There is a reason why your mind feels restless. You might not be aware of it (yet). But you can tell that something is off.
One of the elusive reasons for this is that you are overusing your brain/mind. (note: I use these two interchangeably here, although, the former has a definite anatomical border.)
I believe our brains are amazing and have great ability, but it is not without limitations. As much as you want to believe those feel-good motivational posters saying your brain has 99% unlocked potential. But, like any organ inside our body––the brain (hence the mind) too has its ephemeral capacity.
The fact that our mind could process so much information at any given time may be the reason why you end up feeling nervous and anxious all the time. In the end, our mind becomes the victim of its own success. It simply cannot be bombarded with too many stimuli.
Much of these external stimuli that push our mind to overdrive comes from the little device you have in your hand now. We use to call them handphones in the 90s, back when we only use them to make calls. But what it really is today is a small powerful computer, more versatile than the one sitting on your desk. The little LED screen is full of notifications and apps clamoring for your attention.
More often than we would like to admit is our tendency to switch from one app to another. Starting from the moment we open our eyes in the morning, we turn on that powerful computer to check what's trending on Twitter, how many RT and likes we get from our last night's tweet, and how many new followers. We will then jump to Insta to catch up with our influencers' latest holiday photos. After a quick check on Facebook, we then see there are 20 new emails in our inbox and one of them is from LinkedIn telling us five people had checked our profiles last night but first, we need to log into their app to find out who are these stalkers.
Average users, check their phones 85 times a day. Even when you are not checking your phone, you thought you feel the phone vibrates inside your pocket providing you with that perennial background hum of anxiety. You are no longer able to experience solitude––that moment where you are alone in your private thoughts without input from the world.
Now you know why you could no longer immerse yourself in a book without feeling the need to check your phone at the turn of each page.
Now more than ever it is prudent to protect our minds from getting hijacked by many, and often, trivial matters that come through the powerful computer. Even reading on your phone could be challenging for your mind to focus on, notice how you want to click on this hypertext. And each time you click them your focus shift as you fall down the rabbit hole.
For a quick cure, I would like to offer you a simple solution. Reduce your social media usage and try reading. Yes, books. The traditional long linear format, not the 280-character on the LED screen. Kindle helps too because it uses the E-ink and front light technology so it's easier on the eyes.
And I will write more on reading books in my next post. Until then, keep your phone in silent mode and embrace reality a wee longer.