avatarSobaan Saeed

Summarize

Exploring the Reasons Why We’re Not Thinking Clearly

There’s no more space to rest.

Photo by Photo by Benjamin Davies

Recently, I felt like I have not been able to think clearly, and this is a terrifying feeling for me.

If I can’t think clearly then I can’t convey the message that I want to convey and I can’t be present in my experiences.

I think what I’m experiencing is the infamous brain fog that so many of us have encountered. There are many potential causes for brain fog. It’s a very complex multi-layered topic.

I feel very strongly that I have pinpointed where this coming from and I’m calling it information fatigue.

This is already a term that people are using in certain spaces and online. For me, I’m using it to just reference this feeling of consuming way too much input and being bogged down.

Consuming Endless Content

This almost always comes from my phone or my computer. I’m talking about very little things that seem harmless. So for example a comment, there is nothing wrong with reading a comment but multiply that by 10,000.

Let’s take an example of an article right, reading for 5 minutes or 10 minutes article totally fine.

There is no harm in that right but what if it’s 3 hours every day. We just keep increasing the amount of information.

We are trying to absorb so many platforms now so many different digital and physical spaces feel noisy. There’s a lot of noise the difficult thing about all this is that none of these individual things are bad.

I think it’s so incredible that we’re able to access information and this wasn’t possible before.

We’ll already have way more than anybody ever did in the past.

I’m not trying to say any of these things are evil, but altogether all these little things constantly added up. It can be incredibly destructive.

Listen to Your Inner Self

Many of us watch movies in our downtime, right there is nothing wrong with watching movies. They can be fun.

What if you really need is rest. There are more intentional more effective ways to rest than to watch movies. Like just straight sleeping.

Maybe that’s what your body needs and that’s often the case for me and I don’t feel like I’m listening to myself all the time, why I’m not giving myself what I need.

Productive in that moment, right?

It doesn’t feel productive to sleep for an additional hour but that might end up being the most productive use of your time. It’s weird because it’s there invisible that people don’t value.

It’s super important to take care of yourself for long-term success. I’m really saying that there’s no replacement for rest and there is no replacement for that space that I was describing earlier.

We’re all chasing entertainment or motivation or inspiration but none of us needs any more of those things.

I firmly believe this is in all our control and were the ones distracting ourselves. We’re the ones overloading ourselves.

It doesn’t have to be difficult to lower that constant flood of information that’s coming into our lives.

I have been making a conscious effort to try and slow down and upload a little less often.

I’m doing it every other week instead of every single week the idea behind this was to try and reset and reflect and plan.

Final Thoughts

Watching stuff and worrying about what other people are doing. I spend some more time thinking about what I just said there and why this happened to me.

I think it’s a result of making changes in my life. Freeing up some space and not having a plan for what to do with it.

I think most of us will fill a space like that with whatever comes most naturally. The guidelines that I’ve created for myself, have a positive impact.

One thing I need to be careful of is not letting that new time and energy that are freed up be taken by something else.

Everybody loves to hate on social media these days but there are so many other ways to waste your time.

Online shopping, or the endless news cycle trying to keep up with whatever trending online. I remember when everyone lost their minds over Pokémon go not that long ago and it feels like it might happen in the stone age.

So be careful with the information that you’re consuming because upping the tempo mindlessly and fitting it into every cranny of your life.

It feels good to be present. I think we need to give ourselves the space necessary to think.

For more stuff similar to this, join Slumpy Sunday. Join other brilliant minds here.

Mental Health
Advice
Thinking
Dopamine
Self Improvement
Recommended from ReadMedium