The Guardian of your Mind
“We should treat our minds, that is, ourselves, as innocent and ingenuous children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention” — Henry David Thoreau
In a Native American parable the tribal elder tells his grandson about the two wolves fighting within him. The wolves represent the inner struggle, each signifying our positive and negative emotional states. When the youngster asks which wolf wins the struggle, his grandfather replies “the one you feed”. There is practical wisdom contained in this parable. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel anxious or depressed, you may be feeding the black wolf through indiscriminate consumption of mainstream media. Given a significant amount of this content is negative and largely outside of our control, Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough advises “However little television you watch, watch less.”
Our mental health isn’t the only reason to be conscious of what we feed our mind. Neuroplasticity explains that what we are exposed to changes the neural networks in our brain. Celebrated designer Milton Glaser’s life advice[1] included a section called “How you live changes your brain”. Glaser realised “The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body … We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. …Thought changes our life and our behaviour.” It is a lifelong challenge, Jim Rohn warning “Every day stand guard at the door of your mind”.
It’s been said that we are the average of our closest associates. Call it intellectual osmosis. Miguel de Cervantes wrote “Tell me thy company, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.” The stoic philosopher Epictetus wrote[2] “It is inevitable if you enter into relations with people on a regular basis … that you will grow to be like them. Place an extinguished piece of coal next to a live one, and either it will cause the other one to die out, or the live one will make the other reignite. If you consort with someone covered in dirt you can hardly avoid getting a little grimy yourself.”What we expose our minds to determines our intellectual potential as much as who we associate with. The great advantage is we are not limited by geography or even time. We can converse with the greatest minds in history, those who have been referred to as the eminent dead. In his commencement address[3] David Brooks introduced the “theory of maximum taste”, explaining “this theory is based on the idea that exposure to genius has the power to expand your consciousness.” Brooks says “If you spend a lot of time with genius, your mind will end up bigger and broader than if you spend your time only with run-of-the-mill stuff. The theory of maximum taste says that each person’s mind is defined by its upper limit — the best that it habitually consumes and is capable of consuming.”
* Ben Jonson wrote “everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable”. A good way to define brain food. It includes TED talks, podcasts, audiobooks, blogs, articles, essays, research papers and online training courses. using the words of playwright.
We are the first generation with almost unlimited information available at a keystroke.
What we consume is an act of self-responsibility. It can profoundly affect our emotional and mental health, change our brain and determine our intellectual potential. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly”. If we choose wisely, what we take in can also sustain us through adversity. In May 1944 Holocaust survivor Edith Eger, just sixteen years old, was sent to Auschwitz along with her family. As they arrived at the camp Edith’s mother[4] told her “Listen. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Just remember, no one can take away from you what you’ve put in your mind.”
[1] Ten Things I Have Learned, Milton Glaser
[2] The Discourses of Epictetus, circa 108 AD
[3] A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person, I couldn’t say these things during a traditional ceremony, but these aren’t traditional times, David Brooks 13thMay 2020 The Atlantic
[4] On arrival in Auschwitz Edith’s mother was sent to the gas chamber by Dr. Josef Mengele
