Uncluttering the Mind: Finding Stillness Amidst Anxiety and Overwhelm

Q: Why is my short term memory so bad lately?

Probably for the same reason. When your mind is full you cannot hold anything new, which is why we all say do not tell me now, I will forget. Sleep is what empties the front of it, and missing two hours two nights running does about as much to you as a few pints.

Q: What is visual noise?

The clutter your eyes have to process whether or not you asked them to. A busy room is constant low level work. A field or one picture on a wall is almost none, which is why some rooms rest you and others do not.

Q: Do I have to give up television and news?

No. Just choose it rather than let it pour in. I still watch what I love as downtime. What I stopped doing is topping the glass up all day with things that leave nothing behind.

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The transcript

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overwhelm · anxiety · mindfulness · letting-go

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Welcome to Stillness in the Storms. I'm Steven Webb, your host, and I want to talk about uncluttering the mind.

Finding some stillness amidst all the anxiety and the overwhelm. And this mind space

came to me in a meeting with doctors and other professionals, which I felt really out of my depth with.

But I'll explain a bit more about that in a minute. Welcome to this week's podcast. I'm Steven Webb, the

host, and I just want to say thank you to a few of you that have bought me a coffee

this week. And one of you has put 30 dollars in towards my wish list of a

Insta 360 camera. I did say last week about how crazy expensive this is, but it's just awesome. It's going

to be like especially in the summer when I can get out and about and just film everything around me

and you won't miss anything. I'll take you along for the ride when I'm out of my wheelchair and visiting

places of Cornwall. So, yeah. Thank you so much, guys. I'm just going to go through the little list now

um It really does make a difference. Thank you, Mia. Thank you. You're up there as anonymous, but can

I just say Jack. Thank you, Jack um Rosemary and Jack again, see

you're there twice no Deep bow to you. Thank you trisha And thank you, Blackwell. You guys are awesome.

And so many of you that support and you share my podcast and you do reviews. It really is you

know I do really appreciate it. But anyway, let's get on with the show because that's what you're here for

and you want to know about how to find a little more inner peace in life in the mink in

amongst all the chaos. So this week we're looking about mind clutter. And this concept came to me when

I was at the doctor's surgery Normally when I go to doctor's surgery it's because there's something wrong with me.

But this time it wasn't. I found myself on the other side. I found myself on the, dare I say

the professional side. So I was up at the surgery and there's a room full of about 20 people and

we were talking about what we can do in the community and how we can reach the people that we

really need to reach. There's so many people that are just going unnoticed or there is services and

things out there to help them, but how do you reach these people that think the services aren't there, but

yet really need the services? So we're having this discussion and all that. And one of the doctors, which I've

seen him as a doctor a few times, so it's strange been in that professional room with them, one of

the doctors looked up and goes, well, we just haven't got the mind space to be doing all these other

things. And I was like, mind space. What's that? And then it just clicked me. Mind space? Yeah. How

much mind space do we have, how much mind space do you have? And do we fill the mind space

with stuff that we really don't need to fill it with? Is there always room to keep growing the mind

or has it got so much of a capacity and then we stop to function? So this concept really sat

with me the past 12 months and dare I say, I wasn't I was the only non-professional one in the

room. I was the politician and they did say a very nice thing to me at the end, actually. One

of them looks up and says, to be honest, it's nice to see a politician here because they're the ones

that make all the decisions and we're the ones that have to deliver them or not deliver or do the

bad news, things like that. So it was nice to it was nice to be appreciated. The fact that I

was brave or stupid enough to be there, I don't know which. But I'm gonna just tell you a bit

of news. I'm no longer mayor of Truro, so I'm gonna be stepping up my game of podcasting and I've

got some real exciting things in the wings for the next four weeks and I'll be sharing them with you

over the next four weeks. But don't forget I've got this podcast and I've got another podcast um Inner Peace

