Week 3: Mental Clarity – What, Why, and How?

When I was in school last year, I would sometimes be a wreck. Something or someone in my classes or at school would have pissed me off.

That night, I would think of myself as a bad person and go to bed angry.

I thought that when I woke up, I would feel better again, as a good night’s sleep does the trick. Maybe that did happen.

Not all the time. Why?

Because I didn’t clear all the thoughts in my head. I was uncertain about what I believed. I did not have mental clarity.

Fast forward to now, and I think that when I approach situations, I know what I am feeling and how I need to act.

This, trust me, is an underrated skill.

So this week, I want to focus on mental clarity and what it means to genuinely know how you feel.

Let’s begin with some definitions:

Mental Clarity vs Mental Fog?

Mental Clarity is a state in which our perception is unclouded. We are completely engrossed in activities. We operate effectively.

Mental Fog: Due to a lack of sleep, chronic stress, or overstimulation. We cannot fully understand how we are feeling, and we have mixed thoughts constantly.

Let’s be so real, not all of us have mental clarity all the time. We will always have days where we don’t understand what went wrong or we aren’t focused.

But it’s about minimising those days as much as possible.

Mental clarity is foundational for growth. It’s more than that. It’s how we can live our lives happily.

So, with definitions out of the way, let’s look at some of the obstacles to mental clarity. I mentioned a few:

• Lack of sleep: If we don’t sleep properly for a day, we have the same effects as being above the alcohol CHC.
• Chronic Stress: If we are stressed about many things, we jump from one thought to another. We can’t focus on what’s in front of us.
• Information: Staring at our phones all day leads to overstimulation. But the brain can only absorb so much information.

But there are three I missed.

I touched upon this a few weeks ago, but let’s go into more depth. The channel, Braincraft, helped me to understand.

The brain has 86 billion neurons conducting 1 trillion processes a second. But it doesn’t understand one thing.

In all this busyness, thoughts are bustling around. Sometimes we take these thoughts as fact, and three obstacles cloud our judgment:

1. Cognitive Biases: Have you heard of the Ikea effect? It’s when you attach more value to something you’ve done compared to something an expert has done. We often do this with our thoughts. When we give ourselves criticism, we often delve too deep and start self-hating.
2. Planning Fallacy: We underestimate how long large tasks are going to take us. This leads to us not finishing. Unless broken down into smaller tasks, we misjudge the time taken to complete them leading to a feeling of failure.
3. Post-purchase rationalisation: Have you ever done something which you probably shouldn’t have? It’s normal. Sometimes we try to rationalise it using excuses that we wouldn’t usually have thought about. This can keep us in negative cycles regarding our thoughts.

Last year, I fell into these obstacles.

1. When I managed to convey a complex idea from a textbook and received credit, I was a cocky son of a bitch. Why? Because that book was written by an expert, and I merely managed to recite it? I am not saying I didn’t do well intellectually. I am just saying I could’ve realised, all I did was regurgitate someone else’s words. Was it needed? Yes. Was it amazing? Fuck no.
2. When planning my day, I would try and jam-pack all my work into Lunch. Then I would apply for apprenticeships after school while trying to go out in the evening for a walk. At the end of the day, I sometimes finished half of my homework and didn’t step outside once home.
3. When going out, I would drink a hilarious amount and then say to myself, Ah, it’s fine, I’ll just drink less next time. Nope, I did it again and again.

What changed?

This year, I understood that some tasks are easier than others. While I can be happy about completing them all, I don’t need to globalise this feeling. I understood to give buffer time to some activities in case they take longer than expected. This year, I understood that I need to have people around me holding me accountable, as well as myself.

Why?

Firstly, I did some mindfulness. Not the Zen-Buddha meditation you might think. All I did was sit down and close my eyes. I paid attention to the first thought and I let it pass. Then I got better at paying attention to each thing in front of me. This helped me in overcoming these obstacles. Paying more attention to what I did made me truly understand what happened.

By paying more attention to your thoughts, you realise that they are not facts, just thoughts. Then you realise that not everything you think is true (of yourself and others).

From there, you learn to accept your thoughts, use them when necessary, and be happy to discard them when not.

Finally, this allows you to get better at activities as you judge them accurately and give them all your energy.

That’s the secret.

If your mind is clear, you know exactly what you are thinking without second-guessing. You can put your all into other activities and people.

There’s another scope to this, which adds the final bit of the puzzle. We have covered mindfulness and why a clear mind helps you in your daily life. But what about our emotions?

The thoughts that we have make us feel a certain way. Why is that?

Well, let’s do an exercise. Take 10 positive emotions and 10 negative ones.

Write them down and tell yourself, what do you think about most when you read them?

For me:

1. Excitement: Meeting with my friends at the start of our Interrailing trip.
2. Jealousy: When others are on holiday from uni, and I am still at work, trying to keep my brain focused.

Doing this exercise helps you understand your triggers and functions. This means that when thoughts arise, you know why you feel the way you do.

It doesn’t stop you from feeling that way, but it gives you the clarity of understanding.

Now, if I feel annoyed at my work day, I know why it happened and what it relates to. I am happy to let it flow away, however long it takes.

So, how can we put this into practice?

When you feel a bit off or annoyed, ask yourself this:

1. What am I truly feeling right now?
2. Why am I feeling this way?
3. Has this happened before?
4. Is this useful for me?
   1. If yes, write it down and use it.
   2. If no, let it flow away like clouds in the sky.

I hope that this helps you become better at understanding your thoughts and feelings.

More than anything, mental clarity helps you grow and become happier.

Have a great week 🙂

Dylan