Neuroscience of Clutter and How Children are impacted by Clutter

Doctor Coach Academy

**Episode Title:** "The Neuroscience of Clutter"
**Episode Description:**
Welcome to another enlightening episode of "Doctor Mom’s Toolkit: Life Skills Mastery in Health, Wealth, and Love." I'm your host, Dr. Tanzy Kulman, a board-certified neurologist and certified life coach with a unique perspective on the fascinating relationship between our brains and clutter.
In this episode, we delve into the neuroscience of clutter and why managing it is crucial for our overall well-being. Our journey begins with a look at the brain itself. Your frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex, is the hub for executive functions, those higher-level cognitive processes that define us as thinking beings. However, when stress, fatigue, or overwhelm strike, the frontal lobes can slow down, leaving us susceptible to the chaos of our primitive fight-or-flight responses.
As doctor moms, our lives are filled with high-level tasks that demand the utmost clarity and focus. Paradoxically, we often pride ourselves on multitasking, believing it's necessary to juggle our roles as physicians and mothers. Yet, this self-imposed mental clutter gradually erodes our mindfulness and clarity.
A fascinating study conducted at Yale University found that subjects in cluttered rooms solved puzzles faster than those in tidy environments. This paradoxical result highlights how prolonged exposure to clutter disrupts our neuronal networks' harmonious functioning, resulting in a cascade of negative emotions and impulsive behaviors like shopping, overeating, or alcohol consumption.
But what about our children? Science tells us that their frontal lobes, particularly the prefrontal cortex, don't fully mature until their twenties. The parietal lobes develop in adolescence but rely on the matured frontal lobes for proper integration. So, when we surround our children with excessive toys and clutter, we hinder the development of their essential cognitive tools for clarity and focus.
Clearing clutter from our lives, despite our responsibilities, can create paradigm shifts. The negative clutter loop involves clutter leading to feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and ultimately a lack of motivation to declutter. This vicious cycle prevents us from being our best selves and making choices that serve our family's health.
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Dr. Tanzy Kulman
At The Doctor Coach Academy.
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