Meditations, which is just meditations. And after about three years I've released another new Sleep

meditation the other day, journey to Deep Sleep. So you can check that out. I'll put a link in the

show notes. But let's really dive a little deeper into what is this mind space and how much mind space

should we have. And I like the analogy that your mind space is like a river. If

if the river has got plenty of room to flow and it's relatively deep and it's

relatively healthy, it can just flow and it's comfortable. But the more things are thrown into it, the more it's

in turbulence, the more the less effective that river becomes and the muddier it gets and the

shallower it gets and it's having to go around corners and and the river just becomes less effective. And I

think that's the same with our mind. And when I sit down and watch 24 now, because I'm if you're

part of my newsletter, I put it out last week and I told everybody that I'm re-watching season three of

24, one of my favourite, favourite all-time Tv series. And I use it just as downtime. But have you ever

watched, have you ever binged watch something so much that you end up with their voices in your head? It's

like as if I did it once years ago with um Stargate Atlantis, one of my other favourite series, and

I ended up like on the way down the hill and all and I could hear the characters in my

head, I was having conversations with them. The the Tv program was taking up room in my head,

isn't it mental you ever done that? Have you ever like read a character of a book or something like

that and you end up, even when the book is not in your hand, you're still living it. And that's

because we've only got so much room in our heads and if we declutter it a little bit, a it

gives more room for more cool stuff to go in, but B, it gives us room to think, it gives

us room to just relax and be mindful. And I think that's the key part of meditation. I think if

we're more relaxed and we've got a little bit more mind space, a little bit more room to think, I

think we feel a lot more in a inner peace, a lot more at peace, a lot more chilled. So

maybe that's that's the answer. It's not so much relaxing. Our bodies what do we fill our minds with on

a daily basis? And that is really on my mind at the moment, now that I'm no longer mayor. On

Monday I stepped down, I say step down, I couldn't do another year anyway. But it was a beautiful, a

peaceful transition of power. I handed over lovely to um Councillor Swain and she'll do an absolutely brilliant job

um absolutely brilliant job. So I hope everybody's behind her and I hope everybody enjoys her year as

mayor. I know truer is in safe hands, and if it's not you've got all us other councillors here to

um nurture truer Anyway it's fine truer's cool it's all right um so going back to

so Since Monday I've had more room in my head. I'm not thinking about chairing council meetings, I'm not thinking

about what councillors are doing. I've got more room in my head and it's beautiful, it's so cool. It's

literally it's beautiful and cool. It's like like I'm a teenager again. It almost feels like it um although

it's a little sad in some respects, it's also really, really exciting because suddenly I slept last night for seven

hours I wasn't worried about someone breaking in and nicking the chain you know I didn't

even know I was worried about that. But I woke up yesterday morning like ah I don't have to worry

about anybody breaking in. I didn't know I was worried about that, but obviously it was taking up some mind

space. But it's really interesting, this mind space, once now that I've put it into your awareness, you're

going to be aware of what's taken up all your mind space. It's like people complain. No, they don't complain.

That age old question you know are you are you a glass half full a glass half empty person? And

you miss the point. You've got a glass that you can refill the key to it is what you put

in it you you know, Do you put water in it? Do you put wine in it? Do you put

what you enjoy in it? Do you put what nourishes, you in it? Or are you just putting up with

what everybody else is putting up with? And you're just going, Well, I'm grateful, I've got a glass.

You know, The whole idea is to go, hey, I've got a glass and I'm going to fill it with

what I want.

But do you want to fill it up all the time? Or do you want to leave it partly empty?

So when something comes up, you can go, hey, I got room for that in my life. And it really

is that kind of thing with the mind. Do you have room for a little more um thinking a

little more relaxing? And you you imagine like a garden, someone comes along and said I've got some lovely plants

for you. Do you want them like my garden is so full I cannot move. I can't do anything. It's

just you can't think. And

what's interesting, I listened to a podcast by Stephen Fry, and in this podcast they they studied sleep, or they

studied the mind and they found at in deep sleep the there was like this wave rushing through this

sound like, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Was that part of the equipment? Was it partly

failure and they couldn't work out what it was? And then they studied several other people and all that. And

then they realised when they asked questions and when they studied it a little bit further I may get this

a little wrong, but the the gist of the story and what they found out will be right. Just how

they found it out, I might get a little wrong, but they realised that what was happening from your the

front of your brain to the back of your brain, your information was flowing. It was being stored away. So

if you had a good night's sleep after you had a after that happened, the person was able to absorb

more information. So it's almost like the front of the mind had to empty out. Have you ever noticed that

you you have terrible short-term memory when your mind is so full of everything? It's like, I can't hold that.

