“Your Mind is Not a Mess – It’s Just Overstimulated”

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Ever feel like your brain has 47 tabs open at all times? You're not alone, and more importantly, you're not broken. In this thought-provoking exploration of modern mindfulness, we dive deep into the real reason behind our collective struggle to stay present in today's world.

The startling reality? Your brain is processing more information in a single day than our ancestors did in their entire lifetimes. According to research from the University of California, the average person consumes 34 gigabytes of information daily—equivalent to reading 100,000 words. No wonder your mind feels chaotic! This isn't a personal failing; it's a predictable response to unprecedented mental noise pollution.

We challenge the common misconception that mindfulness means having a blank mind. Thinking is what your brain is designed to do. True mindfulness is about developing a healthier relationship with those thoughts—noticing them, naming them, and gently guiding your attention back without judgment. It's like patiently redirecting a curious toddler rather than scolding them for exploring.

This episode offers practical approaches for overstimulated minds, from "micro hits" of mindfulness (30-second moments of presence throughout your day) to labelling mental activity to create space between you and your thoughts. We share three powerful journaling prompts to help you identify what's currently overwhelming your mind, recall moments of genuine presence, and discover daily opportunities for mindfulness practices that actually fit into your busy life.

Ready to take back your attention in a world designed to steal it? Listen now and discover how small, consistent mindfulness practices can help you navigate our information-saturated world with greater ease and presence. Your overstimulated mind will thank you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to an edition of GW Unspoken where we discuss
stuff we don't typically talkabout but probably should.
And well, we're here withseason 10, episode 2, and we're
talking about mindfulness.
And is your mind well?
Is it a mess or is it justoverstimulated?
If your thoughts are racing andif you're distracted 24-7, if
you feel like your brain is abrowser with 47 tabs open, well,
congratulations, you're notbroken.

(00:38):
You're actually human andyou're living in an age of
mental noise pollution.
Let's talk about that.
This is a problem.
You've been led to believe thatmindfulness is the end date to
a faulty mind.
That will solve everything.
And you know that if we can'tfocus or if we overthink or we
forget what we walked in theroom for, we must be lazy,
unfocused or emotionally unwellor got ADHD or OCD or some kind

(01:01):
of condition.
But here's the real issue yourmind isn't malfunctioning.
It's overfed.
It's actually under-rested andfrom the moment you wake up,
your nervous system isabsolutely bombarded.
You think about it when youwake up Notifications, you're
multitasking, there's alwaysbackground noise.
You've probably got decisionfatigue already and it's your

(01:24):
brain.
It isn't failing, it's doingexactly what it's wired to do
respond to inputs.
And the issue is you're livingin a world of inputs with no off
switch, and our brain wasn'tmeant for that.
Our brain wasn't meant to beoverstimulated the way it is.
There's so many people out therenow who say technology has made
us do so many more things andbe more efficient, but the
problem is that the workforcenow expects us that we should be

(01:46):
doing more, and we actually aredoing more because we're more
efficient, and that actuallyleads to more stress.
And so let's get a little bitnerdy here.
I'm going to read this out wordfor word, because I've got a
study here I looked at from 2019, from the University of
California.
They found that the averageperson consumes the equivalent
this is word for word of 34gigabytes of information a day,
and that's the same as reading100,000 words.

(02:08):
So our brains, which evolved inquiet, survival-focused
environments, are now processingmore data in one day than our
ancestors did in a lifetime.
So I'll say it again we are nowprocessing more data in one day
than our ancestors did in along lifetime, their whole
lifetime.
There's another study that waspublished in the Nature

(02:30):
Communications that found thatattention spans are actually
shrinking, and it's in directcorrelation to the increased
digital media exposure we justtalked about.
So it's no surprise, right?
It's no surprise.
This overstimulation activatesyour sympathetic nervous system,
the fight, flight or freezeresponse, and it makes sustained
presence nearly impossible.
You know you talk to someone.
I'll challenge you next timeyou go and talk to somebody.

(02:51):
How many times they look away.
How many times they look awayand I know some of it's a
cultural thing but how manytimes they get distracted.
How easy it is to distract themwith their iWatch going off,
whether it's their phonevibrating in their pocket,
whether it's someone justwalking past, and they can't
just actually focus on you andyour conversation.
Well, here's the good newsMindfulness doesn't need to shut

(03:11):
down your mind.
It just helps you take thatvolume down so you can focus.
And so here's what mightsurprise you Mindfulness doesn't
mean having a blank mind.
So many people give up onmindfulness because they think
oh, I just still can't stopthinking.
I'm trying this practice, but Istill can't stop thinking.
Here's a new flash.
Neither can I, neither cananyone.
Thinking is what your braindoes.

