As a result of technology, humans are experiencing cataclysmic proportions of data transfers at increasing rates easily overloading receptors of the average human mind.
Information is everywhere you look these days between every device from TV, to Computer, to Smart Phone… not to mention all of your good intentioned friends and associates who feel to obligation to inform you of everything you’ve already heard about…
There are so many questions about the information we read, see and hear about that should have you pondering its viability in your world, as regardless to its applicability to your specific circumstances. Everything we see, hear and read, does have an affect on how we think, behave and feel. It will have an affect on the decisions we make, whether it has anything to do with them or not.
How too much information can have a negative effect on your thinking
In order to uncover the affects of information overload and the negative effects it can have in your life, you need to go back to a time where information was not so readily available, even more importantly, misinformation was not so readily available.
Pound for pound, misinformation was proportionally always made available equal to the desire of people to gain the upper hand in any negotiation or situation. But any person’s ability to misinform the masses was never in the history of mankind, as great as it is today. The ability to misinform with the intention to trick the general public into believing an untruth in order to gain an upper hand is so readily available through the mediums provided by technology, people are losing the ability of thinking.
Back in time where people had much less communication with others, no technology, maybe a book or a newspaper, they were much less provoked by outer influences to think, behave or feel otherwise then their true authentic self. Granted there were downsides to this lack of knowledge and understanding (so if you’re arguing this right now, put that aside) right now, we’re looking at the benefits of less information on the mind’s ability to discern fact from fiction, good from bad and the forest from the trees.
Good decisions come from a place where simple core principles are prevalent and apparent, that is, they are top of mind and not garbled with opinions, objections, options, or obligatory noise distracting the single objective or goal necessary to get from A to B. In essence, good ideas are simple. Good decisions are based on simple and sound principles.
With more information not only comes the greater probability of more misinformation, but the greater probability of more over-complicated misinformation. Since generally speaking, misinformation which is used to confuse and mislead your thinking is more often garbled, complicated or, now we are seeing the new phenomenon of ‘word salad’, which has been around for ages, but now entered the mainstream.
I like to go back to a time when Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity. The ability to think and ponder the cause and effect of an action and an occurrence wasn’t hindered by the opinions or misinformation or ill begotten souls who were attempting to detour you from your own course of thinking. In order to be able to think properly you must find your center, your area of non-influence. Where simple principles are applied only moderately.
The best ideas are made without the critic’s opinions bedeviling them and as the saying goes, everyone is a critic. Of course, there’s benefit to having a mentor or peer challenging your thinking, ideas and thought processes. But a never-ending onslaught of anonymously pandered misinformation, unsupported opinions and purposefully misguiding directives are two very different things.
Information clouds discernment
Your discernment is a natural process of seeing truth in anything. If you notice a salesperson who doesn’t let you think about it, they’re lying to you, hoping you have too many choices, can't think clearly enough and are getting confused so you'll make the wrong decision. After all they’re only trying to make a buck.
Losing money is the least of your worries. With clouded discernment, you can ruin your life or worse, the lives of others, and even worse, the fate of the world.
If you cannot practice constraint or self-control for not watching the TV, Computer or Smartphone then you should simply lose them. I lost my TV in 2004 and have enjoyed more reading time, time with friends and family, and time to build my businesses. But mostly, time away from the terrible onslaught of misguiding misinformation being shoveled down our throats every hour on the hour disguised as being in our so-called 'best interests'.
These distractions detract from the importance of life, the purpose of living and being able to communicate with ourselves [the most important form of communication and source of information] already programmed into our humanic systems that we’ll ever need to make proper decisions and where our internal gift of discernment is ever-present.
The practice of getting back in touch with ourselves
Clearing away old mental clutter is the other side of this proverbial coin, where decisions are being made, they are always influenced by the clutter you leave in your mind, the remainders of everything you’ve seen, heard and experienced that can affect all future thought and thinking.
Your ability to walk through a room in your mental house is demonstrated by how well you clean. A room with clutter is hard to navigate and harder to traverse than one that is not. Your mind is exactly the same, only we consider much of the junk in our minds to be knowledge, which is more possibly unnecessary and holding you back from your true ability to know and understand, think and make successful decisions, than you know.
Here are 3 simple steps to detox from information overload:
Step 1. Turn off the devices. Turning off your devises [off means off - EMFs are real], stop the new influx of unfiltered information. New information from these devises used incorrectly (and most are being used incorrectly) can have the ability to stop you from having success, happiness and can also have the ability of numerous negative affects such as making you sick or even assisting in killing you. (Yes, you can get sick and die from negative information). When not in use, all devices should be off, including Wi-Fi, cellphones, TV’s, etc.
Step 2. Meditation and prayer. By meditating you will inadvertently begin removing the clutter of information stockpiled in your mind that you keep tripping over. Meditation is simply the practice of getting silent and sitting still. Nothing more. Start with 2 minutes per/ 3x a day and increase the time spent by 1 minute daily until you reach the goal of 20 minutes per sit/3x daily.
Have no expectations but know that continued practice on a daily basis over time will yield massively positive results. One of the benefits for myself has been knowing where my off switch is and being able to turn my crazy monkey-mind off when it becomes an over-thinking tyrant. The prayer (for the agnostic or atheist) can be considered an affirmation or conscious stating of goals, wishes, or proclamations of gratitude’s, hopes for others or stated goals and the goals you wish to manifest by your actions. Otherwise use your religion of choice.
Step 3. Focused Learning. Sadly, much of the information that we ingest is unintentional because we didn’t seek the information with a specific goal in mind, everything came in without a filter. Like a storm drain during a flood, everything, good, bad or indifferent floods in. Don’t be a sponge, be a focused learner with a definite purpose and a definitive goal.
Focused learning is the process of filtering your information intake by first having a definitive goal and a definite purpose for that goal. This will become the foundation of your learning process and define all of the types of information you’ll want to ingest and define all of the sources of information that you’ll get this type of information from.
Just as important as the type of information you allow yourself to take in, is the source of that information and the motives of the informer. Misinformation often comes from sources that are either anonymous or have a somewhat obvious motive for serving themselves (i.e.; advertising, promotion, manipulation) which in its core definition is a probable source of misinformation or at least is biased and highly probable of omitting facts necessary for the mind to compute its meaning and concept properly.
To sum it up
The toxicity of information overload is preventing proper thinking habits and skewing ideals holding you back from what you say you want. Of your true potential you may see little as it has the effect of distracting you from focused thinking and actions. It also has the ability to make you sick with negativity and may aid or assist in causing a fatal illness.
There are 3 steps for turning information overload around. 1. Stop the inflow of information. 2. Empty the mind from informational debris. 3. Build a firm foundation of filtering new information intake by establishing a definite purpose and a definitive goal. Use purposeful learning. Be skeptical of freely offered or forcefully imposed information.
Make a vow to filter any new information by its type and source going forward. Refuse to allow any information in, using your power of discernment to differentiate true from false, which becomes more powerful as you meditate and pray daily.
Note: understand that detoxing from your old habits is only temporary and the un-comfortability of it will dissipate with time and open up to a newfound freedom of smarter, clearer thinking and of making better informed and more focused decisions.
*Excerpt from the book Ego Dynamics reprinted with permission
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