I've got so much on my mind at the moment. Please don't tell me because I'm going to forget you

know we all said that. We all think it has to do with this mind space. You literally only have

so much

and you feel overwhelmed, you feel tired, you're anxious and stressed. So it's it's a really

it's a simple concept of just consider what you're putting in that mind you know Just imagine your

brain's just opened up and someone's pouring drinks into it. You choose what drinks go in it. You choose what

information goes out So if you're watching programs, reading books, going out, whatever you're doing, whatever part of your life

you're doing, you're choosing what to put in it, then granted, if you work and things like that, you cannot

overly just change that. But there's a lot of stuff like reading newspapers and

media. Do you really need to do that? I'm a terrible news junkie. I love my news. I read newspapers

I don't agree with and everything. And I got so obsessed with Trump when he got elected. Not because I'm

a fan of him, because I'm the complete opposite. It reminds me of a story I heard years ago about

Howard Stern you know the radio host in America that is really, really controversial. And they turn around and they

polled loads of people and they said, Why do you listen to him? And lots of the people that really

liked him said, because we never know what he's going to say next. And then they asked like the people

that said they can't stand him, they don't like him or They said, Why do you want listen to him

all the time? And they said, Because you never know what he's going to say next so it's the same

reason it's the same reason why I was obsessed with Trump. I wasn't a fan of him, completely the opposite.

But I was so fascinated by the craziness of it all, I never knew what he was going to say

next I know It was almost like years ago. You used to wait until the news come on in the

evening or a couple of days later, whereas it got that bad that literally an hour goes by and there's

10 new stories. Because it was that crazy. But I was filling my head with all this stuff

and it doesn't work it really That's where you end up overwhelmed, because you cannot think straight. That's why

we need our sleep.

But this is all one and good. You understand the concept now, but how do you stop it? I've got

a couple of it doesn't surprise you, but I've got a couple of ideas what you can do. Digital Detox

you know I we all know what that is. I don't even like the phrase of it, but it means

just turn off some of your gadgets when you go to bed at apostate nine o'clock turn your phone and

turn your Tv off turn it all off. Just get a book out

you know Get an old Haynes manual, car manual, get something that you're not going to be that interested in

but Or just get a nice book, just listen to music or do something else. Because the idea is just

put something in your mind that you don't have to think about too much.

Journaling is brilliant. Just do a mind dump. I

heard the concept of doing a mind dump a few years ago. I said to my partner at the time

it was camera's mom I said, look you've got a lot on your mind and you're really stressed and all

that. Just do a mind dump and then set a light to it and burn it. And primarily the setting

a light to and burn it so nobody else reads it. So the mind dump, you can literally get anything

on your mind out and just everything and set a light burn it you've got no worries of anybody reading

it or anything like that. But the mind thinks that it's kind of dealt with. If you write it down,

it has this strange feeling that, oh, it's done. That's why I've got about half a million to-do lists

When I do my to-do list the minute it's wrote down, I think that I've already done it, it's already

sorted. So I literally have loads and loads of lists that are just not done, not complete, because my brain

thinks I've already done it I literally go to bed at night and bring up my to-do list and go,

There you go, I got this to do, this to do, and I add 10 things to it, and then

I don't even open it up again. So the act of writing something down is really important, but of course

you got to do it if it's a to-do list But journaling is really, really effective way of getting stuff

out of your mind. The other thing is, mindfulness everything around you. Just stop and look at the leaf and

all the different colour greens or colours it is, or look at the leaves on the ground and wonder how

they got there, and look at the clouds and And it just gives your mind a little bit of moment

just to resort itself out, settle down, and it's like a big lake that you're always stirring

it around and just that little bit of moment clears the water, settles it just a little bit. It

makes a real big difference. And practice gratitude. That's another thing. Not just the art of being thankful, the

art the actual art of being grateful. When you're grateful, you've got to clear your mind, because you've got to

feel it deeply. When you're grateful for something, it's not just a thank you, it's a ah do you know

what? I'm really grateful for that. And you think about what it'll do for you, which is really, really important.

