It is a real challenge to help people who are struggling with an overactive brain understand the importance of reading and writing, but my advice for anyone struggling with mental stability and health in this moment is to turn off the TV and the Internet (hint: they are the same thing), and pick up a book and begin reading. While reading, also begin to write down your thoughts about what you are seeing, thinking, and feeling. If you do this for long enough, you will begin to find your way.
On the surface, the recommendation to read and write may seem silly and trivial, but I am dead serious. What is going on in your head is 1) lack of diverse voices and ideas, and 2) lack of work to unwind historical programming. You see, we are programmed from a young age, but without a diverse range of ideas and voices into our heads, the mono culture that developed has become untenable. When you add on the lack of work we do to write down and work through what is going on a daily basis, it becomes a crazy mess.
What we are suffering from is growing up within patriarch and white supremacy and our brains are lacking the nutrients they need to sustain a meaningful life. Living within our white bubbles has prevented nutrients from reach our brain, and because we are plugged into television and the Internet, we don’t spend time writing down our lived experience, and working through who we are on a daily basis. After repeating this cycle for many, many, many years, we end up pretty messed up and lost in our heads.
I can’t tell you how to live your life. I can only relay how I am managing to find balance in my own life. Begin by turning off the TV and the Internet regularly. You don’t have to go 100%, just consciously do it on a regular basis. Then find a book or two to read. It can be anything that interests you. It will take you a while to build up the muscles you need to read, so be patient. Then just start journaling along the way in a physical or digital notebook. Do this for a couple weeks or couple months, then take note in how you feel.
