or were said to. We may have ignored it then, but they sat in our subconscious, popping up as a random thought when we least need to be distracted.

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A casual remark which made us self-conscious, a spousal comment which stopped us in our tracks, something at work - they may have seemed to have gone away, but believe you me, it take up mental space and it all bogs us down, impacting our emotions at every turn. So ensure that you have cleared up that head space. You will only do yourself a favour and learn to speed on as your brain gets lighter without unnecessary data.

Create a mental junk folder. This is a very handy trick. All the people whose opinion is free and who help pile on the guilt need to be tucked away, never to be heard from. Every great computer allows you to put in spam rules so that stuff you don’t want to be read automatically gets filtered away.

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We women tend to get influenced by every person in our life, in fact we actively seek opinions, feedback and there is really no need. People get an easy entry into your head and mess with it. You are old enough to know how to survive and do things well, having managed on your own so far. If you don’t cook hot meals every night for the family because your deadline was more important, you don’t  need another woman to tell you how better she is at doing it all, leaving you in an emotional churn. Put that person in the junk folder and find a reason not to have a personal conversation which puts you down. Do you really need to feel guiltier than you already do?

Kick in the extra ram, at least that is what the computer geeks do to improve performance and memory. Well, we all can do with some extra GBs - where did you put away that saree your sister sent on your birthday? The name of the author, on the tip of your tongue, but can’t remember? Tired with office, driving, mothering (or not), exhausts the mind. It makes it go into slumber till you may not even remember mundane tasks, like what you had for lunch.

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It is in your late 40s that you need to make sure you are getting that extra bit into your system to keep you going. And no one is going to tell you to do it. Go for a full health check, get the vitamins and calcium and buy a newspaper with a good crossword and word jumble.

Just a little bit of creativity will help your brain do something different. Many medical experts will tell you that adding a couple of small mental exercises in your daily routine can do wonders. It makes your brain cells work differently (don’t ask me the pathology) of it, but it is like getting out of your comfort zone into a different dimension. Your mind will be invigorated. You would have got a few precious moments doing something enabling and enjoyable even if it felt wasteful, but it will make you a little happier. That of course, will lead to a surge of endorphins – the feel happy whatchamacallit.

Speaking of endorphins, a bit of physical exercise would lead to a flurry of them in your system. Yes, yes, there is never any time. But there this is new theory that you don’t need to lunge and plunge for hours to get going. A short 20-minute workout with 30 seconds superfast bursts will give you the same benefit that a two-hour body work in the gym would.

It is not ideal but every building has stairs. Try walking up just one flight and then take the elevator. A small boost will make up towards big winnings and you will keep your knees in good kip too.

The kid who was rummaging around the laptop updated it all and then just switched it off. Let it be for a while till it gets updated, he said as he sank into his smartphone. Reboot it in a bit and it will work fine.

There, right there was the perfect answer. Shut the system down.

Women take on so much and do extra that they forget all about downtime. I can’t even remember when I last slept for eight hours or even took a break just for myself. There is just too much to do. We feel that if we stop for just a moment, the dozen-odd balls we are juggling all the time will roll away. Maybe you need to gently place the balls on the side and just sit down. All those responsibilities will just have to manage on their own for a bit.

So go ahead, reboot yourself and come back refreshed and rejuvenated. You will find a new upgraded you! Faster, smarter, happier.

Last updated: July 29, 2017 | 09:17
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