Links in some blog posts may earn a commission for The Brain Cleanup Coach.

The answer to confusion is always no.

I’m not sure who said this first, but I love this quote.

I use it regularly as a helpful thought to help me get through circumstances that my brain is labeling as confusing.

Let’s define confused: “unable to think clearly, bewildered.”

When a human brain experiences confusion about something it’s simply because it lacks internal knowledge to make sense of it. It has yet to internalize information physically, by creating connected brain cells, that will easily explain what is happening. In other words, confusion is just a lack of understanding. What that looks like on a physical level is a lack of brain cells that house the knowledge you need to understand something.

When the brain gets confused, the immediate action the brain wants to initiate is avoidance. You can also think of this as inaction on something. When you don’t understand how to do something, the brain quickly assesses whether it’s worth the time and energy to figure it out.

Let’s take a quick look at brains that LOVE to put time and energy towards figuring stuff out: baby brains. The brains of babies put all of their energy towards figuring the world out by gathering information, tinkering, playing, failing and succeeding. This is vital to learning how to live in the world.

Once that baby grows into a kid, the information gathering starts to slow down a bit, because that brain now has more tasks and responsibilities to take care of, so energy has to be divided. And as adults, we can have so many perceived tasks and responsibilities that the very thought of trying to learn/tackle something new can be exhausting, so the minute we get confused is often the minute we stop pursuing something we want.

Because of confusion we deny ourselves our deepest desires, because we just can’t see the how of achieving it, and to fail in achieving it seems like one of the most painful things we could experience.

What if you didn’t let yourself succumb to confusion?

Remember, confusion simply means your brain lacks the information to explain in, and then the brain creates an uncomfortable emotional state in the body that typically results in avoidance.

What if in that moment of confusion you reminded yourself of “baby brain”? You reminded yourself that it’s time to gather information, to tinker and play, so you can allow your brain to start to create the neural networks to understand something.

If you choose to not buy into confusion, you choose not to buy into inaction.

Your brain uses confusion as a test of “worthiness” for new information.

You use your brain as a tool to get over itself and gather the information to create understanding.

I help people get past the confusion so they can make clear decisions. Click here to book a consultation with me.