Three Ways to Give Your Brain a Break This Holiday Season
By: Michael Netzley
Tags: Neuroscience, Stress, Brain, Wellness, Holidays

Three Ways to Give Your Brain a Break This Holiday Season

It’s been one heck of a year. COVID, stressful restrictions, economic slow down, insane elections, and personal challenges have all placed a somewhat unique stress on your brain this year.

Why not use this holiday season to give your brain a break and spend more time experiencing the holiday joy? Here are three tips for doing just that.

Tip #1: How to let go of that ruminating thought and move on to holiday happiness.

Why fill-up your limited short-term memory ruminating about a disagreement at work, anxiety about what happens next month, or lost hopes of what could have been for 2020? Your short term memory can only hold three or four items at a time, and these nagging persistent thoughts eat up a crucial resource that you need each day.

Let’s learn to let go. New research from the University of Colorado reveals that you have three choices.

Replace that thought: Literally focus make an intentional effort to replace the thought about a workplace disagreement with the thought about the joy of playing a game with your nephew or niece (for example).

that thought: Literally focus make an intentional effort to replace the thought about a workplace disagreement with the thought about the joy of playing a game with your nephew or niece (for example). Clear that thought: This is meditation. Try a meditation app for 15 minutes and learn the skill of clearing your mind. Exercise can help, too.

that thought: This is meditation. Try a meditation app for 15 minutes and learn the skill of clearing your mind. Exercise can help, too. Suppress that thought: Again, focus and make yourself stop thinking about the topic.

Researchers found that Replace and Clear tactics yielded faster results, thought a bit of that rumination remained active in the brain. Suppress, “took longer to prompt forgetting but was more complete in making room for a new thought.”

“The bottom line is: If you want to get something out of your mind quickly use ‘clear’ or ‘replace,’” said Banich. “But if you want to get something out of your mind so you can put in new information, ‘suppress’ works best.”

Tip #2: How to defog your brain when you can’t think clearly.

As the holiday approaches and you rush to get everything finished, maybe it feels like you cannot focus, remember details, or think clearly. The dots aren’t being connected; it’s like looking at the world through stained glass. Yes you see things, but….

Here is what you can do — focus on reducing stress. According to Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, Chief Director at the Center for Brain Health, University of Texas at Dallas:

“We all do things that wear out the brain, and then we wonder why we’re not as clearheaded as we used to be,” she says. “When our bodies are fatigued, we recognize that we need to rest. But when our brains are tired, we tend to slog through.” Yet the more you ignore brain fog, the more it builds up — and the more likely it is that you’ll keep having unproductive days and many “it’s on the tip of my tongue” moments.

So what to do? Here are a few ideas.

Immediate term: let go, walk away, do something else, and then come back to the topic or challenge you are working on. A short break can do wonders (don’t ruminate).

let go, walk away, do something else, and then come back to the topic or challenge you are working on. A short break can do wonders (don’t ruminate). Overnight: eat a healthy meal (I love sushi on such nights) and get more sleep. Maybe take a walk before bed and then a warm shower just to help you hit reset. No digital devices in bed. None. Stress + the lack of sleep are primary causes of brain fog. Avoid sleeping medications that leave you drowsy the next morning — a pharmacological form of brain fog.

eat a healthy meal (I love sushi on such nights) and get more sleep. Maybe take a walk before bed and then a warm shower just to help you hit reset. No digital devices in bed. None. Stress + the lack of sleep are primary causes of brain fog. Avoid sleeping medications that leave you drowsy the next morning — a pharmacological form of brain fog. Long term: adopt brain-positive lifestyle changes. This will take a bit longer but the good news is that you can learn to manage stress more effectively, build better sleeping habits, and eat healthy. Books like BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits will give you the insight necessary for quickly building new habits. Or, look for Prof. Fogg’s great TED talk on this subject.

Tip #3: Destress by practicing gratefulness

I have learned this tip directly from the good folks at the Center for Brain Health and their ground-breaking Brain Health Project. (Note: Extend My Runway will be introducing the Brain Health Project to Singaporeans in Q1, 2021). Explicitly focus on what you are grateful for and then express your gratitude out loud.

Privately: make a list of ten things you are grateful for, read the list out loud, and then verbally express your gratitude in a way that leaves you feeling grateful. Look for that emotional response.

make a list of ten things you are grateful for, read the list out loud, and then verbally express your gratitude in a way that leaves you feeling grateful. Look for that emotional response. Shared: Practice gratitude with others. For example, at the dinner table I will ask each of my children what they are grateful for today. We go around the table, offer a genuine answer, and share the experience.

Christmas Weekend is an Ideal Window for Giving Your Brain a Break

Christmas Eve is on a Thursday evening and that then takes us into a long holiday weekend. This is the perfect window of opportunity to make small investments that give your brain a huge return.

COVID, Work From Home, and the economic slow down have already given us enough pressure. The best gift you could give your brain right now is a bit of peace and joy this holiday season.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and joyous times with your loved ones.