Turn off, Tune in and Drop Apps
Turn off the TV, Tune in to your life and Drop some of the apps on your smartphone. Times today are much different than they were in the 1960s. In today’s tech-savvy society we are constantly bombarded with tasks and notifications. Our brains change their task orientation an average of once every 45 seconds. No wonder most people today are feeling overwhelmed and mental health issues like anxiety and depression are on the rise, especially in our youth. We suffer from information overload and it is affecting our brain’s autopilot system. The system we use to solve life’s biggest problems and to dig deep into ourselves for guidance.
What is Autopilot?
Autopilot is where your brain is in a state of low or no task and is able to access what is called the Default Mode Network (DMN Ted Talk video link). In this mode, your brain is able to easily reflect on the past and perform autobiographical planning for the future. This can be where your brain solves the most complex questions or problems in your life. This is also where your brain goes to reflect on those less desirable memories.
So, here’s the deal, you are in a state of autopilot many times during your day, for some of you, the majority of the day. Whether it’s driving to work, daydreaming at your desk, flipping through your phone, making dinner or sadly enough, even having sex. You can tell your body to mindlessly do whatever menial task you desire and at the same time be mentally deep in thought somewhere else. As boring as this may be, autopilot is surprisingly taxing on the brain.
Brain Builder?
Autopilot can be good or bad, it all depends on how you use it. You will ultimately have to access the autopilot portion of your brain at some point in your day. Constant neurological stimulus, however, is always pulling you out of this mode and can cause burn out if pushed too far. Just as a bodybuilder tears apart his muscles in the gym, he needs to rest those same muscles to let them heal and grow stronger. Too much stress on the muscles without rest will cause atrophy of the muscle. Too little or too much has a hormetic effect. Autopilot can be used for quick and easy resting periods of the brain.
When autopilot mode is accessed intermittently throughout the day, it can be like flashes of your reality and responsibilities over and over. As you could imagine this will create a fear of missing out (FOMO) or even just feeling overwhelmed and consequently a feeling of anxiety or worse panic.
Your brain has two choices, one is to address your reality and handle the real task at hand however daunting it may be or two, hideaway and return to the task-orientated brain and flip through Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or some other app like Candy Crush. Ahhhh, it’s nice and cozy here with choice number two (procrastination). Don’t get too cozy though, procrastination will leave you with a mountain of debt. Sometimes financial, but many times it can be just everyday dues that will either gain compound interest or add up like bad debt. Dues like daily exercise, healthy eating, water, sleep, personal reflection and hygiene. Pay your dues or get ready for depression to set in. Hmmmm! this does sound a lot like the Innate Essentials I’ve been talking about.
How can I responsibly access my autopilot system?
Our autopilot brain is commonly accessed while doing menial tasks. This is can often make these tasks take much longer. If you’ve ever sat down to study for an exam, you have probably been a victim of your brain switching on and off, from autopilot to focus. You open the book and begin reading and before you know it, your thoughts sweep you away to another more interesting topic. In the end, you sat with your book open for an hour, but only accomplished 30 minutes of studying.
What if we could change that? What if we could reset our autopilot so we improved some of the most essential areas in our life and accessed the default mode network at the same time. “Two birds one stone.” What I’m suggesting or prescribing is that you create a list of responsible or meaningful tasks that need to be performed everyday. Things like working out, eating right, cooking at home, hygiene practices. Healthy routines like the ones found in this list of Innate Essentials.
It will take some discipline, but you can rewire your brain to access this part of your brain voluntarily while you accomplish an Essential need. Learning to control the DMN, you can also learn to focus on tasks better when needed. It essentially can help train your brain away from ADD and ADHD type behaviors.
How do I find this autopilot thingy?
You just need to join an exclusive members-only club. It’s a new club called “reality”. Crazy right? It’s harder than you think. Many times, when we access the default mode network it is overwhelming and scary. Most times the Default Mode Network (DMN) wants us to do something or reflect on something that is hard to deal with. It wants us to face reality. Often enough, the part of your brain that controls fear will also pop up and invariably say “whoa bruh, hold up a second! We can’t do that.” That’s because it would require energy, thought, money, courage, etc. and we should probably make up an excuse of why we can’t do that today. I don’t want to adult today. Unfortunately for that part of your brain, we still have to adult today and every day. The more we escape our reality, the deeper we will bury ourselves in debt, whether it pertains to financial, spiritual, relationships, physical or mental. Staying out of debt and building these areas of your life are invaluable.
Face it, hide from it or turn it off.
