Blog No. 22 by novelist Jeremy Logan -- CLUTTER
It's the fly in the ointment, the wrench in the gears. The biggest waste of energy on the planet. Call it clutter, noise, distraction; by whatever name you call it - it disables us. Here's a simple analogy. A decade ago, if you wanted to find some immediate, fresh entertainment, an overwhelming majority of Americans would turn the television. What did they find? - commercials, promotions interrupting and cluttering the content. I may see things differently than most, but it's just distraction to me. It clutters my brain. Subconsciously, it fills up my memory cells with useless memories. That's one reason I watch as little television as I do, And when I do, I try to find commercial-free content. And what's the best and easiest commercial free content - a good book.
Brain clutter, not brain power, is the difference between successful people and the unsuccessful. It distracts us from our purpose, our goals and ambitions. We see it every day, but we don't recognize it. So many things can be the clutter that disables us. Below are a few you might not put at the top of your list. Hate is my favorite. You've heard the expression, "Hate can consume you." What did you think it meant? It can use up so much of our energy that it leaves little energy for anything else. Here are some more: pride, envy, greed, lust, ambition, and another one of my favorites - fear.
I know of no cure for this malady. There is obviously a brain trigger in all of us that comes from our early evolution that causes our brains to tend to migrate to the land of wasteful thoughts. So many of our compulsions can be traced to the survival tools in our early evolution. I'm talking about the survival of the species - Darwin shit. Having a keen sense of danger or fear protected you. That's why we have the instinct to run from danger. It's in our subconscious mind.
In the pure sense of the word, clutter does disable us Take a look at the hoarding disorder. Their fear of throwing things away that might be useful literally blocks the afflicted from escaping their domicile. Now that we have identified the problem, what can we do about it? To be honest, the best I've got is to be sympathetic to those that don't know they suffer from it, and count your lucky stars that your brain is wired differently.
The people we call geniuses are truly wired differently than the rest of us. Their DNA deal of the cards gave them a better hand. When their brains were formed there were no obstacles in the pathways that enabled thought. Everything is crystal clear. Their lives are filled with daily epiphanies. At the other end of the spectrum are those that are paralyzed because of some type of brain clutter due to unfortunate wiring when their brains were formed. This is nothing but dumb luck.
Some say meditation is the cure. I say - bullshit! The ones that can clear their minds with meditation don't have the clutter disorder. It's just their natural, subconscious way of clearing their slate. If you have the clutter disorder you can only see useless, wasteful distractions. Simply said, "You don't get it because you can't get it!" You weren't wired that way.
Of course, there is another way of looking at this. Perhaps it's the ones that are not easily distracted that are the unfortunate ones. Can you be too focused, too purposeful? And the answer is - yes. Here's an example. Let's say you have an injury. It hurts like hell. What happens when you are distracted from thinking about your injury? You don't notice the pain. It didn't go away. Simply, your brain got distracted from it. Some focus so clearly on their pain that they can't think of anything else. In their case, pain is what is cluttering their brain.
Obviously, the answer is balance. Those that live happy lives are wired in such a way that their is balance in their brains that allows them to be distracted when they need to be distracted, and be focused when they need to be focused. If you are one of the lucky ones that are wired this way, be grateful you are, and be sympathetic to those that aren't.
