how to take control of your mind in the digital age

it's not easy, but it is simple.

You happen to be alive in the most overwhelming period of human history.

Great. Awesome. Glad to be here. Now, what do we do about it?

I appreciate your directness. Let’s arrive at the point, shall we?

You have other emails to read. Your attention is a finite resource in an information environment as stimulating and infinite as this one. Let’s respect that dwindling fossil fuel of human attention and help restore it with 5 simple systems.

Maybe you skimmed that paragraph. No hard feelings.

If reading isn’t really your thing and you’d rather watch a YouTube video on all this, I’ve got you covered. Made one just for you. You can watch it right here. (Click the underlined text.)

Or you can just listen on Spotify. Here. (Same instructions.)

Ok.

The point. We’ve arrived at it.

We need systems. 5 of them. Here they are.

1. Conscious Consumption

The internet isn’t going anywhere.

Rather than collectively abandoning technology, what if we trained ourselves to cultivate a meaningful relationship with it? This would require one secret ingredient currently missing from our approach to digital consumption: intentionality.

You can immediately feel the difference between:

Passive consumption

(accepting whatever short-form entertainment your algorithm feeds you)

and Conscious Consumption:

(actively curating your media diet to nourish you with stimulating ideas, concepts, education, and art that inspires you to create your own.)

But in order to reconnect with a natural spark of curiosity that will direct you towards more meaningful content, you have to return to a state of silence.

You have to (temporarily) remove yourself from the stimulation until all the dopaminergic noise fades into the background and your inner excitement bubbles back up to the surface of your consciousness.

Essentially: make yourself bored until the childlike part of your brain is compelled to explore something intentionally. Then — use the internet to fuel this exploration. Curate your feed to support in you in your adventure. Embark on a heroic quest to the bookstore to stock up on more mental “groceries” that will fuel you in a meaningful way.

Once we rewire our relationship to information (and the internet) we can learn to use it as the powerful tool it is. We won’t be susceptible to hours of directionless, empty, “fast food” consumption. We’ll be feeding ourselves with mental nutrition instead.

2. Creative Work

Then, we have to “exercise” our brains through some form of mental output.

This can be as simple as a journaling practice. Opening up a notebook (or a notes/voice memos app) and pouring your thoughts out. They don’t need to be good. This is not about creating a masterpiece.

It’s about exercising the skill set of creation. Taking what’s up top and getting it out of your skull. These ideas, fueled by your conscious consumption, are a powerful form of personal creative work. And this process is far more enjoyable and fulfilling than cheap dopamine consumption.

The cool part is — this basic practice will carry over into every other artistic or creative discipline you apply yourself to. Because the base skill set is in place: having a thought and then sharing that thought. This is exactly what you’re doing when you’re writing a novel, painting a self portrait, or executing on a business idea.

The core creative spark is there — it just needs to be engaged with. It needs to be practiced. And once you use this creativity as a replacement for the chronic digital consumption, you’ll find you have a voice. And something important to share.

You just have to make room for it to come out.

3. Physical Care

We also have to take care of our physical bodies. Obviously.

I like to keep this as simple as possible. Ultimately, you should follow your own intuition here. There’s no one exercise routine or diet plan that can work sustainably for every single human being on the internet.

But to make it accessible for you right now: taking back control of your mind, your time, and your lifestyle autonomy requires a movement practice that:

A. You enjoy doing

B. Makes you feel energized + moves you towards a goal

In the beginning, this can be going for a 5-10 minute walk outside.

Or it can be going to the gym with a friend.

Or it can be a simple Yoga flow right after waking up.

All of these options (and countless more) are excellent starting points for a movement practice. They’re doable and can be scaled up in difficulty over time.

But above all, please find something that you enjoy. Something that energizes you without leaving you feeling shame or guilt at a lack of progress or cosmetic achievement. The modern fitness industry hinges on this idea of looking a certain way in the hopes of selling you supplements, equipment, and info products you very likely do not need.

Escape all of this BS by doing what feels good for your body. Movement is medicine, sure. Just make sure you’ve chosen the right medication and dosage for your particular situation. Ultimately, it should make you feel good.

Combine this empowering movement practice with a diet built around 1-ingredient-foods and you’ve got 80% of your “physical care” taken care of.

There’s definitely nuance here, but for the sake of keeping things simple so you can get started right away, you don’t need to complicate things more than this.

Hit me with questions — but I think this is a valuable starting point for just about anyone.

4. Practice Humanity

Humanity has never been more isolated than right now.

We’re all compartmentalized in our little individual bubbles of instant gratification. Consumption culture, especially when fueled by personalized algorithms, has a way of disconnecting us from each other.

But just like every other physical and psychological quality we possess as humans, our very humanity is something we can train. It’s a skill set. We can practice it and get better at it.

The only hard part is that you have to kick things into gear.

Initiating social contact is hard. But if you can have the courage to reach out to the people in your life (starting with friends and family) you will set off a chain reaction of human connection that will slowly but surely get us back in the practice of talking to each other. This is the whole “be the change you wish to see in the world” thing.

Gandhi nailed it.

I’m not saying you need to go out and make a million friends. This isn’t about popularity. It’s about building the habit of connecting with other human beings, who more likely than not, are struggling with the same symptoms of digital overwhelm as you are. We’re in this together. Let’s talk about it.

5. Pragmatic Optimism

Lastly, comes the core belief behind all of this.

We’re living in scary, unprecedented times. They’re going to get scarier. They’re going to get even less precedented. One comforting thought: this undeniably uncomfy fact has been the case for every generation of humans who’s ever been alive. No one has ever, historically speaking, actually known what they were doing, and the future has always been a black box of unknown horrors to those poor beings trapped in a 4-dimensional present.

Every iteration of humanity has their own sh**. We’re dealing with a climate crisis and anti-human technology. But make no mistake: we’re going to figure it out.

The secret here is pragmatic optimism:

Conscious acceptance of the harsh reality combined with a steadfast commitment towards a better future. Call it idealistic, or hippy-dippy, or whatever you will, but this is, historically speaking, how humans have endured every single existential threat we’ve ever faced. You could argue we’ve done a lot more with a lot less.

So yeah. We’re going to be OK. We just have to orient our individualistic “protagonist” mindset towards collective goals.

“I am the main character of my life AND my hero’s journey is to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure the survival of my species. I am the center of my conscious experience but am part of something much, much bigger than myself.”

If we can practice engaging with this belief, we’ll keep ourselves oriented towards a future where we make it through. Where we curate social media to be a pro-human place that nourishes our minds and precious attention. Where we enter a synergistic relationship with the physical world around us. Where our digital descendants survive, and thrive, and look back on the infancy of the internet with pride, as it was their ancestors, their great, great grandparents who made it a lovely place to be.

That’s what we’re aiming at.

And that’s what we’ll achieve by starting to practice the heroic little tasks listed above.

You have much more control than you realize.

Don’t overlook your potential to ‘save humanity’ by showing up for the daily optimism of basic self care. You are the lever.

Thanks for being here.

Love you.

Oh, here’s the video again in case you still want to watch it.

Here. (You know what to—)

Ok ily bye

-josh