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