I think we all struggle from time to time with brain fog, this can be down to work getting too much or maybe down to your mental illness. We all struggle from time to time, but there are a few things which we can all do to clear our minds. I have learnt a few things on my way and thought I would share these will you. You never know they may help you… fingers crossed!
Exercise
I can only imagine that you have heard this one too many times… It is something that I was always being told and I didn’t believe that this would work for me. One I am not a lover of exercise and two my head is 1000 mikes per hour most days and nothing works to slow the thoughts down… so why would exercise?
It all depends on what works for you. I have tried different forms of exercise but I love running in the fresh air, but I haven’t been able to do this for a while due to the horrible icy weather, I don’t want to break an ankle. In the colder months I go the gym and tend to do the cross trainer as I can put my headphones in and forget all of my worries. It really allows me to focus on me and clear my head of those day to day thoughts/stresses.
Exercise is known to balance hormones and support your health in numerous ways. Studies have proven that if you have brain fog the best thing to do is to get up and move; so go for walks regularly, go out in to nature on your bike or just a walk and talk with a friend. You will for sure notice the clarity after exercise.
Write it down
When suffering with a clouded head it might be that there is too much going on in your head. Sometimes it can feel a though there are 100’s of thoughts loitering in your brain. It can become a bit of a burden and make you want to turn your thoughts off.
Clouded head can cause no sleep, struggle with concentrating etc. I would 100% recommend that you write all these feelings down, it allows you to get all those thoughts down on paper and declutter your mind. It can take a few attempts to work but trust me if you persist you can make this work for you.
Never underestimate the power of pen and paper!
Speak to someone
Never feel bad for speaking to someone about the things which are scrambling your head. Talking to someone whether it’s a friend of a family member or even a stranger, they may be able to shed some light on the issues that are causing you destress or just cluttering your head. They can be a listening ear for you.
Speaking to someone else will let you get some clarity on issues with you may have been dealing with for a while now.
Read a book
In order to escape from the thoughts in your head sometimes you need to be able to escape from reality. The perfect way to do this, is to get a good book for 20 minutes or more just escape from reality. Depending on what books you read you may be able to gain something from the book while reading or it could just be a chance to let your mind be free and escape, without having to really move an inch.
I am currently loving All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. I tend to read this just before going to bed or in the evening to give me a bit of time to escape before winding down.
Meditation
This might not be for everyone! Meditation is something which can take little time and practice. However, if you give it time you can really benefit from meditation when having a bad day of brain fog or just in general!
There are lots of different ways you can do meditation. You can use guided meditations, a really good app is Simple Habit which you can use on your phone or you go visit their website. It provides meditations for all different occasions e.g. lunch breaks at work, sleeping and even for your morning coffee… there is pretty much everything on there. It’s the perfect way to get some time to clear your mind and focus on something that really matters other than the clutter.
You can also use meditation music to focus on rather than the guided meditations it depends what works for you best. I sometimes use meditation music when on my way to work or just relaxing.
Is there anything which you do to help clear your mind?
*All photos my own
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