The Importance Of Keeping Your Mind Simple.

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I know that I probably sound like a broken record when I bring up the topic of being cautious of the things we take in. This is something that I've talked about very many times on here, and I highly doubt that there will ever come a time where I no longer have a need not to. For those of you that may not know what I mean by being cautious of what we take in, I'm referring to all the information that comes at us on a daily basis. Things such as the news, social media, etc, are examples of what I mean by this. We live in an era where information is always readily available to the point where I feel as if our brains have a hard time taking it all in due to the constant release of it. One of the terms that people in the fitness industry use is "overtraining". Overtraining is described as "a point where a person may have a decrease in performance and plateauing as a result of failure to consistently perform at a certain level or training load; a load which exceeds their recovery capacity." I bring up the term overtraining because I feel that it pretty describes what many of us do to our minds when it comes to taking in information. Now I'm not going to get on here and say that we should never take in any kind of information. I mean if you're reading this, you are more than likely not someone that doesn't use the internet or social media in general. Living in a society where the internet and social media is the norm makes it extremely difficult to avoid. However, just with the overtraining term that I brought up, many of us willingly consume too much information that is quite frankly unnecessary to our lives. I believe there is where the problem lies, and brings me to this week's topic on why I believe it is of importance to keep your mind simple.

What's going on everybody in the land of the internet? This is Brad H. back once again, and you are not tuned into another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! This is the blog where I give my perspective on a topic that I think could be helpful for us all. Glad to have you all joining me once again for a week of introspection. As usual before we get down to this week's topic breakdown, I'm going to get on my soapbox and talk briefly about something that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Boy, talk about a downward spiral huh? I know that sounds a bit weird being that you all have no idea what I'm talking about. I am talking about the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. After being such a juggernaut for the past several years, they look like a team that won't even be able to sniff the playoffs. Now I know losing Kevin Durant and not having Klay Thompson for this season were big blows to their squad. Now Stephen Curry is down, and Draymond Green is also dealing with injuries. The thing that shocked me just a bit was how bad they were looking even before Curry and Green went down. I knew they weren't going to be what they have been, but I figured they would at least be able to get into the playoffs with Curry still there. I know they have a lot of young players, and their team has pretty much done a total overhaul. But with that being said, it's kinda hard to feel bad for them being that they had such a good run of being at the top. It's still early in the season, so we'll have to see how things unfold. I just know that I'm happy that basketball is back. Now that I've gotten on my soapbox, lets go ahead and get into this week's topic of keeping your mind simple.

Before we get into the heart of the topic on the importance of keeping your mind simple, I thought it would be beneficial to establish that there is a clear cut difference when it comes to the mind and the idea of keeping it simple. I know many of you are aware of this already, however, I figured I would point this out before going further with my main points for this topic. Now for most people that would maybe hear a statement that could describe someone as being a simple minded individual, there will likely be a negative association that goes along with this statement. I will admit that I happen to be one that would agree with anyone that views a simple minded person as something negative. Now in saying that, I'm not attempting to belittle or bash people that could be viewed as being simple minded. The truth is that we all are simple minded at various periods of our lives, and most people that are seen as simple minded often times just don't know any better. Negativity is definitely associated with the idea of being simple minded, but of course that isn't what we're talking about with this week's topic. From my perspective, there is a big difference between being simple minded, and keeping your mind simple. I wanted to address this because I want to make sure that no one confuses this topic as one that encourage us to dumb ourselves down. Now that we've established the difference between being simple minded and keeping your mind simple, what exactly does keeping your mind simple entail exactly?

When I think of a person that aims to keep their mind simple, I pretty much liken it to someone that is a minimalist. People that are viewed as minimalists often keep their lives simple from a standpoint of not having a ton of clutter in their lives. These are people that basically only keep the necessities in their lives because they realize that having too much of anything in your life can weigh you down. I believe that this same logic applies when it comes to our minds from my own personal perspective. We as people have a tendency to bog down and fill our lives, and our minds up with meaningless things that add up to being toxic clutter for our minds. I brought up earlier in this post how we already have so much information that we're taking in daily. Some of what we take in can't be helped, and depending on what it is we're taking in, it can be valuable for us. On the flip side of the coin, there are also things that we needlessly consume in our minds. When I think of this, bad habits such as gossiping and being overly concerned with the affairs of others are examples of this. From my perspective, when you engage in these types of habits, you are essentially corrupting your mind. Doing things like gossiping about others are poison to our spirits in my opinion, and we know that our mind and spirit go hand in hand with one another. Doing things like this excessively not only adds unnecessary clutter to your mind, but it also keeps your mind running consistently. This ultimately brings me to the point of why I feel it is of importance to keep our minds simple.

