Free Your Mind
Posted on April 09, 2014 by Mark Newton, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Try forgiveness as a great way to clear out some of the clutter in your mind, leaving more room for the good stuff that makes you happy.
The old myth that we only use 10% of our brain has been mostly debunked. New research shows that we use most of our brain, for different functions, at different times.
Even so, we need to keep the clutter cleaned out if we want to have a good share of our brain space to use for what we would like to use it for. Just think about how much better your vacuum cleaner works when you change the bag, instead of letting all that junk just pile up inside.
So today, I want you to think about cleaning out some of the clutter in your mind, and about forgiveness as a great way to clear some of that clutter. When you hang on to a hurt, you often end up doing something called “rumination,” which is the way cows digest their food. They chew some grass, swallow it, regurgitate it, chew some more, repeat. You get the picture. They keep working on that grass, over and over to digest it.
We do something similar when we ruminate on a hurt, and when we do, we use up a bunch of our brain space going over and over the same bad stuff, which takes away brain space that could be much better used for the good stuff, the stuff that makes us happy.
According to Elizabeth Scott, M.S., “Rumination is comprised of two separate variables — reflection and brooding. The reflection part of rumination can actually be somewhat helpful — reflecting on a problem can lead you to a solution. Also, reflecting on certain events can help you process strong emotions associated with the issue. However, rumination in general, and brooding in particular, are associated with less proactive behavior and more of a negative mood. Co-rumination, where you rehash a situation with friends until you’ve talked it to death, also brings more stress to both parties. In short, if you find yourself constantly replaying something in your mind and dwelling on the injustice of it all, thinking about what you should have said or done, without taking any corresponding action, you’re likely making yourself feel more stressed. And you are also likely experiencing some of the negative effects of rumination… Rumination can be oddly irresistible, and can steal an hour of your attention before you even realize that you’re obsessing again.”
One way to break out of the rumination cycle is to forgive the person who hurt you.
For more on forgiveness, see my blog from March 18th, a few posts below this one.
Enjoy more brain space to do the things you want to do.
Free your mind!
