Brain overload. We all experience it, and now here I am contributing to it. By putting one more blog post out there. By posting on my Facebook profile. By sending a Twitter message into the Twittersphere.
A recent Newsweek article by one of my favorite writers, Sharon Begley, claims all the information swirling inside and outside our brains is affecting the way we make decisions. And not in a good way. Decision science has shown that when people are faced with a lot of choices, they likely make no decision at all, Begley writes. However, she adds, it also finds that “creative decisions are more likely to bubble up from a brain that applies unconscious thought to a problem, rather than going at it in a full-frontal, analytical assault.”
What does all this mean for you and me? Maybe we should turn off our computers and smart phones for a few hours every few days and go silently into our sacred spaces where we can try to free our minds from information onslaught. Maybe the occasional electronic information fast would be good for our spirits, too.
A version of this reflection was first published on the Women of the ELCA blog on March 21, 2012, in a piece entitled “Free your mind.” It was written by Terri Lackey.
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