Mental Real Estate

On average the human brain processes 6000 thoughts in a day. Depending on how much time you spend in your head, that number may seem very large or very small. Either way doing something around 6000 times a day is quite a significant, it makes me wonder how much of a workout our brains do daily. This number should surely be a rough estimate, when I'm taking an exam, at times it feels like the tally comes down, because I just can't remember how to apply some formulae. 

In the words of Renée Descartes, "cogito ergo sum", (I think therefore I am). The famous mathematician could only find proof existence in that he was able to think. Thoughts are a way in which we process reality. If the sensory organs are hardware, then our thoughts are software. Perception is something that we pay close attention to, if we have negative thoughts towards a subject matter, we tend to drift away from the issue and the reverse is true when the polarity is changed. 

I guess that's why what others think of us matters. We exist in other people's realities, and their thoughts and perceptions of us shape the interactions that we have with each other. The closest thing we have to mind reading, is reading body language and pyschology, and that can only tell us so much. I'm no psychic either, the only thoughts I am certain of are my own. With that in mind, amongst the thousands of thoughts I have in a day, what kind of thoughts am I dwelling on?

A neat way to conceptualise it, for me, is thinking of my capacity to ponder, in terms of landmasses, mental real estate, if I can put it that way. In my head there's a city of sorts, with various districts and neighbourhoods each serving its own purpose. I can only ask for you to join me in imagining this picture. The most distinct buildings, the ones that give the city of my mind it's attitude, would be the values I hold at my core very dearly. These are the superstructures that have been  built slower over time with the sturdiest foundations. They may undergo some touch ups, but they are never completely demolished. 

There is a square, it has the likeness of Time's Square in New York, there are oversized LED screens. They illuminate everything within a radius of about two hundred metres. What's often on these screens are, the things I am currently infatuated about, it could a place, a person, an object or a concept. Each of these things are broadcast in the form of thirty to forty-five second adverts and billboards. This is until the next thing comes along that I am infatuated with, and the old ads get replaced. A few streets down, there's a somewhat out of order courthouse, there I go to relive debates  with new rebuttals, to see how things might have turned out. Then, the most derelict parts of the city, each house looks haunted, there is an eeriness in the air around these parts of town. This is where my fears and anxieties reside, it's a portion of the city, I would prefer to avoid, but I find myself wondering here. Often, as a result of getting lost, or getting confused, it's a gangrene neighbourhood that I fail to get demolished.

Every thought we have carries some sort of weight in a way. To use a real estate term, at times we let things live in our heads rent free. At times we can get so consumed thinking about things that only waste time. I mean, think about it. If you were to map out your thought life as a city in your head. What would that city look like? Would you like to live there? Thanks to the ability to mindlessly scroll through media, we can escape having to walk through the cities in our minds. We all need to take some time to be with our thoughts as scary as it may seem. Remember, 6000 thoughts a day, if they go on for too long without being checked, there's no telling what may or may not happen. 

It may seem impossible to take control of your thoughts, I have struggled and still struggle to keep things in order up there. The word that I hold onto in times like that is this one,

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

This passage gives a useful way of tidying stuff up in the mind. It's not just trying to avoid negative thoughts or bad things, but it's in pursuing that which is good. It is inevitable that we spend time thinking, and without directing our thoughts we can be all over the place. Just as you might have certain thought patterns and habits, they most likely formed as a result of practice. Without knowing it you may have visited the same subject matter over and over without knowing it, that it ended up becoming second nature for you to go directly to those thoughts in a given situation. 

Rome was not built in a day, so you will have to be patient with the process. It may look like picking up a book to read, that you may have been putting of reading for some time. It could also be taking time to practice gratitude for the things you have and the people around you. It takes planning too, so, sit back in silence with a pen and paper, and try to map out how the city in your mind looks like. Which parts are in need of improvement and which parts are in need of decommissioning.And yes again, 6000 thoughts can be a leviathan of a task to control, going for perhaps 30 thoughts to keep in check can be a starting point, because arithmetically 5970 is a lesser grind. Gradually, the city will be rebuilt brick by brick until it becomes a more habitable space.