Staying Sane While Raising Your Teens

5 Brain Warm-up Exercises for Mental Clarity

November 1, 2017 at 3:48 am Leave a comment

Mental clarity is essential to our health and success, and luckily it can be restored very easily, and very quickly. Here are 5 fantastic brain warm-up exercises that can be done in the morning to encourage mental clarity, leaving you with a mind as clear as a blue sky.

1. Find a Noun for Each Letter of the Alphabet
This simple exercise gets both sides of your brain to work together and it’s quite enjoyable too. Go through the alphabet and think of a noun (the more unusual the better) for each letter. Your left brain will help you to think of the word, and your right brain will imagine what the noun looks like (color, size, shape). This exercise gets the entire brain to focus and eliminates brain fog.

2. Classical Music

Studies have shown that music (especially classical music) can have a significant effect on our brain function, mental state and mood (it’s called The Mozart Effect). 
Calming pieces of classical music can slow down your heart rate, which decreases blood pressure and lowers the level of stress hormones in the body. A stress-free mind is a clear mind, and this can be even more effective if you play the instrument yourself.
Fun fact: surgeons have been known to perform surgery while listening to classical music!

3. Yoga
We know exercise is a healthy way to relieve stress, but yoga is even better because it combines exercise and meditation to de-clutter the mind. When a person is holding a yoga pose, their mind is focused on their breathing and staying still so much so that other thoughts are removed. Kickstart your day with some mind-clearing yoga poses such as ‘Warrior I Pose’ or ‘Tree Pose’, which really diverts your focus to breathing and balance.

4. Brain Dumping

Brain dumping is about transferring all of the thoughts in your head onto paper a bit like journaling. All that’s needed for this exercise is a notebook Start jotting down any tasks that you haven’t done (big or small) and anything else that seems to have gotten the best of you. 
By writing down tasks you’ll gain more clarity in terms of prioritization, making it much easier to focus on the important tasks and leave the trivial ones to be dealt with later on. Brain dumping relieves you of that panicky feeling where you stress so much about all of the things that you need to do, that you can’t do them.

5. Brain Games
Games such as sudokus, crosswords and math quizzes are a great way to clear brain-fog. Whether you prefer mathematical problems or word games, a brain puzzle in the morning will stimulate the mind and improve brain function. Puzzles also improve memory and reduce the likelihood of brain degeneration in your later years!

Finally…
Did you know that there are many other ways that mental clarity can be attained? These include making sure that you’re hydrated, eating a balanced diet for the vitamins and minerals that the brain needs to function, physical exercise to release serotonin (the feel-good hormone), and getting enough sleep so that our brains are rested.
Combining a healthy lifestyle with any of the above exercises in the morning will leave your brain clutter-free and ready to concentrate on the important tasks of the day.

I would love to hear what you do to achieve mental clarity?

When I coach my clients about finding their superwoman, I encourage them to discuss what’s really bugging them and determine what is most important in their life: work, family or relationships. I believe that you can have a wonderful relationship with your partner and your children as well as a successful career.

If you need help moving forward, Click Here to schedule a complimentary discovery session.

C. Lynn Williams

Award-winning Author & Founder of Finding Superwoman™
www.clynnwilliams.com

Entry filed under: brain games, classical music, Finding SuperWoman, mental clarity, mental exercises, Parenting, self-care, yoga.