On The Merits Of An Empty Mind

I spend nearly all my time in my head. And while I’m there, I work very hard to keep the environment free. No useless clutter, I don’t want it – I will not let it in.

Here’s why: We are bombarded with information all the time. Not to mention marketing. (At times, there is no distinction.)

To some people, chugging all that up might seem like a benefit. In school they certainly tell you to memorize and memorize and memorize some more.

But when you fill your head up with crap, quite honestly you wind up constipated.

Many, many, many people are unable to communicate well, for exactly this reason. At any given moment, they are navigating tons of junk, a sea of data stored up in the attic of their minds, and they aren’t sure which piece of it to pull for which audience on which occasion.

It’s like they have lots of tools stored up in their garage.

Now it’s true that tools can help you build a lot of different things. But if you get that hoarder mentality in your head – like you just won’t let go of a single piece of anything you might need in the future – very soon your brain gets stuffed. It’s uninhabitable.

And it leaves you no room to think in the moment, to be yourself, to be authentic and spontaneous and creative.

Far better, I think, is to accumulate the information you need at this specific time for this specific thing, and then dump it very soon afterward.

Leave your mind free to think big thoughts – to do creative things.

So if my two cents mean anything, I would say not to worry so much whether or not you know things. Robots are built for memorizing – not human beings. When you are human instead, and you keep a clear mind, you can research a thing from many different angles. In the end you get to make something that is totally new.

But here’s the best part: You put it out into the world, and then you open up the trapdoor underneath the floorboards. All the junk you’ve accumulated drops out – instead of blocking your mind in the future.

This dynamic act, this process of churning, is what makes the space for new observations to come in, new connections to form in your mind, new areas of interest for you to pursue going forward.

I’ll be honest: It’s uncomfortable for me to step back and really observe this. It hits too close to home to lay the process out for scrutiny.

But my mind was unguarded and clear this afternoon, and the topic popped in to my brain as interesting. I’ve always known that I think very differently from other people, but until this moment I never actually sat down and tried to document how.

Something interesting to observe.

Next!

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All opinions my own. Image via Wikipedia.

– By Dannielle Blumenthal, Ph.D.

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