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Large loads, a huge amount of information, excessive demands on ourselves – sooner or later our brain begins to “boil”. He needs rest: it is enough to take a walk in silence and clear his head, throw out his thoughts on paper, or just think about nothing. Mental detox exercises.
“I can no longer think about anything” – this expression would delight any teacher of Buddhism, who would surely say in response: “Then it’s time to indulge in the wonderful state of “thinking nothing”.
Unfortunately, in our everyday life, this phrase takes on a negative meaning and usually sounds in the following context: “My head is overloaded,” “Thoughts are confused in my head,” or “My brain is about to explode.” There is no other way to call it a complaint.
A modern person really has too many sources of information, so he constantly has to deal with contradictions, rumors, refutation and confirmation of previously received data. Every day we find ourselves under the crossfire of various information sources. A particularly fierce struggle is being waged between classical media resources and the Internet, hence the contradictions in the information received.
It is vitally important for us to learn how to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and free our brain from all that is superfluous.
The rhythm of life is constantly accelerating, and every day you have to solve many different issues and tasks. The crazy speeds of our world create a serious load on the brain. Our thoughts can also have a negative impact: we ask ourselves dozens of questions every day about ourselves and about the people around us – this leads to the accumulation of feelings of anxiety, to a sense of guilt or our own worthlessness.
Psychologists call this overload “mental intoxication caused by an excess of information and negative thoughts”, by analogy with physical intoxication, which can be caused by drug abuse, an excess of artificial food additives, pesticides …
In our turbulent time with its stresses and upheavals, it is vital for us to learn how to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and free our brain from all that is superfluous. First of all, in order to find inner balance.
Here are three exercises to get you started on a brain detox.
1. Get everything you think about on paper.
One of the available ways to gain clarity and get rid of what “clutters up” the head is writing. “Writing practices are like good habits that make up a healthy lifestyle,” says narrative psychotherapist Daria Kutuzova. – Like hygiene, proper nutrition and sports, they will not cure the disease by themselves, but will strengthen the body and help it cope with “viruses”. And those who are healthy will be allowed to stay healthy for a long time.” So, unload the head in writing. Or printed, whichever you prefer. Try different options (pen, pencil, keyboard) and see what works best for you.
An exercise
Below are several options for brain unloading, each of which will take no more than 5 minutes. Choose an option, set a timer and get started!
- Make a list of all the “shoulds” and “shoulds/shoulds” that are spinning around in your head.
- Write at the top of the page: “Now I’m most worried about …” and then write whatever comes to mind.
- Draw an associative map of everything that is currently on your mind.
Reread what you have written. What did you take away from this exercise?
2. Go for a walk… with your eyes
The conversations of Socrates and Plato on the streets of Athens, Kant’s promenades in the gardens of Koenigsberg, the forest walks of Vasily Rozanov, Nikolai Berdyaev and Pavel Florensky, the hiking trips of Jean-Jacques Rousseau… Thinkers of all times have experienced the beneficial effects of walking in the bosom of nature. There they found a source of inspiration. What is the secret here? The fact that leisurely walking is a great way to clear your head of parasitic thoughts. Moreover, we owe this effect not so much to the legs – although, no doubt, walking is good for physical health – but to the eyes.
While walking, our gaze is turned to trees, the sky, flowers, buildings… Monotonous eye movements allow us to synchronize the work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain and eliminate neural blocks that occur due to emotional shock, negative thoughts, obsessions… As a result, the functioning of the nervous system improves.
This discovery belongs to the American psychologist Francine Shapiro, the author of the psychotherapeutic method of desensitization and trauma processing using eye movement (EMDR therapy). She developed her method about 20 years ago, just after a walk. In fact, walking through the forest is like having an EMDR session in natural conditions.
An exercise
Take 20 minutes and go for a walk. Walk at a calm pace—neither too slow nor too fast. Concentrate on your breath for 2 minutes – breathe deeply and calmly, completely relaxing your diaphragm. Let nothing occupy your thoughts except inhalation and exhalation. This elementary physical exercise will allow you to get rid of internal tension. Then, continuing to walk, without turning your head, but only moving your eyes, look at the details of the landscape around you, as if you were seeing it all for the first time. After a while, you will feel how extraneous thoughts leave your mind.
3. Write down all the bad things… and push them out
Returning to negative thoughts fixes them not only in the mind, but also in the body. Unpleasant thoughts are caused by difficult situations, unresolved conflicts. Usually they are accompanied by unpleasant sensations in the body, but we prefer to forget about them. And if we do not get rid of these thoughts and accompanying sensations in time, then over time they can disrupt our mental and physical state. The exercise below will help you get rid of them.
An exercise
Write a list of everything that makes you feel bad. Think of unexpressed anger, unresolved conflicts, unflattering comments from a colleague, an unpleasant argument with a friend or a quarrel with a loved one … Write down point by point all the unpleasant events of the last three months – large and small – that seem to be stuck in your mind and body.
When you have completed the list, go back to each item and describe as accurately as you can how you felt in each of the listed unpleasant situations. Now close your eyes and focus on your breath. Breathe calmly. Imagine the described situations one by one, trying to recreate the emotions experienced in each case. Name them: “Then I felt (a) …”. Now take a deep breath and as you exhale forcefully push each of these emotions out successively, helping yourself with your hands.