Brain Clutter

Brain clutter

Tim Connor

The human brain is the most miraculous organ in the history of living things on the earth.  I won’t go into great detail other than to say that yours works non-stop every second of every day and its feats and tasks are truly miracles.  It works for us constantly - however having said this it also can be our biggest enemy when it comes to trying to achieve success, happiness and inner peace.  As you read on, please keep in mind that the brain does not judge, decide what should be stored, what should be let go of or selectively remember or forget.  Thought your entire life history it has stored every emotion, thought, action, memory, behavior, decision in its billions of brain cells.

In other words when you start thinking negative thoughts like fear, worry, regrets etc. it doesn’t prevent you from letting these thoughts determine the quality of your life. The brain’s function is simply to store, remember, react and control all of your bodily functions without your intervention.

So, if something stresses you out the brain will send appropriate messages to your various organs instructing them to respond.  You don’t have to give your brain moment by moment guidance, however you can control some of what gets stored in your brain based on what and who you are exposed to.

I call this “brain clutter’. Let me explain.

Every second in the brain there are hundreds of millions of brain cell interactions and all of these are automatic. Ever been thinking about something and suddenly a new thought enters your active consciousness?  Ever been driving to work and thinking about the day ahead and your thoughts change to something that happened yesterday or you hope will or won’t happen later during the day? Of course you have, it happens hundreds of times a day. Your mental attention is taken temporarily away from what you were thinking about to something else – either positive or negative.

This is brain clutter – you are trying to focus – during prayer, relaxing, watching your favorite TV show or movie or a thousand other activities and your attention changes to something else.  What causes this and why now and why on this particular topic?

I could go into a very long description of this process, but I’m sure you would be bored before I finished, so let me keep it brief.  Think of this process as similar to downloading emails into your computer.

As the download begins you begin some other task on your computer.  This doesn’t affect the download process, it just continues without your conscious attention. Suddenly your computer alerts you that one of the emails has a virus and stops working or alerts you with a popup message.  You now have to give the download your active attention to take some action.  Or, you can just let the download continue as you work on your other task.

You are thinking about a happy memory and suddenly a fearful thought fills your mind.  Or, you hear a song, smell a fragrance or see a picture from the past or it could be someone who resembles someone from your past.  Your mind searches for the similar conditions and then brings whatever was the situation in the past into the present stealing your focus.

I am sure you have met someone who resembled someone from your past.  This simple observation will trigger thoughts, whether positive, negative, happy or fearful from the past and bring them into the present.  It doesn’t matter if this person was in your life days ago or if the event happened over thirty years ago.  The mind remembers everything and constantly searches in its storage facility (over three billion cells) for anything that might be relevant to your current situation.

If you have ever had an automobile accident in the past and someone cuts you off on the highway today and almost causes a wreck, your mind will tend to relive the fears etc. from the previous situation and bring them into the present as if they happened just a few seconds ago.

OK, enough of the explanation.  What can we do to control our brain clutter and its impact on our present thoughts?  By the way if you want to read a great book about this very topic I highly recommend Michael Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul.

Avoiding or controlling brain clutter takes, time, effort, discipline and often courage, but in the end if you can master this brain process or control - you will be amazed at how your present moments will change and you will live with greater peace, calm, joy and happiness.

Here are a few things you can do to address this challenge.
   1) Surround yourself with the right people. 
 2)   Develop and repeat the phrase – let the future and the past go. 
3)   Learn to keep your focus on only what is happening now. 
4)   See your world – all of it – now – pay attention to your surroundings. 
5)   Let go of regrets.  
6)   Live as if each day was your last day on earth. 
7)   Constantly say thank you for everything in your life. 
8)   Don’t let other people or circumstances determine your joy, peace or happiness. 
9)   Don’t let other people’s baggage become your destiny.

Let the inner work begin!

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination

is out of focus.”

Mark Twain