Clarity of mind is indispensable. The world we live in is over-stimulated and drenched with information-saturation. We struggle lacking clarity of mind. Wading through your thoughts is akin to attempting to escape from quicksand. You can blame things on the constant bombardment of media in all forms. And, one of the most prominent symptoms is mental paralysis. An aimless mind makes unclear and sometimes confusing decisions. It inevitably dampens clarity of mind.
Clarity of mind, when forced out of whacked daily, stifles your ability to learn and retain information. You struggle to find what is happiness. Also, it causes a shrinking attention span. You can blame technology clutter for these growing inabilities. Competition from numerous devices all competes for your attention. It derails your ability to maintain clarity of mind. So, your neural pathways have rewired themselves to handle it, which has made clarity of mind more complicated than it has ever been before.
How to restore clarity of mind? Luckily, there are habits you can practice to help you regain clarity of mind. When you become aware of your issues, you can improve your brain right itself.
How to Regain Clarity of Mind
1. Your Physical Environment
The space around you can impact your thoughts. If you sit in a room, filled with clutter, how do you expect to think clearly? You lack clarity of mind. Your first step is to de-clutter your physical environment, at home, at work, and even in your car. Your workspace should be a sanctuary, if you have a study or office space at home, then it should be the same to enforce clarity of mind.
Anything you don’t plan to use while working should be out of sight. That means to isolate your cell phone in a drawer or turn it off completely. Clear the desk of items you don’t need and allow your brain to clatter down and center your mind solely on the task at hand. It will bring back clarity of mind when practiced in earnest.
2. Routine
Routine is good, and one of the reasons for this is that it creates a comfort zone for your thoughts and mind. It allows your brain to do its best work and is a prime way to regain clarity of mind. So, create a routine for you that you follow each day to restore clarity of mind. Experiment with different routines to find the one that leaves you feeling more focused and productive, and then stick to it.
3. Balance
Clarity of mind is more natural to obtain when you can find the right balance of work and rest. For example, a technique called the Pomodoro effect is a popular method that helps achieve this. You work for 20 minutes, entirely focused, and when the time is up, you take a five-minute break. Other techniques have longer work and rest periods.
However, the basic concept is that you allow yourself to focus entirely on work before rewarding your mind a break. When you process a lot of information, your brain burns out. It can only focus for so long, and it can only retain so much information. Allow yourself regular breaks to raise your clarity of mind.
4. No More Multi-Tasking to Regain Clarity of Mind
Your brain can concentrate on one function at a time. If you try to multi-task, all you will create is breaking focus and causing clarity of mind to go out the window. There is no badge of honor that comes with multi-tasking. What it means is that you jump from one task to another. In most instances, it makes it impossible to achieve anything significant. If you get bored working on one job, you can try task rotation. Choose your three most important tasks for the day.
Give yourself 30 minutes to focus entirely on one job before a short break. When you return from break, you can focus on the second task before another quick break. Then, the third, and so on. It might be an excellent way to help you regain your clarity of mind and prevent boredom from setting in. This particular method won’t work for everyone. Others will need to focus on one task until it is complete. It all depends on the undertaking in question.
5. Lifestyle
Be more attentive to your diet and sleep patterns. If you eat high-sugar, high-fat, processed food, then it’s going to influence your thinking process. This type of diet will also impact negatively on your sleep. We already know our sleep pattern has been linked to trouble retaining information, making decisions, and poor thinking. It will not benefit clarity of mind not to pay attention to diet and sleep.
The experts at Harvard suggest the average adult needs at best seven to eight and a half hours of sleep each night. Start with that. As you improve your sleep you will find it’s much easier to make better and informed choices. It suggests an improved for clarity of mind at work for you.
Achieve Peace With a Quiet Mind
Live for the moment. It’s what we’d like to do. If only we could live in the moment and be present. When you hear other people make these suggestions or claim it’s how they live their lives, you roll your eyes. It’s vague. It’s not for you
Meditation, it sounds good, but who has the time? You take a look around at all the people who swear by it. Then, you finally give in, and you sit with a guided meditation track or peaceful music.
A Harvard University study showed that almost 50% of our days seem earmarked for our wandering minds. You spend half of your day being wholly distracted by thoughts. These thoughts have nothing to do with what you’re doing at any given moment.
Of course, there’s a more important takeaway from that study. A wandering mind isn’t making you happy. Quieting your mind sounds good, though. How can you do that when you find meditation impossible? Or you don’t like it?
The fact of the matter is that practicing meditation allows you to train your mind, and you can teach your mind to be quiet. When you master this skill, you can call on it when you need to. However, you can quiet your mind in other ways. It is discipline and personal responsibility will help you through.
Some tasks automatically bring us to a place of calm. For you, that might be weeding the garden. For others, it could be sunbathing. Be aware that your mind isn’t the consequence of unhappiness, but more often, the cause of it.
Please note: there is a difference between a wandering mind and daydreaming. The latter is healthy and helpful for your brain and is similar to a quiet mind which helps lead to clarity of mind.
For those of you who struggle with meditation, try this exercise instead. You can do it whenever you need to and it will help you quiet your mind and achieve peace. The outcome is having clarity of mind.
- Write out a list of things that you enjoy doing. Choose at least three, but no more than five. It could be hiking, spending time with family and friends, cooking, reading, or gardening.
- When you are next enjoying one of those activities, take note of your senses. What are you hearing, smelling, and tasting? What do you see and feel?
- As soon as you find your mind wandering, whether it’s the past, future, or elsewhere, catch it and refocus your mind back to the present. Use your senses as an anchor.
- If you find it challenging to stay in the moment, then try to express gratitude for the activity that you are doing as you do it. It can be an effective way to remain present and quiet your mind. The more often you practice this exercise, the easier it will become, just like meditation you will gain clarity of mind.
Once you are adept at practicing mindfulness during your favorite activities you can extend the process into other activities and events in your life. With this, you can quiet your mind, achieve peace, and experience satisfaction and enjoyment at any given moment. It might not be easy, but it is certainly possible. Especially when direct and make the time and space to indulge in the activities that we know to bring us peace, quiet, and joy along with clarity of mind. It will motivate you to continue your progress in learning to quiet the mind.
What activity brings you this feeling?
Believe Yourself and Thrive!