Many of us are attentive to the food we consume. We try to eat fresh, watch the carbs, moderate the fast food, avoid soft drinks, and not overdo it with the portion sizes.
However, we might be less attentive to what we allow into our brain.
The digital landscape being what it is, we are constantly bombarded with advertising, opinion, propaganda, entertainment, and news. Some of it is helpful and informative. Much of it is mindless, distracting, and often toxic.
Given this reality, we might be wise to put our brain on a diet.
As with a food diet, we might first take an inventory of what we’re consuming, how much we’re consuming, and when we’re consuming it.
Watching blowhard cable news programs just before bedtime is, in my opinion, a recipe for disaster when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep. The same could be said for scrolling on social media, only social media’s emotional and psychological impact is far greater…at any time of day.
Furthermore, taking in less stimuli and being mindful about the quality and quantity of what we take in can improve our decision making abilities. Scientists are drawing conclusions about our mental ‘bandwidth’, how much information and how many decisions we can productively process in a given period.
It tuns out that we function better with less, but more focused information (fewer distractions). When we make fewer decisions during each day, we make better decisions overall.
I’m not advocating that we go through life on autopilot. Quite the contrary. I am suggesting that we limit our exposure to television, social media, and the mindless in general. I encourage intelligent conversation, worthwhile books, meditation, and thinking.
I’m saying this to myself as much as I’m saying it to you. Grandson of a newspaper publisher, I love tabloids. They are endlessly entertaining. I particularly enjoy reading about people who are celebrities in the UK…but unknown everywhere else. And the aliens. And the supermodels. And the lottery winners. And the behind-the-scenes scoop on the feud between (fill in the blank) and (fill in the blank). And the daily controversies, scandals, triumphs, and tragedies involving various royal families.
I revel in the banal.
That said, I’m backing off the trash journalism, much as I love it. It won’t be easy, but I want to treat my mind like I treat my body: as a temple, not a trashcan.
Never one to suffer alone, I need each of you to chip in and pile on with comments about what you can reduce or eliminate. What’s off the table for you as you embark with me on this Brain Diet?
Thanks.
- BGT
I have yet to recover from The Old Money C&C Challenge…
Love the idea and principle of a Brian Diet. I’m implementing it in my own way by making the decision to permanently go off my multiple social media accounts and hone it down and limit it to two.
I have Facebook, X(Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp etc.
I realized most of the same information circles around the apps bombarding you all the time. So I’ve deleted my account on one app so far, slowly saving and downloading the valuable posts or pictures etc I have on the other apps and deleting them one by one except for the main one I keep. I streamlined & unsubscribed from all the numerous YouTube channels I was following and limited it to a just the few keys ones I need regularly. And carefully continuing to look around my life to see and minimise any other avenues of mindless and unnecessary distraction.
I can literally feel the calm and quiet in my spirit and look forward to living a more mindful present life
Notifications on my iPhone are a constant state of distraction and being extremely frugal with the number of apps that can push them and which settings within each app (delivery, yes; promotion, no) have been very helpful for my ability to focus while living a modern life.
Good morning Byron,
Start by being selfish.
Ask yourself if you can, for example, really carry the burdens and pain of the Ukraine war or the Houthis shooting at British and American warships. If not, read the headlines and move on. Do not open the articles. The same for finance articles, market disaster predictions and suchlike. If you are going to be directly and materially affected, read on. If not, move on.
Ditch all these ‘things’ such as social media unless they are directly and materially connected to the publication of your writing and work. Who cares if Marghan Meckle makes jam.
Learn anew to admire beauty. Be that in nature, scenery, buildings, clothing, art and yes, young women walking by the café when you’re sipping your cappuccino.
If you have an upstairs window or are in a higher floor apartment, open the window wide, then go into the room and pick up the television set. Walk back over to the window and throw it out. Then close the window. It is an ‘idiot box’. I ditched mine over twenty years ago.
These few things should get you started.
See you in Paris to admire those girls….
Regards,
David.
The mind, like the taste buds, can be hijacked by stimuli that is engineered to be superficially enjoyable. The result is that the mind, like the taste buds, becomes coarsened and looses the ability to detect and appreciate subtlety, complexity and nuance. Junk food has its pleasures but there’s better stuff out there. Shakespeare’s plays contain some entertainment for the lowbrows in the audience but that’s not what made Shakespeare great.
I keep installing and deleting X for this very reason. It is entertaining, but infuriating and I can‘t sleep well if I read it in the evening. So it is currently off my phone.
My brain needs less opinion pieces with a political slant. During uncertain times, it is key to read nonfiction works, largely from the past. This way the “facts” are not merely a sign of the times and popular public opinion.
For me I need to practice piano more and scroll less. I’m embarrassed to say that I have found myself reaching for my phone to scroll mindlessly far too often. It is a time thief. It’s also a procrastinators’ best friend. Trying to be more mindful of my time and how I spend it. And I do agree that what we take into our brains is almost as important as what we take into our bodies.
This is such a timely and thoughtful reflection. It’s easy to forget that mental consumption impacts our well-being just as much as physical consumption does—maybe even more, since it directly shapes our thoughts, behaviors, and emotional states.
I completely agree with the idea of a “Brain Diet.” Personally, I’ve started limiting my social media use, especially first thing in the morning and right before bed. I’ve also cut out doomscrolling news sites and try to focus more on long-form articles, podcasts, and books that stretch my thinking rather than stir up my emotions.
Off the table for me? Mindless Instagram reels and sensationalist headlines. Instead, I’m making space for quiet—whether it’s a walk without headphones, journaling, or even just sitting still for a few minutes a day. It’s not about disconnecting entirely, but being intentional with what I engage with.
I’ve found that U.S.-based news channels have become too opinion-driven, often stirring up unnecessary emotions. To stay informed, I focus on carefully selected sources: I read The Economist on my iPad and listen to The Daily and The Intelligence podcasts. For films, I turn to The Criterion Channel and TCM. I mention these technologies because many of the traditional resources I once enjoyed—like art house cinemas and bookstores—have largely disappeared.
Beyond that, I spend a lot of time with online learning platforms like Coursera, which offers much more than just technology courses. On weekends, you’ll often find us outside in the garden, reading or making the most of the tools I’ve mentioned.
When it comes to technology, I always opt for refurbished devices—they’re like new if properly maintained.
In short I am always learning, curate my current events, listen too good music and most importantly I get outside.
Are the diet of the body and the diet of the mind really divided between them? Don’t they tend to attract each other like a planet and its moons?
Less social media, more books. I’m reading, The Queen, a couple of vintage cookbooks, and a book about arsenic.