I'm going to cut right to the heart on this manner. It has something I have been journaling about and has been a 'theme' in my life this year more than ever. And now it is becoming problematic.

How do I deal with information overload?

Let me explain my problem. Say I want to find a method to improve my mood or change and transform my life. All it takes these days is a 5 minute google search and you can have literally tens of thousands of methodologies, approaches, things to try out, practises, exercises, mindsets, paradigms and way of exploring the world to be able to alter your mood.

I can take yoga, I can go swimming, I can take a plane trip, I can enclose myself in a creativity course, join a support group, seek coaching, start a business, join a weight lifting programme, seek out one of the millions of styles of meditation.

There is just too much to do.

And with so many options at my finger tips, I am finding I cannot even sustain my focus for a sufficient amount of time on a single item to make any significant progress with it.

I will just take a silly, but real example, of a situation I am facing. Already I have at least 8 books that I have began partially reading or have a desire to read......And because there is so many, I cant even begin or sustain my focus on my single book and complete it all the way through without this niggling feeling that I need to switch books because there will be better information or data in a different one.

Combine this with something like a Bashar approach, where I begin to pressure myself to pick something with the highest amount of excitement, and I crash and burn. There is just way too many things to think and sift through in order to get an accurate gut feeling about which and what is superior.

I often make a joke to a friend of mine that I don't have the ability to sustain any given practise or methodology out for a decent amount of time to give it a fair trial period, by saying that "even if all I had to do was take one pill every single day, after a few days I would give up."

I am not sure if this is a commitment/decision issue, or if this is an information overload issue.

My fear and hesistancy to ask this question is because I cant make any progress on any one thing until I burn the boats on other options. It means if I make a decision to read one book, then I forgo all the content I can read in the other books.

My focus is constantly split, and in our information world, it seems as though we live in a world where the core goal of advertisers is to confuse us and distract us.

What do I do? How can I deal with all of this information so I can choose a given practise, sustain it for a period of time, gain benefits from it, and not be overwhelmed or dissatisfied with my decision knowing there are millions of other choices.

I read a book earlier this year entitled "The Paradox of Choice- why Less is More." Much of the content of this book I resonate with and my ideas come from here. Link to an overview is provided. His thesis is to deliberately terminate our options, so we only have a fixed pool of options to choose from, to concentrate our execution on tasks or life ambitions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice

Too much to pick from. And I am dissatisfied with my inability to decide and sustain a commitment. Perhaps this is what fueled my question on "viewing opportunities as scarce vs abundant?"

I quote from wikipedia summary of Paradox of Choice the fear of missing an opportunity: "Missed Opportunities. Schwartz finds that when people are faced with having to choose one option out of many desirable choices, they will begin to consider hypothetical trade-offs. Their options are evaluated in terms of missed opportunities instead of the opportunity's potential. In other words, after choosing an alternative with a plurality but not a majority of utility, people remember the sum of the lost utility rather than that they made the utility-maximizing choice. Schwartz maintains that one of the downsides of making trade-offs is it alters how we feel about the decisions we face; afterwards, it affects the level of satisfaction we experience from our decision."

How do I deal with information overload?

asked 15 Dec '17, 19:52

Nikulas's gravatar image

Nikulas
5.4k534156

edited 15 Dec '17, 20:04


hi Nikulas, i truly understand your question because i had the same experience somthing like 7 years ago. i also had a friend who told me that i cant finish any task, not even finish one siggaret. and that made me really think.. i couldnt stay hold a job, or a relationship (even if i was happy in it), i couldnt finish books, and the list goes on haaaaa. it got me really frustrated.

i had aperiod in my life when i found a job after graduated university and only 6 month later started new stusy in a completly new field and found another job. and wanted to leave this job too, but didnt (yet :) )

for me it was a commitment issue.
i wasnt commited to myself inough to make good decisions. i was more commited to other people and there choices. once i decided to make a comitment to myself and be my best friend it wa alot easier to understad what i want, and to select from all choices. when i was commited to other , EVERYTHING looked great to me and kind of fit me because i looked at everything not through my eyes but through the eyes of everyone. it like "my friend would like it so i like it too" but it was so subconsciously that i couldnt recognize it, and really thought that i like it.

everything start with being commited to self. love self. do the best for self. not pleasing others, please yourself. when you know your self it is easy to know what you want to do now and whats more fun - swimming or meditation. and it could be both but not at the same momment.

i also want to add that there is a big conflict. becuse learning the law of attraction i thought i was doing just great loving everything and everyone, and being connected .... but the missing piece was myself. i forgot to be connected to myself. i saw everything and all possibilities for everyone but for me and me (and thought it was the other way around). so again - it is really crucial to love self first.

link

answered 16 Dec '17, 04:59

myself's gravatar image

myself
2.5k120

edited 16 Dec '17, 05:12

I'm glad to hear of your self empowerment and decision to be selfish (I mean this in a good way).

