How viscous is your brain soup?

That might seem an odd question indeed. But brain soup has been a term that has resonated in this house as a means of encapsulating that feeling of being simply overwhelmed by the amount of information contained within your head. 

[Google brain soup and you get a very different term. I advise against it.]

I coined the term ‘brain soup’ for the purpose of describing mental overload and that tight, constrained feeling around your head when you can no longer think straight, make rational decisions, or even find the right words with which to complete a sentence. 

I first used the term as a visual metaphor in conversation with one of my Nearest-and-Dearest. A sense of drowning in too-much-to-do, extensive mental lists and pressing deadlines had prompted the conversation. I recognised the symptoms and the physical posture of one who was drowning in brain soup. The metaphor was extended to discuss mental floaters and dense lumps in the soup, and the need for a passing crouton to climb on and be rescued. 

[It did get a bit gross but lightened the mood in the moment and allowed a plan to deal with the soup to be formulated.]

Does this sound familiar at all?

When was the last time you felt you were drowning in brain soup?

This issue has come up recently in a number of client conversations, and follows our theme of decluttering. For you, and for others, this is about how to 

declutter your mind.

The fact that this is a pertinent issue in my own life and work made me wonder how big a problem this is. Turns out, this is a huge 21st century issue as we live overloaded lives full of electronic noise, expectations and commitments, financial and employment challenges, comparisons that drive us….you name it. 

There is a whole simplicity movement out there, and masses of information and resources online about minimalism, including how to declutter your mind. 

If you like a sound bite as quick motivation, here are a whole host of quotes that inspire and encourage decluttering and minimalism.

This one struck me, from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist:

This is certainly true when it comes to decluttering one’s mind. When there is so much in our heads that we find that we are not functioning at our best – or even very much at all – it is time to take action. Carrying on thinking that things will get better by themselves because you believe you don’t have time to take action is a false economy.

Eventually the soup will get the better of you.

The process I have helped others work through is quite simple. It serves as a way of capturing all the information that comprises the brain soup, but getting it out of your head to reduce overload. But importantly, none of it is lost and this process also allows for objective assessment and strategic planning based on my two key questions:

Why am I doing what I am doing?

What is most important here?”

If you are needing a mental declutter, give yourself the gift of this:

• Take a large piece of paper, and write down EVERYTHING that is in your head. How you do this is up to you – a mind map, lists, completely random. It matters not. This is a brain dump, so get everything out no matter how trivial or small. If it’s in there taking up space, get it out. 
• Using coloured highlighters or pens, look at all you have written and categorise it into different subject/life areas. Ask yourself with all of it, WHY? Do this without judgment. 
• Create separate lists for each subject area, listing the tasks within each in small, do-able action steps. Pay attention to WHY and also what is important. 
• Consider what can be delegated, ditched for now, or let go of altogether.
• Look at your separate action lists, and ask yourself: what are the top three things that I need to accomplish THIS WEEK? Focus on them, knowing that everything else is safely stored so won’t be forgotten.
• Each week, revisit your action lists. Look at what you achieved the previous week and celebrate that.
• Where does that get you? What therefore is most important THIS week. 
• When you have new thoughts and ideas, add them to the relevant subject list, or add them to the bigger mind map picture. This depends on your wiring – for some, the initial brain dump exercise also serves as a vision board and can be referred back to for inspiration and to check progress. For others, once it has been converted into separate lists, there can be great satisfaction in tearing it up…it has been weighing you down and you can now enjoy the weight of it’s release.

Other ideas include the bullet journal,  which was created by Ryder Carroll as his solution for mental decluttering. Find out more about the bullet journal in this TED talk by Ryder Carroll, and my own previous musings on it are here. 

To declutter your mind is also to deal with some more insidious brain soup:

• negative comparisons with others
• living in regret for the past or anxiety for the future
• unhelpful mindsets and beliefs
• unrealistic or unspoken expectations
• carrying responsibilities that are not ours
• bad habits 

Now – be honest with yourself. How many of those things are taking up mental space in your head and contributing to your own brain soup?

Notice over this next week what that brain soup consists mainly of and choose to declutter your mind. And a how-to tool that I find helpful is coming next week.