To know or not to know, that is the question to be asking yourself. William Shakespeare may have proposed the question first, but what good ever came from knowing too much? What actual benefits do you really obtain from knowing every, little detail of your surroundings? With your family, friends, work environment or social life? If you thought of an answer, we would like you to think again.
Adolescence, especially, can make us fall into this black void of constantly caring about what others have to say, make you question how much you should know or should not know, or can make your life seem like you are a contestant on “Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?” with your pretentious peers. But, what if you had applied the art of actively knowing less to limit stress in that moment? Now, that’s a whole new lifestyle you could be living right now.
Putting “Knowing Less” Into Perspective
As Tame Impala once said: “It’s not the greatest feeling ever, to have to pull yourself together” the band’s infamous song; This coincidentally can be applied to many distinct aspects of our lives. Overthinking is a perfect example to place this idea into perspective when knowing too much information makes you conform to creating distinct scenarios in your mind limits to only generating a negative reaction to a thought.
Cognitive overloads, poor decision making and job performance are the few factors that can be influenced by the curse of knowledge. This toxic subconscious appears out of thin air, waiting patiently like the devil on your shoulder while overseeing ways to ruin your day. But why can knowing too much affect our mental health?
What is The Curse of Knowledge?
We may feel as if we are a new person when we know more, but unfortunately, the same old mistakes can be made in the process. Nobody’s perfect, as Hannah Montana always reminded us growing up, but humans are prone to making mistakes; and this is where the “Curse of Knowledge” can come into play.
The Curse of Knowledge refers to the natural psychological tendency to forget what it is like not to know something once we have become expert at it. As a result, it becomes virtually impossible for us to share our knowledge with others since we are incapable of re-creating our listeners’ state of mind.
Internal and External Awareness
Acknowledging what you should do for yourself to exude anxiety and stress from your life is identifying how much you are aware of internally and externally.
Internal awareness, or your self-awareness, is the deep knowledge and understanding you have about your needs, motivations, fears, goals, and values—everything that makes you tick. External awareness, then, is making sense of what’s going on in your outer world. That is, what’s going on around you? What’s available to you that’s outside yourself. To note, this is not external self-awareness or the way other people see you, but it’s the things that exist outside of you.
Now, when do we know when we are stepping over the line when testing the power of our knowledge is serving us justice or deteriorating our mental health? Let VALLEY show you how to notice.
How To Stop This Toxic Cycle
Maintaining “The Less I Know The Better” persona can be accomplished with the following three simple tips. The first step is to leave those inferior thoughts behind and move on. Sorry for instilling the hard truth, but if you allow overwhelming thoughts to consume your mind every day, you are hurting nobody but yourself.
Knowing your body cues, such as identifying when you’re experiencing tension, frustration, anxiety, anger, or any other emotion you’re holding on to is another mechanism to regulate and reset yourself. For example, expressing the desire to be better off without knowing that an ex has moved on can empower confidence rather than hold you back from entering the dating world again.
Last but not least, take on every opportunity you are given in your lifetime. Whether it’s a promotion you may be hesitant to take on at your new job, networking outside your comfort zone, or allowing yourself to experience new people and places, never allow the Internet to provide automatic answers and too much information to take in at once.
Would you rather go down the Twitter X rabbit hole for the rest of your life or build new friendships & relationships in the process of adding value to a healthier, less charismatic version of yourself? We’ll let you decide on that one.
The regret in “knowing” should never occur to anyone, but upholding “The Less I Know The Better” persona in your day-to-day, watch your life transform without even realizing it. Let us know on Instagram @valleymag about which tip helped you out the most!