So what I hear you saying is that the more you became a fan of your own sports team (you), the easier it was to see which items to commit towards and which ones were other peoples suggestions.

I certainly am still intrigued on the information overload aspect. I am confused whether I genuinely have commitment issues, or rather, I just haven't found anything yet worth sticking towards...

(16 Dec '17, 06:44) Nikulas

...Likewise, I also have the age old debate in my life of whether to commit to a single project and follow it all the way through (no matter what), or, to drop a project if my enthusiasm/excitement no longer is valid for it.

There seems to be some sort of self help, military style army commitment pride associated with being able to complete things all the way through. This hyper disciplined approach to tasks I have found doesn't work for me and is all about looking good in others eyes, or...

(16 Dec '17, 06:46) Nikulas

....looking good in my eyes so as to baffle others about how supreme and rock committed I am.

So I handball it back to you- do you think people genuinely have commitment issues in general (unable to finish things all the way through), or is it we as a species of people are now getting more and more emotionally sensitive and less tolerant of things that no longer strike our cords and thus have more ease dropping subjects that don't suit our agenda? Perhaps being thin skinned is a good thing

(16 Dec '17, 06:48) Nikulas

well, that is a very big question ! i believe its a personality thing and also a cultural thing. our grandparents grow uo in a culture that it was obvious to them that sticking to one thing only is the ONLY one option. and they taught us that, so in many cases its looks obvious to us too. but , we have more exposure to things so we know more and allow ourselves more inevitably through this exposure so, this two approches to life creates conflicts in one self.

(16 Dec '17, 13:01) myself

so the more one solve this conflict within himself by getting to know himself, the more he know what HE truly wants. so commitment issues and being sensetive are just the same thing. but it depends from where you look at it. commitment issues - are you commited to your self or to others? sensetivity - are you sensetive twords yourself or twords others?

(16 Dec '17, 13:12) myself

if you're commited to others more then to yourself then you'll also create contrast within yourself (because your pushing yourself away) and thus will be less sensetive (to your needs) and push away every other oportunity (like a mirror actually). if you're commited to yourself more then to others, then your sensetivity twords yourself hightens and you know which oportunities to push and which to take.

(16 Dec '17, 13:16) myself

btw Ellaeenah JadeFire have really good meditations on youtube that maybe you'd like to try.

(16 Dec '17, 13:19) myself
showing 2 of 7 show 5 more comments

It will be your sincere belief in a particular method that results in the desired outcome. Any method will work if you believe it will work. For an additional boost of power to that belief, choose a method you might actually enjoy, one that "excites" you. You can invent your own method if you like. It will work just as well. My advice is to keep it simple. Avoid methods that require a complex process or are overly time consuming. After making your choice, create an affirmation.

For example: It is my desire to improve my overall mood. It is my intention to improve my overall mood. I Believe I will improve my mood if I practice Ti Chi daily.

With a simple affirmation, I am announcing my Desire, Intention, and Belief. Now, all I need to actually do is to practice Ti Chi daily with out any expectations or thoughts of the outcome.

Information overload provides an abundance of ideas (beliefs) from which we can choose. The challenge in dealing with so much information is choosing what to take in and what to leave out when it comes to adopting someone elses beliefs. Even though all their beliefs are valid, they may not neccessarily be helpful for the reality you are trying to create for yourself. One persons life affirming belief might become a limiting belief for someone else. It's not a question of if it's true. It's a question of if it's for you.

I hope this helps. I would suggest you reference Bashar on the topic of "permission slips" for some reinforcement of this idea.

link

answered 18 Dec '17, 04:00

i4cim2b's gravatar image

i4cim2b
3.0k317

I find that Bashar's method is the best method I have ever seen to make choices- and, undoubtedly, he is emphasizing it so much because it is so well suited to our age- the golden age of options.

