Let me ask you a question, ‘How often do you cleanse your mind?’
You know, you brush your teeth, you wash your body in the shower, you clean your clothes and tidy the house… but what do you do to filter out the impurities in your mind on a regular basis?
In this day and age, we have an excessive amount of stimulation and information bombarding us from all angles and its easy to have a mind that is overloaded, cluttered and chaotic.
To quote ex Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, there is now as much information being created every day as there was from the beginning of humanity up until 2003, approximately 5 exabytes per day.
Scientists have a term to describe this new world we have created. Its called ‘Radical environmental mutation’. We have evolved to a point where we are no longer bound by the laws of nature. We are creating our own artificial reality.
There are obviously many benefits as a result of these changing times, but there are also potential pitfalls. Heres how Carl Honore puts it in his book In Praise of Slow:
It seems to me that we are moving towards an historical turning point. For at least 150 years, everything has been getting faster, and for the most part, speed was doing us more good than harm in that time. But in recent years, we’ve entered the phase of diminishing returns. Today we are addicted to speed, to cramming more and more into every minute. Every moment of the day feels like a race against the clock, a dash to the finish line that we never seem to reach. This roadrunner culture is taking a toll on everything from our health, diet and work to our communities, relationships and the environment.
In summary, our environment is evolving and changing exponentially, however, our brains haven’t changed in thousands of years. We are now experiencing a mismatch between our environment and our brains that are running on ancient software.
With so much stimulation, information and demand for our attention. The super power of our time will be the ability to focus our minds, to take responsibility for our own mental clarity by filtering what enters our minds and what circulates in our minds.
If we don’t choose to take responsibility for our own minds then the alternative is that we run on the autopilot settings of our brains outdated software, the results of which can be increased levels of distraction, procrastination, fear, stress, anxiety and generally cluttered and chaotic thinking.
So how do we get a clear mind, which is able to focus at will?
Well there are two components that are at the foundation of taking responsibility for our minds. Firstly, it is essential to become aware of how the brain works and how these default setting potentially cause undesirable patterns of behaviour.
Secondly, if we are suffering any of the symptoms of a cluttered mind, we need to get clear on what we need to filter out of our consciousness in order to give us the space and clarity to get more of the things that will increase our quality of life.
Lets consider each of these areas in some more detail.
The brains default settings
Now I’m not going to go deep into brain science here because, quite frankly, I not a neuroscientist and even if I was, the brain is so complicated that even neuroscientists are barely scratching the surface of truly understanding it.
Instead, I want to focus on two areas of hard wiring that have been well researched and have the highest potential for negatively impacting our lives if they are not understood and managed. These are, firstly, that the human brain is wired to favour immediate gratification over delayed gratification and secondly, we favour comfort over discomfort.
Lets consider how this hardwiring might be negatively effecting us in modern times:
- We have important work to do but we procrastinate and spend hours surfing the internet instead.
- We know its healthier to choose the salad but we go for the burger and chips instead.
- We want to strike up a conversation with stranger but avoid doing it because its uncomfortable and we fear embarrassing ourselves.
- We want to make positive changes in our lives but every time we try, we end up falling back into bad habits because the new habits were too much effort.
Do any of these ring a bell?
If they do, don’t feel bad, they are just a natural part of being human.
The bad news is that it is very difficult to achieve great results and live a rich and fulfilling life if we are constantly living in our comfort zones and seeking immediate gratification.
The good news is that change is a choice and we have the ability to override negative or limited thinking and behaviour. This brings us onto step two.
The second step is to get clear on what it is that we do want. What results do we want? What behaviours will achieve those results? What environment would be conducive to exhibiting those behaviours with ease? And what limiting beliefs and thoughts patterns do you need to let go of in order to create new, positive, habitual behaviours?
To answer these questions you have to give yourself the time to do the inner work, to have a daily mind cleanse.
My recommendations for a daily mind cleanse
- Meditate – This only needs to be for 10 minutes in the morning. Find somewhere quiet, close your eyes, focus on your breath.
- Breathe – For a minimum of the first 5 minutes of meditation, breath in for the count of 5 seconds and out for the count of 5 seconds. This will increase you heart coherence and downregulate excessive thinking.
- Plan – Get clear on the things you want to get done, the things that are meaningful, that will improve your quality of life.
- Do – Be kind to your mind. Like with physical exercise, you need to stretch and warm up before getting into the heavy duty stuff. Start the day with small easy tasks. This will create a reward feedback loop where you will feel good about achieving the small tasks, which will build momentum for tackling more difficult things.
- Notice – As you go about your day, you will get distracted, you will waiver, it happens to us all. The difference between those with mental clarity and those without, is how quickly they notice they have gone off track and get themselves back on track. This is a super power that we all have available to us, the ability to have a higher awareness and recognise when we’ve fallen prey to habitual thought patterns and the brains outdated programs that don’t serve our best interests. Just notice, acknowledge and get back to what you were doing.
As with everything this is a practice, an unfolding journey. The more you do it the better you will get at being able to focus your attention on the meaningful and important.
As the world continues to speed up, it will be the ones who have invested in themselves and mastered their minds who will best equipped to prosper. Now is the time to start making your daily mind cleanse a habit.