by Sunil Bali, 11-05-14

When it comes to obesity, it’s not just our bodies which are becoming bloated, so are our brains.

Mental obesity, caused by the overconsumption of low-quality information is reaching epidemic proportions.

The dangers of being mentally obese are significant and include being stressed, mentally sluggish, unfocussed, uncreative, and unhappy.

The solution to a fat head is the same as for a fat body: You need to go on a diet, an information diet.

This means avoiding all high-calorie, low-nutrient, junk information such as mind numbing television, tabloid journalism and any form of digital diarrhea.

If you abstain from junk information for prolonged periods and instead devour several servings of head-healthy, nutrient-rich information every day, you’ll soon lose your taste for junk information altogether.

Einstein said, "If you feed your mind as often as you feed your stomach, then you’ll never have to worry about feeding your stomach or a roof over your head or clothes on your back."

Many people fail to achieve success in life because they’re the victims of mental constipation.

Mental constipation occurs where there is an absence of creative thinking to remove stagnant mental processes and stale thoughts.

The bottom line is that most of us need to go on a digital diet, and avoid the large volumes of inane information we inadvertently ingest on a daily basis, because it makes us mentally sluggish.

Reduced information consumption allows time for reflection, which allows the information to move to a higher level of thinking and optimises creativity.

My good friend and author of Wisdom in the Age of Twitter , David Ryan Polgar, suggests:

1. Take your mental weight

If your thinking lacks clarity or you can’t focus, perhaps this is because you’re mentally overweight.

2. Remove digital distractions

e.g, no phones at the dinner table, do something creative, read a real book, and have at least one uninterrupted face to face conversation a day with another human being.

3. Consume quality information

Avoid fatty, high calorie, nutrient poor information. Guard your mind like a mother guards her baby and feed it quality information.

4. Allow for Digital digestion

Because,

     - Wisdom and great thoughts come from contemplation (Confucius)

     - regular reflection reduces the amount of information which is consumed

5. Get more Mental Exercise

Just our body needs regular exercise so does our brain. Doing something which gets your creative juices flowing every day will lower your level of digital fat and help to avoid mental constipation and mental obesity. So think it, ink it, DO it, review it.

 

Humour

Supernatural

  1. All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
  2. Tonight’s meeting of the Clairvoyant’s Society has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
  3. Telepath wanted. You know where to apply.

 

Sunil

www.sunilbali.com