You know what drains your energy and increases exhaustion? cognitive load. That’s a fancy way for saying all the input you get in your brain from the world around you:
Scrolling your Facebook or Instagram Feed Walking past clutter in your house Frantic googling the symptom you’re experiencing
Reading the news Catching up on the 1001 Whatsapp groups you’re in
All. Of. It.
Then, of course, there’s the cognitive load you have just from trying to parent each kid properly, put out fires, and handle all the bumps that come up along the way.
And sometimes just the amount of noise in your house from your kids, and all the demands on your attention (“Mommy, I’m hungry.” “Mommy, I can’t find my sweater.” “Mommy, can we leave now?”) takes a toll on your sensory load.
I think my kids know so well by now why it is that I take breaks in my room. I once heard my daughter saying to her siblings, “Mommy is having SENSORY OVERLOAD!” [It has since become an inside joke in our house.]
Ok -so…. What’s the solution to cognitive overload?
(Did you read about my self-created post-partum experience? Because that was the ultimate in shutting down my cognitive load - no phone/social media/whatsapp for 6 whole weeks!)
But let’s say you don’t want to go “that extreme.” You can still be very conscious and intentional with what exactly you’re allowing into your precious brain-space.
It might look like:
Setting phone rules for yourself and honoring that
Staying away from news over-consumption
Taking social media fasts
When you treat your cognitive space as sacred, and get very conscious and intentional with what you want to ‘expose’ it to, you will notice an increase in your energy level!
To having more energy for the stuff that fuels us, Adina