Closing The Tabs.

Unique Perspectives: Closing The Tabs.

By Kim Stevens

Closing The Tabs.

I didn’t even know this was a thing.

Well… I knew it was a thing for me every time my son Max would come look at something on my computer and see how many tabs I had open.

“Mom,” he’d say, “what the hell are you doing with all these tabs open??!!”

He just doesn’t understand how many things I have to do and deal with. And if I close a tab, I might forget something important.

Honestly, I don’t even really want to tell you this because I want to be the person who does one thing at a time… but that would be a lie.

Sometimes I am astounded at the number of things I have “open” in my life and my capacity to handle them all… which I am learning may not actually be such a good thing.

I was invited to attend a workshop this week called Closing the Tabs: Reset Your Mind in a Noisy World. And it was just what the doctor ordered. I just love how this kind of thing works in my life.

What I learned was the importance of closing the loop. Of completing things. Deciding things. Letting some things go. And realizing that having too many things “open” drains far more energy than we think.

Apparently there’s actual research around this. Psychologists call it the Zeigarnik Effect. The idea that unfinished tasks and unresolved situations stay active in our minds, quietly demanding mental energy even when we’re not consciously thinking about them.

In other words… the brain keeps the tab open.

We did this really powerful visualization exercise. First we listed the tabs we had open, then we circled the 3 that were causing us the most distress. Then we imagined those open tabs… and visualized closing them one by one on a screen in our minds. I can’t even tell you the relief I felt.

Because the truth is, many of us loop the same thoughts around in our heads thousands of times a day without ever resolving them. We’re not actually doing anything about them… we’re just keeping them open. And open. And open. No wonder we’re exhausted.

Spiritually, I think there’s something important here too. So many teachings speak about being present. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Not ten imagined scenarios from now. Just here.

Buddhists talk about the “monkey mind”. The restless mental chatter constantly jumping from branch to branch. Eckhart Tolle speaks about how psychological time drains our life force because we are mentally living everywhere except now. Even the recovery world talks about “one day at a time” because the human nervous system was never designed to carry everything at once.

We learned other tools and techniques to help shift our minds when we find ourselves spiraling or mentally stuck. It was wonderful.

But for me, the biggest takeaway was simply this idea of closing loops. As I sit here writing this, I only have four tabs open… and I actually closed all the tabs on my work computer and shut the whole thing off. I NEVER do that.

And when I reopen it, I’m going to say “no” when it asks if I want to restore the previous session and reopen all 27 tabs like some kind of digital stress resurrection.

I already feel the relief that comes from closing my tabs. Both on my computer… and in my mind.