Waffles and Relaxation

Men’s brains are like waffles; women’s brains are like spaghetti. Maybe you’ve heard this illustration before? I had never heard it until after I had gotten married, but the illustration made me understand my husband a lot better. The basic concept is that men have waffle brains; their brain is split up into compartments, and their thought process moves from compartment to compartment in a linear, organized fashion. Women’s brains are like spaghetti; their brain is one big pile of intertwining parts and their thought process weaves in and out of everything else, and every once in a while runs into a big meatball.

I’ve seen this illustration in action by observing how my husband and I deal with stress. Once, over the weekend, my car died. My husband picked me up, called a tow, and we went home. As we were driving back, he asked:
“What’s for supper?”
“I don’t know. What if there’s something really wrong with my car? What if it’s really expensive and then we can’t afford to get new tires on your car? What are you going to do during the winter? What if it’s not fixed by Monday? I don’t know how I’ll get to work, and I can’t miss. What are we going to do??” I cried anxiously.
“We have some pork chops in the freezer. Maybe I’ll bake those for supper.”
“Aren’t you worried?” I prodded. “I’m so stressed about this!”
“Well, don’t be.”
“How?” I asked.
“Just don’t think about it.”

An answer I’m sure many women have heard from their husbands, but a resolutio
I’ve never been able to pursue. See, my husband with his waffle brain can easily “compartmentalize” his problems. He just puts it in one waffle compartment and moves on to the next. Meanwhile, my one noodle thought is short-circuiting the rest of the spaghetti. I think this is the main reason why I get stressed out way more than my husband.

Because I succumb to stress so easily, I consequently experience a lot of shoulder and neck pain. Women tend to hold stress mainly in their shoulders, so a friend of mine who is a nurse practitioner suggested that I try a DVD on Qigong to try to combat my discomfort. Qigong mixes different disciplines of meditation, a calm state of mind, and slow repetitive movements to relax muscles. With each exercise, you release your thoughts and just focus on slow, steady breathing. That’s when I realized that Qigong was utilizing the “waffle brain” technique: compartmentalizing your thoughts and just focusing on one thought process at a time.

From that point on, I decided to become a student in the waffle brain art. My husband is a black belt master compared to me; I still need to utilize outside resources to help me focus my thinking. Here are three things I use to “wafflelize” my thoughts:

1. Water Fountains-The consistent, natural sounds of falling water is like the deep breathing for your mind. Focusing on those soft, peaceful sounds allows your mind to unwind and consequently allows your muscles to release the tension.

2. Nature Sound CDs-Same concept as the water fountain, it will help focus your mind and settle down your spaghetti thoughts. The quiet resonance of nature will help reorient your body to that same quiet energy.

3. Aromatherapy-Works with your deep breathing and helps release tension from the body and stimulates your mind to focus on your sense of smell. Again, it’s about that focused thinking to get your body to relax.

Maybe someday I’ll be as good as my husband at waffle thinking where I won’t need an outside source to help me focus my thoughts, but for now, I’m just a white belt. Not that having a spaghetti brain is necessarily wrong; I’m a Jedi master in multi-tasking. But when it comes to stress, it’s nice to be disciplined in the waffle brain art.