Because Cerebral Obesity is a thing...

When a person eats too much of everything without using reasonable discretion, they become overweight, feel terrible, and are consistently unhappy.

Much like food and physical obesity, we are constantly taking in an overabundance of entertainment, information, opinions, etc., and, in doing so, are becoming more complacent, desensitized, and lazy; we are becoming cerebrally obese.

It is a major epidemic that is quickly eradicating a lot of things which we used to have very solid foundations for.

Look at the entertainment sector specifically: people are obsessed- to the point of what people fifty years ago would constitute as madness- with music artists, actors, politicians, and those more useless celebs who are just famous for being beautiful or born into the right family.

People have become so desensitized towards the insanity that they see in reality television, such as The Real Housewives of [insert city name], the 2016 US election, Honey Booboo, 16 and pregnant, Duck Dynasty, etc, that no one really gives interest to important and often life-threatening issues, such as the phentynol problem in Canada, Aleppo in Syria, or violence against gays in Russia and Uganda. It is such a mess these days. 

Because the world wanted to advance so badly and so quickly, we have now come to the point at which we need to acknowledge our own distraction and scale back what is unnecessary and harmful to our existence. Just as we need to make healthy choices for our bodies, we need to make healthy choices for our minds. 

I often cite a healthy mind leading to a healthy body because your mental health and regulation is a crucial component of being a healthy and whole human being. 

If your mind is packed with lots of everything, it is hard to pick out the few things which really matter to you. The current music industry is a great example: there is access to so many artists, on so many platforms, that are so easy to attain, that most people don't really care who the artist is, and aren't invested in anything. 

If we are not invested in anything, then we will feel purposeless, and history shows that a life without purpose can lead down many unfavorable paths, such as drug and alcohol abuse, obsession, and, in many cases, suicide. 

The amount of drug overdoses, suicides, homicides and the like have risen catastrophically since decades past. According to the estimates in Our World in Data, about 800,000 people die a year from suicide alone. 

The problem which cerebral obesity is creating is that this number will not sound like a big deal to most people because the world population comprises of over 6 billion people, and is steadily rising.

In a sense, our minds are so packed with "stuff" that we stop caring about things that used to be important and only take in the easiest bits of information. This is why reality shows are so appealing to so many people: the people in these shows already tell you every thought that comes to their heads and do not require you to think- only consume.

If you put any physical part of your life on auto-pilot in the same way we do with our brains you would rapidly deteriorate, which is most likely yet another reason why mental illness is such a problem in today's world. Too many focus solely on work and forget about the other facets of life which make them human. Many wealthy business owners lose their spouse and/or family because all they ever think about is work. And when they are not at work, they are on their computer at home, on the plane, in the car, and when they eat. It is an endless cycle which literally sucks the life out of them. 

There needs to be a balance of things. There is a reason why some people are consistently happy and some are not. Personally, I found a philosophy that really spoke to me, and helps me find a balance whether I'm at financial highs or lows. Pick three hobbies: one that makes you money, one that keeps you healthy, and one that lets you be creative. Living by that one philosophy has helped me keep myself in check and do more than follow the money. Money will come when you really put your heart and soul into a project. If you half ass-it, you will probably get a half-assed result.

The point is that, just like with our physical bodies, we need to strike a balance within our minds. The body and mind go together, and both need to work properly for us to function properly. Take just one day out of your week to watch no television at all. Look ten strangers in the eye each day and smile. Unplug your music while you are in transit for one of your transfers. Walk, instead of driving, to the corner store that is only three blocks away. Go camping for a few days and leave all technology at home. After about three days of technology-free camping, your brain can begin to rewire itself to cut out all the noise of the busy city life.

Cerebral obesity is leading to so many dysfunctions of our own faculties. Check yours, and dial back some of the noise. Reintroduce yourself to the world in front of your face and not just the one coming from your phone/computer/television/tablet/entertainment system. Maybe when we do that, we can begin to understand each a bit better.


Written by: Joffery Hollsworth
Edited by Rikki Clark and Ariel Kazerooni