Get That Stuff Out of Your Brain. Now.
You sleep, brain keeps on working. You consume soapy TV-series and listen to the stories you don’t like, it keeps on remembering. How does memory and brain work and why is it important to control your mental hygiene?
Information is all around us. We may pretend we don’t see those ad banners, we may say we’re not listening, but at the same time our brain keeps on tracking everything. Instead of storing “video clips” of exact moment happening in life, brain makes “pictures” and notes down exact associations connected to the certain events, what make it remember literally everything. And when you need any kind of information, your neuro network restores saved data and gives you exactly what you need. Some facts of course may be lost during the time in case you didn’t feel any emotions back then: that means no hormones were produced in the organism and your body didn't remember what happened exactly. But in case you felt fear, anger or deep interest, your organism produced a lot of adrenaline, that made brain save this moment as preciously as possible for you to restore it in future. So, why do we keep on consuming bad stuff and how to get this out of your head?
The Nature of Brain Works
Your brain always keep on working: especially while you sleep, it always analyzed consumed data and sorts it accurately in your mind. Brain controls all the systems in your organism and looks after them. This highly-professional computer, that even plays with your mind usually, making you feel fear, loss or anger, happiness — it literally forms the reality you live in. In fact, our brain works all the same like AI. It simply learns, consuming and analyzing everything around starting the moment you made your first breath. Watching around, brain keeps on remembering: family models, behavior of the surrounding people, natural environment, so on. That’s why psychologists normally say, that everything depends on your childhood. That’s why they say “tell me who your friends and I will tell who you are”, because people around us literally reflect and form the reality we live in.
Just imagine a child who lived in the family of scientists, and it appeared for this child, that it’s pretty natural to learn complicated things and to boost brain constantly, becoming even more expert in the stuff most people don’t know. And then imagine this child being friends with 5 other children who only have TikTok blogs. Will this child lose gathered ability to learn naturally and start being less intelligent in sociological meaning? Yes. We reflect the world around because our brain always notes what is happening. And based on that data, it forms great neurological connections inside of your brand, that keep on sharing data. This is exactly what’s going on when you fall in love. New neurological connection starts existence and that’s why it’s so hard to give up on thinking about someone you lost not that long after the breakup or divorce, just because your brain keeps on sending signals to this person, but stops receiving answers. And that’s happening to everything we do: eat berries, play tennis, walk around our favorite park in the morning — and when we do anything, it’s time to think: how this effects our brain? What brain consumes now? And if we should allow it?
How to Get Things Out?
Of course we all consume a lot of odd stuff: TikTok's, Reels, ex couples memories. This stuff can hurt us from time to time. And when it hurts, obviously we need to get this out of our brain instead of making focus on it and keep on suffering (because in that case we only will make stronger memories about that thing). To get anything out of your brain, the most effective way is first of all to understand the nature of your habit: why do you fee attached? For example, you keep on remembering your ex because you felt less lonely and safe back then. In order to close these needs you need to understand, that you have 2 urgencies: lonely and safety biases. To feel less lonely you can try to be more social and talk to your friends more often. To feel safe, you can try to work on your safety measures and also do more aggressive workouts, that will boost your self-awareness. So, you will close these needs and your neurological network will switch from sending signals to the “dead end” on communicating with new hobbies.
Of course, only replacement is not enough. You should also change the focus of attention, driving it on the new things to be learned. Just imagine, if your were deeply in love with someone and were thinking about your relations or this person constantly and then you suddenly broke up, your brain finds itself in pain: there is no longer meaning and a great use to organise and think, analyse and think about the same old stuff over and over again. Finally, you get trapped. And to make your way out, the best thing you can do if to find a new, meaningful hobby, that will catch all of your attention and drive it on itself, for example learn dead language or start painting, or create music — you need to start thinking about important stuff. That is the best way to change your focus and build new, stronger neurological connections, that will actually work.
Brain is complicated: it never falls asleep, it always keeps on thinking about the context you created. And the joke is, that you’ve make this cage you can’t get out of. And to break it, just talk to yourself, hack your brain and simply walk out to another happy reality. It appears being not that complicated as we get used to believe.