So we've talked about having too much clutter in your life and how it potentially leads to toxic habits. Well from my perspective, when we unnecessarily bring things that could be deemed as clutter into our minds, we tend to develop the habit of overthinking. It brings us to a point where we potentially make things in our lives more complicated than they need to be. This also includes our relationships with other people as well. A common theme that I've brought up in this subject is the word "over". Just like when I brought up the overtraining example earlier in the topic, overthinking is just as damaging from my perspective. This is why I believe it is importance for us as people to keep our minds simple. Getting to a point where our minds operate in a healthy way is the ideal here. I believe it is difficult to do this when our minds are filled up with so much clutter. It makes it hard for us to think and process things, and that makes our lives even more complicated. Am I saying that we shouldn't be on a path towards knowledge and information? Absolutely not. What I'm saying is that we have to learn to let go of habits that can be corrupting to our minds. I do realize that breaking bad habits isn't easy, and this is something that I've brought up on here before. But I am also a believer that the same way you develop a habit, you can also train yourself to unbreak it. At the end of it all, I just believe in adopting a minimalist approach in all areas of our lives. It's time for us to examine ourselves, and start ridding our minds and our lives of clutter. Make the decision to keep your mind simple today.

That pretty much sums up what I wanted to discuss when it comes to the importance of keeping your mind simple. I hope that you all enjoyed it, and most importantly I hope that it was of some benefit to some of you. If any of you have anything that you'd like to contribute to this topic, please feel free to do so in the comment section. You can also follow me on Twitter @BradrickH if you'd like. November is here folks, so the year is quickly coming to an end. However, just because this year is about to go out doesn't mean that we can't make the next couple of months great! This has been another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' brought to you by Brad H. I hope you all have a great weekend, and an even greater week ahead. Take care everyone, and I'll see you all on the next topic. Peace!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Overthinking, And How It Can Be Detrimental To Our Lives.

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One of the most infamous sayings that many of us have heard throughout our lives is that too much of anything can be bad for you. I'm sure that at some point or another that we've all had moments where we've had to ponder on that saying. We really had to sit down think to ourselves if there could be anything in this world that we could overdo without it being harmful to us. One of the things that I changed my tune towards some years back was the idea of drinking too much water. I mean we're told that we should drink as much water as we can because it is healthy for us right? So I thought to myself that too much water can't really be bad for us, that is until I read a story of a person that consumed so much water that they died from it. That's pretty scary if you ask me, but the point is that I've yet to find a direct challenge to the idea of how too much of anything can be bad for us. Now every single one of us engage in the idea of "thought" through various points throughout the day. What exactly is thought? Thought is defined as "the action or process of thinking". Since nearly every action and decision that we make requires thought in order to come to a decision, the idea of thinking is something that is both normal and healthy for us. The idea and action of thinking is part of life, but as with the saying that I brought up in regards to the idea of too much of anything can be bad for us, thinking too much aligns with this idea also. Overthinking is something that we all engage in, some of us more than others. However, regardless of how little or much we overthink, too much of it can be detrimental to our lives.

Yo! What is going on once again people? This is your boy Brad H. back on the mic, and I'd like to welcome you all once again to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back to bring you all another topic that I think would help us to move forward in our lives. How has everything been going for you all? Good I hope! Well I thought I would be giving an NBA talk a rest since the finals concluded, but I gotta bring up the big trade that happened between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder. So the Rockets sent Chris Paul and some draft picks to the Thunder for Russell Westbrook. Wow! I think most of us figured Westbrook would be leaving OKC since they are clearly reloading their roster, but I didn't expect to see him dealt to the Rockets. It's going to be very interesting to see how two high usage players like James Harden and Westbrook play together. I know they played together previously when Harden was in OKC, but that was a different situation. Neither player were the players that they are now, so the dynamics are different. As for Chris Paul, I can't really say that I feel all that bad for him in this situation. He clearly prioritized getting paid over winning when he signed that max contract with the Rockets last season. Maybe he knows he is on his way out of the league in a couple of years and wanted to get paid, but he probably has very little chance of winning a title now. We'll have to see if he ends up playing the entire season with OKC, but with their roster going younger, I don't see it happening. Like I told one of my buddies the other day, seems like the off season of the NBA is more interesting than the regular season. Well that's enough talk for my soapbox, so lets talk more about this week's theme of overthinking and how it can be detrimental to our lives.