(03:31):
That's its actual job.
It's supposed to look forthings.
It's supposed to take you awayfrom fear or put you towards
good things.
So it's always on alert.
It's always on.
Mindfulness is not aboutstopping your thoughts.
It's about not getting draggedbehind like a rough or a rogue
shopping trolley.
It's about noticing, naming andgently returning.
If you're someone who's beentold you're too intense or too

(03:54):
analytical or too sensitive,guess what You're probably made
for mindfulness.
You just haven't been given aversion that maybe respects how
your mind works.
And, let's be honest, your mindis chaotic.
Mine is too.
It's like a toddler with apermanent marker running around
a white wall.
You know, creative, chaotic,dramatic, extremely committed.
And you don't punish a toddlerfor being curious.
You guide them right, youdirect them, you redirect them,

(04:17):
and that's what mindfulness is.
It's gently guiding your mindback to the moment, over and
over and over again, with thepatience you would actually show
a curious child.
It's exactly the same.
So here's how we can work withoverstimulation, not against it.
Here's a couple of ideas forpeople out there who might have
an overstimulated brain.
Number one micro hits ofmindfulness.
Don't wait for 20 minutes on ablog.
Don't wait for something or sayI'll do mindfulness here, there

(04:40):
and everywhere.
Just practice in 30-second sipswhile waiting in line, while
washing your hands, beforechecking your phone.
Do it for 30 seconds.
Number two label the noise.
You know, sometimes when wename it, we tame it.
So if your mind is racing, trythis.
Say, hey, that's a planningthought.
Or man, that's an anxious storyI'm telling myself in my brain.
Or why am I getting sodistracted like that?

(05:01):
That's just a distraction I'mdoing right now.
So when you name it, it givesyou space from it.
All right.
And the other thing is you canuse your senses.
So when your mind is loud andyou know, drop into the body and
say what can I see, what can Ismell, what can I hear?
Right now, just just littleprompts to yourself.
And I know it's going to beweird for people and they'll
easily fob this off.
I'm telling you now, if you'reoverstimulated, nothing's going

(05:23):
to change unless you change.
So test yourself.
Try not to think it's fluff.
Just challenge yourself.
What if this is right?
What if you're an overstressedhuman being and things aren't
working for you right now?
What have you got to lose?
All right, there's plenty ofapps out there that can actually
show you some guided meditationif you can't do it yourself or
you're worried about doing ityourself.
So your senses are your anchor.

(05:45):
You know about doing ityourself.
So your senses are your anchor.
Your breath is a rope.
Use them to pull yourself back.
So look, here's again with ourjournal prompts.
I know people are probablyseeing me saying this, but,
again, what gets measuredimproves.
So it's a good idea just towrite these things down and not
just do it in your head.
So three prompts for this week.
Number one what's currentlyoverstimulating your mind?
You know, how is it impactinghow you actually show up, like,

(06:07):
be specific, is it your phone?
Is it people?
Is it deadlines?
Is it procrastination?
What is it that's actuallyoverstimulating your mind and
how is it impacting you?
So write them down.
Number two when was the lasttime that you felt truly present
?
You know what was different inthat moment.
What made you present?
Was it because it was purpose?
Was it a certain connectionwith one of your passions?

(06:31):
What was it?
When were you truly present?
And identify what helped thatmoment happen.
What was it?
Can you translate that to otherparts of your world, other
parts of your day?
And talking about that, here'snumber three what is one moment
in your day routine that you canreclaim as like a micro
mindfulness pause?
So was it?
You know I get up in themorning early and start doing

(06:53):
some work before the kids areawake.
So I get down here and do thesame routine of boiling the jug
and getting some grinding coffeein there and making probably a
loud noise, waking people up andthe dogs up and just smelling
that coffee.
It's 20 or 30 seconds.
The beans getting ground up isa mindfulness moment for me.
When I think about that now,it's like, yeah, it is routine,
but it actually does ground me.
Get it, ground coffee.

(07:14):
It does actually ground me tothink I'm present, I'm up early,
I feel like I'm winning the daybecause I'm starting how I want
to start the day and it justgives me that pause.
So what is it for you?
You know, what is it Before youstart unlocking your phone and
getting distracted and gettingoverstimulated before all these
inputs that we talked about,what is it something you can do?

(07:35):
Just focus for 30 seconds andactually pray to yourself, talk
yourself up to actually beat theday, own your day and get set,
because everyone's going to havecrap happen to them throughout
the day.
But you started off with awinning formula by actually
focusing on yourself.
And look, that's it.
It's episode two of GW Unspokenand you're not broken.

(07:56):
You're not too much.
You're just human in ahyper-stimulated world.
And mindfulness isn't a luxuryfor the enlightened, it's
actually a life roughlyoverloaded.
Start small and then try againtomorrow.
And I'm Gary and I want tothank you for joining us for GW
Unspoken.
I will come to you in Episode 3very shortly, thank you.