If you struggle with brain fog and poor focus, this is really going to help you.
Your brain has 4 primary brainwave states:
- Beta – the main state when you are awake and most aware
- Delta – when you are in deep sleep
- Theta – the state before and after sleep. Theta is an ideal state for creativity (a good reason to keep a notepad on your nightstand)
- Alpha – the state of relaxed awareness, accelerated learning, and creativity
Doing things like…
- grounding
- meditation
- relaxation techniques
put you in an Alpha wave state where your mind absorbs information better and you are more creative.
Television also puts you in an Alpha wave state and literally puts some people in a trance and you become very suggestive. I’ve observed this with my son and it’s one of the reasons I really limit his TV (among other reasons).
Here’s the thing to be aware of. You are very suggestible in Alpha wave states so you want to make sure you feed your brain good information.
The average person goes on social media 150 times a day.
For many, this is the very first thing they do when they wake up. Many young children sleep with their phones and are on them throughout the night.
Many adults do the same and this rewires the brain…not in a positive way.
The world is fighting for your attention. When social media wins that game…you lose.
Have you ever looked at your email first thing, read a negative post, or watched the news and all of a sudden you’re stressed out or in a bad mood?
How does your day go after that?
How do you feel when you’re talking to someone that can’t stop checking their phone? This is a real addiction and many are not aware they are doing it.
If you’re guilty of this and would like to break the habit there are practices you can do to rewire your brain.
One of the first things you want to do is establish a morning routine.
I have a lot of practices that make up my morning routine and I change it up throughout the year to keep it interesting for me.
One of the practices that is consistent is gratitude because it trains your brain to focus on the great in your life.
The key for your morning routine is that the first 30 minutes belongs to YOU and only YOU. No social media, no email, no news, no screens. Just YOU.
If 30 minutes sounds daunting start with 5-10 minutes and increase from there.
Breathwork, meditation, and/or visualization are a part of my morning routine and both are great to center yourself, become present, and mentally exercise your brain.
If you want strong muscles, lift weights. If you want a strong, healthy brain, mentally challenge and exercise it.
Your brain is capable of amazing things. The challenge is we’re not given a manual to know how to best utilize it.
To have a better brain that helps you learn what you want to be successful and be more creative…learn something new and practice it. This creates new neural pathways keeping it working well.
Meditate. Take walks in nature. Do breath work. Learn how to relax yourself and disconnect from all the noise out there.
Just reading this blog only gives you information. Applying this information gives you knowledge and value.
You can train your brain to go from reacting to responding by setting an intention for how you want your day to go and you do this with a morning routine.
This puts you in control and completely changes the course of your life.
Commit to dedicating the first 30 minutes (or start with 5-10) of the day to you for the next 10 days and let me know what that does for you.