Engage in physical activity. Go for a run. Run up and down the stairs. If it's my stairs,

don't do it, because you'll annoy your neighbours, because they hear every step that goes up and down there. I

can remember when I was able-bodied I used to run up and down my stairs and my neighbour would say

to me, I heard you're going up and down the stairs last night. So anyway, I I go off topic

slightly they're just a few ways. Practice mindfulness, practice journaling you know prioritize

and simplify. That's when I missed out you know prioritize what you've got Write down all of your goals and

all the things you want to get done, all 10 things 20 things right now, and scribble off five of

them because they've been are on your list. You've wanted to do them for ages and you haven't bothered doing

them. Don't bother doing them if they're not that important to you now, don't do them. Simplify it down to

about four things, plus

cleaning the house and all the other things daily things you need to do, but your main things that take

up most of your mind space. Just clear them out. One of the other practices that is really, really important,

and I mentioned this in The Five Simple Practices for Inner Peace. If you head over to thankyousteven.com.

You will find a link to download the five simple practices for inner peace. And one of those practices is

sleep. Sleep is so important for clearing your mind you know It's about memory consolidation, they call it.

Didn't quite understand it when I read about it earlier doing the research for this show, but I think it's

something to do with the waves going from the front of the head to the back and it clears out

your prefrontal neocortex or something you know I just know you feel better when you've had a good night's. Sleep

um improves your cognitive functions you know all those kind of things. We know that apparently if you

have if you miss out on two hours of sleep two nights in a row, that's the equivalent of drinking

under three or four pints of beer. That is how much sleep is important to your mental clarity.

For me, this mind space this week, I just feel so relieved. Not relieved

that I'm not mad not relieved that I'm not been in contact with lots of amazing, wonderful people, and I

had the most amazing two years of my life is incredible. But what is really important is the fact that

I just have more mind space. I'm not thinking about chairing the meetings, I'm not thinking about the problems on

the council those other things, they're on my mind because I care

you know Mind space. Find some room in your mind. Stop doing all the different things. Be really aware of

what you're filling it up with you

know If you're filling it up with movies and rubbish and stuff that you don't really um all these arguments

you're having with people or opinions and all these gossiping things, it's no wonder you ain't got no room to

think. It's no wonder you're so tired

I I get tired when my mind is so full of everything. I'm so tired. And another concept is like

visual noise. Do you ever wonder why you feel better in a home that's a lot less visual noise? If

you go into a really cluttered room and you look around, I gotta close the door. It's just too many

colours is too much stuff. It's because the brain has to do so much more work than when it's just

looking at a nice peaceful picture on a wall. The brain doesn't have to do much work when it's looking

out over a field, but when it's looking at a cluttered room, it's got to do loads of work.

So it's just just a matter of freeing up your mind

I'm going to say thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for anybody treating me to a coffee. You're

awesome. Above all, if I help you to think in any way, just enjoy it. Have more inner peace

and remember, you're awesome and I love you

Uncluttering the Mind: Finding Stillness Amidst Anxiety and Overwhelm

In this episode

The question this answers

The heart of it

One small thing to try

Questions people ask

The transcript

One calm email.
Every Sunday.

Uncluttering the Mind: Finding Stillness Amidst Anxiety and Overwhelm

In this episode

The question this answers

The heart of it

One small thing to try

Questions people ask

The transcript

More honest conversations

One calm email. Every Sunday.

One calm email.
Every Sunday.