Before I tackle this week's topic of overthinking, I want to emphasize that the detriments it can create in our lives isn't singled to only one thing. I'm going to provide a couple of examples of how I personally feel that overthinking hurts us, however, these examples are only a small portion of how overthinking can be a detriment in our lives. I just wanted to get that out there before going into the points that I'm trying to make. Now when it comes to the idea of a person being in thought or the act of thinking, I can see how it may be hard to grasp how being in too much thought can be a bad thing. After all, the action of thinking is how nearly everything in this world that we live in operates and functions. For there to be roads, computers, and any other thing that operates in this world, someone had to have an idea to create those things. This means that there was thinking involved that went into those ideas coming to fruition. The process of thinking isn't a bad thing, so I'm not implying that thinking is bad. As I have stated already, it is the overthinking that can create the problems. Now in saying that overthinking can create problems, I'm not even necessarily saying that overthinking is that bad of a habit if it is practiced within proper context of what it's aiming to accomplish. I know that may sound a bit counter-intuitive, and a direct contradiction to this week's topic, but the overthinking, though not entirely bad is what gives birth to the potential problems that we create.

Now that we've talked over the act of overthinking, it is time for me to provide a few examples of why overthinking can be hurtful us. One of the statements that I've heard my mom say a lot throughout my life is how we as people "get in their own way". She'll be like; "You keep getting in your own way", or she'll say something along the line of; "so and so are getting in their own way." Now I'm just speculating what I believe she means by saying that, but when I hear a statement like "getting in your own way", I instantly think how we as people often times block our own door towards the path that we need to take. I think of this quote when it comes to the act of overthinking, so I guess I have to thank her for that statement, though I'm sure she isn't the only person that uses it. Some of us right now have something that we want to do or accomplish, yet we haven't made an progress towards it because we're thinking too much instead of just acting. This hurts us from reaching our full potential, and can even keep us away from opportunities that await us. There are some of us right now that have something that we want to say to someone that care for, but because we're wondering what their reaction to what we want to tell them will be, or how we will look while saying it, we'd rather just not say anything and keep it inside. For those of us that have engaged in these type of habits, we're well aware of how bothersome it can be when you keep things bottled up inside of you. Quite frankly, keeping things inside for too long can affect both our physical and mental well-being.

Now that we've established a general definition of what overthinking is and touched on a couple of examples of what I believe are instances where we tend to overthink, the question to this week's topic is why exactly can overthinking be a detriment to us? Well from my own perspective and besides the examples that I talked about previously, overthinking in my opinion causes us to be too much in our heads rather than just living in and enjoying the moment. When we're overthinking and dwelling on the "what ifs", it drains us from being able to be present and in the moment. We don't want to live our lives thinking way too much because when you're overthinking things in this life, you are playing out scenarios that likely will not even play out in the manner in which you're thinking about. Furthermore, it is also possible that these scenarios won't even come to fruition, which means you ultimately spent time and energy towards something that wasn't worth it in the end. Also, I could be wrong saying this since I'm not a medical expert, but I believe overthinking plays a big role in why so many people struggle with some form of anxiety. So in summation, thinking isn't a bad thing, but we want to find a healthy balance of doing so. Life is for the living, and thinking too much doesn't allow us to live. Rather that being thinkers, we should strive to be doers. Overthinking and being too much in our heads will cause life to pass us by, and if that's not what we should want since we only get one shot at life.

Well we have reached the end once again, so I'm going to sign off for now. Thank you all once again for those of installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope this topic was able to touch someone out there, and I hope there was some understanding that could be taken away from it. Please feel free to leave any feedback below, or you can connect with me via Twitter at the handle @BradrickH. Also, everyone stay cool out there. I know there is a major heatwave going on in the country right now. I was mowing the grass the other day, and I had to take more water breaks than normal because it was so brutal outside. Be safe and be smart my friends. Alright guys, I'll see you all in the next one. Thank you all, and peace out!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.