I suggest you discontinue all other methods until you master Bashar's- you already know it, you seem to like Bashar, and everything else you mentioned seems to describe the problem fairly well but offers no real systematic solution.

Diagnosing what you are doing wrong in order to crash and burn with Bashar, the first clue is right in your description of your attempt: You are pressuring yourself to act on your excitement. Friend, that's doomed to fail- you don't pressure yourself to do anything. Pressure sets up conflict which sets up resistance which diminishes your energy, and, predictably, nothing will work at all.

What you do is the opposite- you relax. Perhaps that is the challenge for you in general, to relax into anything, so I would suggest you start working with everything and anything that relaxes you. You could watch a lot of Bashar holotope stuff, or you could do a Nalu from Huna: Gently gaze at something, for example a flower or something you imagine. Experiment. What are things that have relaxed you most in the past? What have been situations where you knew you don't have to do anything, don't have to be anywhere, don't have to take charge at all?

No worries- you will be taking charge, no one wants you to be a piece of driftwood and you do belong in the driver's seat. What we want to counter-influence is excessive control- you want to stop micro-managing yourself. In general, what you can control as a human being is your imagination and your focus, so you use that ability to direct your attention towards progressively more exciting images, feelings, smells, words, energy patterns and actions. But that's all- you control the attention, but you don't control those feelings, those smells, those words, and so on- they are already there. Even if they are happening in your own body, you do not control them any more than you, for example, directly control your digestion or your heartbeat.

Again, no worries there- you can still be in charge of those areas of yourself, and it is wise to be, by talking to your heart and directing it to do what it does better, or talking to your digestion to do what it does more smoothly and bring about more energy, but you are not doing those things- you are only holding your attention and an intention. You are not making anything happen, you are holding an intention in your mind using the control you already possess over your attention, and expecting something to happen- but you are not doing the happening. It's a fine line.

Control vs. Influence is a great way to explain it- you have complete control over your attention- intend to think of the color red, for example, and there it is, every time. But you only hold considerable influence over your body- you can tell it what to do, but you can't make it do anything it is not already inclined to do. For the entire world, you hold an even more indirect influence- there, all you can do is think the most desirable thoughts you can come up with, and let the universe unfold your experience in a symbolically related way that may not be anything like your thoughts at all- except that it is a perfect symbolic representation of what you had in mind. That's going to have to be good enough, and, I assure you, it is.

So, knowing this, how limited and yet how perfectly appropriate your control is, after swallowing that pill, so to speak, when you know what you can control and what you can't (just your attention and your imagination), your ability to influence will skyrocket because your theory of the universe has become correct, and you will no longer be setting up unnecessary resistance by trying to control something you inherently can't.

So do Bashar's method. When a feeling of pressure arises- stop. Tell yourself to let go. Intend to think the most exciting thought you can in the friendliest way you can, as if you are presenting a game to a child. What would be the most exciting thing I could think about right now?

And since you are no longer attempting you control, you can take whatever comes up. If you think it's silly- and you just might- well, go for it if you can, but ask for something else that's just as good if you can't. You could even ask for the most exciting thing you can come up with right now that is easy for you to accept. Then just go with that for a while.

In evaluating your success, there are no shoulds. Bashar's method refers to coming up with the most exciting thing to think about- He doesn't say anywhere that you are supposed to actually manifest it. Whatever needs to manifest will- you are only supposed to use images to get yourself into a certain energy state. It's not your job to pick what gets physical, that's the universe's job. So take that silly little thing that excites you and decide that, whatever it is, it makes you lovable and good and a child of God that you are excited about that. That's what they call liberating the inner child- going with what excites you, not judging it, and playing with it, until you want to play with something else. Can you see how relaxing and simple this suddenly becomes, regardless of what circumstances you may be in? You can still keep dealing with things as you are used to in your regular life ares, but you will always have this time of day to go to where it is only the time for playing with exiting little thoughts you came up with, and nothing else, and over time, that will influence your ingrained everyday life and soften it, and it will shift and start growing into something much more friendly and reflective of who you really are- and that alone is a wonderfully enjoyable process and you are quite to be envied for it.

Enjoy, friend!

link

answered 18 Dec '17, 13:44

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cmc
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