Do you feel like you’re walking around in a mental fog? Do you have difficulty focusing for longer than 10 or 15 minutes at a time? If so, you may be lacking the sort of mental clarity you need to thrive. But with an intentional plan, you can get back on track.
Cutting Through Your Brain Fog
Brain fog isn’t described as a medical condition, but simply a symptom of other underlying issues and conditions. It’s basically a form of cognitive dysfunction that produces symptoms like memory problems, poor concentration, inability to focus, and a lack of overall mental clarity.
There are several factors typically responsible for causing brain fog and a lack of mental clarity, including (but not limited to) lack of sleep, depression, dementia, high stress, medication, perimenopause, chronic health conditions, hormonal conditions, nutritional deficiencies, and viral infections.
“It is not unusual for brain fog to be caused by a combination of two or three of these factors since they often go hand in hand,” Verywell Mind explains. “For instance, depression can lead to a lack of sleep or vice versa. Similarly, stress can affect your sleep and cause depression. Perimenopause may be accompanied by lack of sleep and depression.”
The good news is that brain fog and a lack of mental clarity aren’t necessarily caused by a serious condition. In most cases, it’s a temporary issue that goes away once the underlying causes are addressed. This typically involves lowering stress and balancing out your hormones and nutritional levels.
Tips for More Mental Clarity
Want more mental clarity? In addition to scheduling an appointment with your primary care doctor to discuss possible underlying causes, you may try some of the following tips for eliminating the fog and finding clarity.
1. Get Your Inflammation Levels Tested
Inflammation plays a necessary role in keeping your immune system functioning properly. You need it to fight off infections and promote healing after an injury. Without inflammation, we wouldn’t live very long.
However, balance is key. Too little inflammation and you can’t fight off sickness. Too much inflammation and your body’s various systems start firing on all cylinders, leading to a host of discomfort and other symptoms.
One negative side effect of having too much inflammation in the body is that it makes the blood-brain barrier more permeable. This leads to brain inflammation and something doctors call “leaky brain syndrome” (which happens to be a leading cause of brain fog).
The quickest way to know if this is an issue is by getting your inflammation levels tested. If your levels come back high, you’ll need to lower your inflammation levels and fix your “leaky” brain.
Here’s a helpful guide on how to get started.
2. Use Crystal Clear Singing Bowls
When it comes to achieving clarity, the goal is to block out distractions, settle the mind, and lower your mental processes and bodily systems to a point of equilibrium. You can do this through practices like meditation and/or using clear quartz crystal singing bowls.
These bowls are used to promote sound healing, which utilizes vibrations at different frequencies to assist the body in coming into its natural state of balance and harmony.
Singing bowls, which vary in sizes ranging from six to 12 inches in diameter, emit powerful, rich, and pure resonance. And depending on the tone and which energy center or chakra it corresponds with, the “playing” of these singing bowls can have a positive impact on everything from mental focus to circulation and digestion.
Clear quartz crystal singing bowls offer a magnificent sound with very little effort. The sound is very clear and chime-like with beautiful overtones. Multiple bowls can be played together, offering an unparalleled sound bath. They are much lighter than frosted bowls and good for individual work or using them in a small group.
Some singing bowls come with a handle, which offers more options for projecting healing vibrations. You can paint an entire space with sound, or move around a person with ease, directing the energy to specific areas of the body. Handle bowls are a great choice for practitioners and body workers.
3. Take Activated Vitamin B12
Did you know that nearly 40 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin B12? Interestingly enough, being deficient in this area can result in a host of cognitive issues, including mental fog, fatigue, memory issues, and depression. Taking activated vitamin B12 when you’re deficient can address these problems and lessen unwanted symptoms of cognitive decline.
4. Use Brain Training Games
Your brain is technically an organ and not a muscle, but it can be trained like one. Just like you should get physical exercise on a daily basis, regular brain training exercises are highly recommended.
To improve concentration and focus, spend a minimum of 15 minutes per day doing sudoku, crossword puzzles, chess, jigsaw puzzles, word searches, and/or memory games.
Putting it All Together
Mental clarity is important in every area of our lives. This includes your personal life, work life and career, relationships, spiritual journey, physical health, and emotional health. It’s the source of creativity, inspiration, and happiness. If you’re suffering from a lack of clarity, begin by scheduling an appointment with your primary care physician and implementing several of the tips highlighted above!