I related to you in a previous post, that while not everything in your life is your fault, it is your responsibility. We, humans, have created many great ways to avoid these feelings and really any hint of responsibility. It usually can come in two forms addictions and/or procrastination. We escape our realities through such addictions as TV, movies, Facebook, video games, pornography, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. We can also completely shut down which contributes to depression, anxiety, shame and many phobias. Picking one of these two avoidance strategies will result in absolutely, cozy, nurturing nothing. Ah! It feels good to avoid the reality club. Unfortunately, these action choices are very expensive. It’s known as missed opportunity costs. In the end, we solved nothing and dug our hole a little bit deeper.
All of these actions do the same thing, they shut down reality and keep us and our brains from growing and pursuing. For some of us, facing our realities and responsibilities are too massive to undertake alone. These childhood traumas, losses, abuses or any other repetitive emotional conflict (PTSD) may need help from a professional such as a counselor, mentor, psychologist or clergyman. Engaging with these professionals for help and guidance is a part of facing your reality and responsibilities. Facing these issues rarely make them go away, but simply acknowledging their existence and possibly working through the conflict can help decrease their impact on your life. If you have never read the book There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon you can watch it here on the YouTube link. This 5 minute book is a great reminder of what happens to problems when they are ignored.
Let’s face it. Tune in
We need reality, we need to understand where we exist in the present reality. We need to see our past reality. We need to plan our future reality and accept responsibility. Accepting self-responsibility, learning to fail and in turn, planning to succeed in reality will help calm our mental anguish (anxiety and depression). This is essential to our progress as humans and helps in the pursuit of happiness. To access reality, we must remove all our unnecessary brain energy distractions as discussed above. We must give our brains time to rest and repair. We can trade in our brain consuming activities with some menial, boring activities. Boring is good. Try taking the Bored and brilliant challenge. I have added an app to my phone called Moment. It allows me to monitor my usage at a glance. Just like a budget, I have to know what I’m spending and where I’m spending it to make a difference.
I have also canceled my cable. We canceled our cable the year our daughter was born. This was to remove any unnecessary distractions from being focused on our child. It’s been 8 years without cable and I don’t miss it a bit. Now that my kids are getting older, this focus has shifted into other endeavors.
Why Innate Essentials?
I say, if we are going to perform boring mindless tasks, we should work towards some essentials that will help us progress and pay our daily dues. I like to refer to them as the Innate Essentials. These are tasks that we should be doing regularly without any excuse. When done with consistency they have an effect like compound interest. When they are not done with consistency, they have an effect like debt. It’s always a good time to start building yourself up, no matter the age. If we can master these fundamental tasks that are needed to grow stronger, healthier, more functional human beings, then and only then, we can expand our minds to conquer our wildest dreams. I’m telling you right now, some of the best things you could do for your body mind and spirit are pretty easy, boring tasks. When done well, they can prepare you for greatness and help you face your realities head-on. Let’s explore these together over the next few weeks. First things first, you must face your present reality. So, let’s get boring together.
One Adjustment action step
1.) Tune in to reality turn off the cable, drop the apps, unplug the gaming console, limit your phone usage, get into and out of bed on time, pour out the alcohol, flush the pills, be on purpose with your daily tasks. Fix your life! Begin to reset the current habits of your autopilot by adding in the Innate Essentials. One Adjustment at a time, just subscribe to the blog and follow along. With your spare time, be bored, very bored. Let your mind wander.
2.) If you are a procrastinator, stop making excuses. Don’t think about all the ways to stop yourself. Just do it. Two great books to help are the 5 second rule and the Miracle morning. Both will encourage you to get on with it.
3.) When your boredom hits a peak and you can’t take anymore, start to write. Write down where you are at today (present reality). Be brutally honest. Are you happy? What would you change if you knew you could not fail? Write out some basic goals. How do you want to feel? How do you want to look? What occupation do you want? What spouse do you want?
3a.) Another alternative is to write what you do not want. Write down a list of things that could happen if you don’t change your ways. If you don’t remove your distractions. (Never move out, never get married, never enjoy your spouse, die early, etc.)
3b.)Write down the negative self-talk too. This stuff sucks, but it exists. I want you to start to face it so that you can squash it as it comes to the surface. Most times that uneasy feeling about your life is your body and mind looking for change. No different than hunger pains remind you to eat.
It’s not important to get these ideas perfect right now. It is important to recognize that you have great potential and it’s your choice that can make the difference in who the world gets to see. Don’t get overwhelmed, remember change will happen “all in time” One Adjustment at a time.
P.S. I told you emotional Friday’s will be the most difficult conversations to have.
Link to our next blog post: Innate Essential #4 – Movement
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