Your Good Health
Brain Fog Sets You Up For Failure. Fight It
Good decision making takes a clear and analytical mind. It would be great if we always had this going in our favor. Truth is, we don’t. Sometimes we just aren’t up to our ‘A’ game. These down times aren’t the times to be making critical decisions. They’re the times to pull back, regroup and get your life back in order.
So what is brain fog? Why do you get it and how can you get rid of it.
First, here’s what should be taking place.
Your brain is a major part of your bodies control system. When functioning properly, it helps regulate your heart, digestive, immune and other major systems.
A coherent mind will keep the signals that come from your brain, moving in a synchronized fashion to the rest of your body. A coherent mind will help you maintain a healthy body.
What is brain fog?
Also known as scatter, fuzzy or wooly brain.
Brain fog is a term for those times when you lack clarity of thought. When you can’t seem to think clear enough to put two coherent thoughts together. Your brain is out of coherence and not sending signals to the rest of your body in a synchronized fashion. You’re brain is out of sync. with your body.
This usually happens when you’re functioning for long periods of time in a high Beta brain wave. This is the brain wave of stress which puts you in a survival based thought pattern. These thoughts are usually negative and are identified as anxiety, depression, sadness, insecurity, frustration and others.
It’s impossible to use your analytical brain in this condition. Decision making is difficult at best. Problem solving itself becomes a problem. Not being able to function at full capacity can cause you to stress, which only compounds the situation.
How and why does this happen?
When you become upset or stressed, you operate in a high Beta brain wave pattern. This causes your cognitive functions to decrease, which makes it much easier for your mind to become confused.
Your cognitive functions have to do with the mental processes involved with judgment, reasoning and memory. A curt or hurtful statement or even a single derogatory word aimed in your direction can cause a negative emotional reaction. That reaction can happen in less than a heartbeat and can immediately put you in a stressful state of mind and decrease your cognitive functions.
A decrease in our cognitive functions will effect your rational and objective thinking skills. Considering problems on a realistic level will become impaired.
Biologically, what takes place, begins with your brain going into stress mode.
Cortisol and adrenaline flood your cells. When you stress, up to 70% or your blood drains from your brains frontal lobes. Your frontal lobes are where cognitive functions takes place. It’s your blood that supplies fuel to your brain in the form of oxygen. No oxygen equals no fuel.
This fuel rich blood is diverted from your brain to other areas of the body, mainly muscles, which are involved in the fight or flight reflex.
Stress puts your brain and body in fight or flight mode.
It’s a primitive response that’s carried over from caveman days. Back then your very survival depended on your ability to escape danger.
Your brain adapted to being able to quickly move into survival mode. At that moment, you didn’t need to solve complex problems. You only needed to face the danger and fight or run to survive. Once the danger had passed, Your body quickly reverted back to a more relaxed state.
Today this response is rarely needed. Most modern stressful situations don’t require you to fight or run. But the same process still takes place when you stress.
When you stress, your body is put into escape mode at the expense of your thinking mode. Your thinking brain has been temporarily shut down and is no longer available to you.
When you stay in this state for extended periods of time, your body starts to malfunction. It has a negative impact on your digestive tract, your heart and your immune systems. Channels used to gather new information are shut down.
How does brain fog effect decision making?
It goes without saying, when your thinking brain is shut down, you can no longer make rational decisions. Your thought process, which includes your decision making ability is in the toilet. You’re not firing on all cylinders.
Your analytical mind fixates on your external environment. You become more critical of yourself and those around you. You’re in survival mode. You do this at the expense of your internal environment. You think about problems rather than finding solutions. You over react when you should reflect and think.
It won’t get better until you lose the stress.
When you lose the stress, your thinking brain comes back into coherence. You can once again focus on possible solutions to problems. Your imagination and creativity come back online and you can better focus your attention on long range planning and goal reaching.
How can you keep a cohesive mind.
You can keep brain fog at bay by paying attention. Keep yourself out of long term stressful situations. If you’re aware of what’s happening, you can either change the situation, change the way you think about it or remove yourself from it altogether.
Eat healthy food
Food is fuel for the body and the mind. Learn to read labels. Stay away from processed foods and buy organic whole foods whenever possible.
Relax
Relax at points during the day and get plenty of good sleep. Sleep is crucial. It gives your body a chance to rest and repair after a hard day.
Exersice
Exercise is a wonderful way to relieve stress. It also adds oxygen to your blood. It doesn’t need to be vigorous. A brisk walk will do wonders.
Start paying attention to your thought process
Monitor your feelings. If you find yourself getting angry and frustrated, If you’re not thinking clearly, chances are you’re mind is not in coherence. You may be stressed and in fight or flight mode. Step back, take a deep breath or two and regroup.
Meditate
Meditate first thing in the morning. Meditation calms you and sets you up for a successful day. If you don’t know how to meditate, find a guided meditation online and follow along. Meditation is crucial. Don’t disregard it out of hand.
Conclusion
Keeping a coherent mind is another crucial element toward living a Successful Retirement Lifestyle. Give yourself every advantage possible to achieve your goals. You need to be in charge of your life on many different fronts. If you can learn to do this, you’ll have a fighting chance to become the person you really want to be.
A Successful Retirement Lifestyle is obtainable to everyone who chooses it. You can do this.
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