I’ve always been really into making sure my body is getting the right food to fuel me for physical and mental performance. I am that guy who will refuse a cookie and take a handful of cashews instead, much to the disappointment of those around me who would like me to partake in the cookie feast and look at me like I’ve just murdered their cat.
You see, providing my body with the right nutritious food, allows me to be at my best — the right input ensures I get optimal output. Plus on top of this, I feel good and look good and when you feel like this, life’s challenges seem a little easier to navigate.
Now most of us spend time making sure our body has the right fuel to perform, but what about the mind? what about the most powerful operating system known in existence, that’s sitting in your head? what are you letting this consume? hopefully it’s not just a 24/7 news station.
Our minds are super powerful and amazing, it’s so advanced even Apple products bow down to it. Just like our body, our mind needs the right input to get us in the right mood to achieve what we want. You wouldn’t put diesel into a Ferrari and expect it to run at 100% so why would our minds do the same on poor content consumption. As much as we all love reality TV, general mindless programmes and scouring through mainstream news sites, they aren’t doing any favors for your mental wellbeing and a number of studies are starting to show how this can impact us in a negative way.
Think about it, if you watch a 24/7 news channel all day filled with drama, celebrity gossip, death, murder and generally the worst of the worst from humanity then of course your going to feel like crap and think the world is terrible. But this is merely a snapshot of reality, a tailored snapshot bought to you directly and designed in a fashion to prey on your emotions and get you hooked. Same goes for 90% of the programmes on TV nowadays, I struggle to find something that has an uplifting tone out of what seems like the thousands focused on serial drama and murder mysteries.
Lots of people report feeling like crap from consuming mainstream media and I was like this myself for many years. I would read the latest news everyday, whether this was on my TV or apps on my phone, I was connected to everything that these channels wanted to tell me — but was it really vital for me to be exposed to all of this content, well no, not really.
We have a choice on what we choose to consume and allow into our head space, it’s very important that we understand this and that one version of the truth is hard to find. You need to see there is balance to everything and with all these negative stories of course there are positive ones too, sadly though, positivity doesn’t sell or keep eyeballs glued to a website. This is a real shame and says a lot about society in 2018, however, like I said, you have a choice on what and how you consume from the world.
We need to take the love and care that we give to our physical body through the form of healthy nourishing foods and physical activity and apply this to the mind. You must be ruthless in what you allow yourself to consume, whether that’s watching, reading or talking. The advanced software in your head is constantly evolving and it will develop dependent on what you feed it, providing it with good upgrades is key and this is done by controlling your information flows.
Figure out what’s important to you, what content makes you feel good and helps drive your performance too, what inputs provide the best outputs — find those and consume more of them, you’ll have yourself a healthy, happy and open mind for it.
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