How To Deep Clean Your Mind

Mental health is just as important as body health. When you feel stressed or stuck, a backlog of thoughts might be to blame. Think about how a messy desk makes you feel. You might be looking for a specific paper or piece of information, but can’t cut through all the clutter to find it. Your brain can look just like that. If anxious, troubling or unnecessary thoughts pile up they can slow you down.

Here are a few tips and tricks to make a little healthy space in your brain.

1. Practice mindfulness

You can practice mindfulness through meditation or just by focusing on staying present throughout your day. Start by:

• Using your senses to tune into experiences in your daily life.
• Focusing on your breathing to ground yourself when feeling overwhelmed.
• Keeping your mind open to help maintain concentration.

2. Write it down

Stressful thoughts can cause mental clutter, which might make it hard for you to get to the root of an issue. Try putting your thoughts down in writing so you can more easily explore them. Research shows that journaling can help decrease intrusive thoughts and, as a result, memory and other cognitive functions can continue more smoothly. Reading your thoughts back to you might help you recognize problems and patterns more easily.

3. Turn on some tunes

Listening to music has a lot of benefits. It’s been shown to improve mood, but it can also have big cognitive benefits as well. Music can help improve memory and concentration, motivate learning and promote your brain’s ability to adapt.

4. Hit the hay

Sleep is essential to your body and to your mind. Bad sleep can mess with your ability to solve problems or make decisions. It might also affect your memory and ability to control your emotions. Optimal daytime performance requires 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep each night.

5. Go for a walk

Clear your head by changing up your environment. A 2014 study suggests that a good walk can help improve creativity. Regular daily walks can also help clear your mind if the same negative thoughts keep circling around in your brain.

6. Tidy up

Your physical environment has a big impact on your mental one. If your desk and your brain are both massively cluttered, you might find it hard to concentrate. You might even find yourself procrastinating in order to distract yourself from your lack of focus. Tidy up your physical space to help refresh your thinking process.

7. Take a step back

Just like physical activity, mental concentration needs a break every once in a while. If you’re struggling to concentrate and writing, music or cleaning isn’t the answer, then take a break. Let yourself stop focusing for a bit so your brain can rest. You can do this by taking a walk or simply daydreaming, doodling or resting your eyes briefly.

8. Talk it out

Your brain doesn’t have a restart button, but talking can help work out some of the bugs. Discussing your problems or bad feelings out loud can help relieve tension they’ve generated. Friends and family are a great first line of defense, but a professional can offer a little extra support.

Telehealth services can be a stress-free way to get support for your mental and emotional well-being. Behavioral health specialists are here to support you wherever you feel most comfortable.