HOW TO NAVIGATE BRAIN FOG AND BE PRODUCTIVE  AT WORK Do you ever have times when your brain feels hazy and it’s a real struggle to think clearly? Or even remember what you are meant to be working on? You might experience brain fog due to high levels of stress, sleep loss, grieving or the hormonal changes that occur during menopause and pregnancy. While brain fog isn’t a medical term, anyone who has experienced it, knows it’s ‘a thing.’ And it can be a problem when your professional role requires you to be mentally sharp. So what can you do when your brain is sluggish and you have a job to hold down? Neuropsychologist Dr. Nicola Gates, author of A Brain for Life and The Feel Good Guide to Menopause, offers some suggestions . Do one thing at a time. This allows you to be present with what you are doing, and helps improve speed and accuracy. Whenever possible, finish the task you are working on, before moving on to the next. Minimize unwanted distractions. This means being strict

What is rumination? Has your head ever been filled with one single thought, or a string of thoughts, that just keep repeating… and repeating… and repeating themselves? The process of continuously thinking about the same thoughts, which tend to be sad or dark, is called rumination. A habit of rumination can be dangerous to your mental health, as it can prolong or intensify depression as well as impair your ability to think and process emotions. It may also cause you to feel isolated and can, in reality, push people away. What causes ruminating? People ruminate for a variety of reasons. According to the  American Psychological Association , some common reasons for rumination include: belief that by ruminating, you’ll gain insight into your life or a problem having a history of emotional or physical trauma facing ongoing stressors that can’t be controlled Ruminating is also common in people who possess certain personality characteristics, which include perfectionism, neuroticism, and an e

What to know about alcohol and brain damage Medically reviewed by Seunggu Han, M.D. — Written by Zawn Villines on July 3, 2019 Short-term effects Long-term effects Psychological effects Physiological effects How much can people drink safely? How to reduce alcohol intake Alcohol begins affecting a person’s brain as soon as it enters the bloodstream. In a healthy person, the liver quickly filters alcohol, helping the body get rid of the drug. However, when a person drinks to excess, the liver cannot filter the alcohol fast enough, and this triggers immediate changes in the brain. Over time, excessive alcohol consumption can damage both the brain and liver, causing lasting damage. Excessive alcohol consumption can have long-lasting effects on neurotransmitters in the brain, decreasing their effectiveness or even mimicking them. Alcohol also destroys brain cells and contracts brain tissue. Some people with a history of excessive alcohol use develop nutritional deficiencies tha

How does a human brain work?   Understanding the brain is key to living a good life, once you know how you and other people operate you are better equipped to deal with life. This is going to be a long read, grab your favourite beverage and sit comfortably :) Now let’s imagine our brain as a car. This car has 4 drivers. Only one driver can drive the car at a time while other drivers can influence the driving. At any point, any of the 4 drivers can pick up the steering wheel and start driving the car. Meet your 4 drivers: Survival.       Trust.  Motivation.  Imagination.  ## Survival.  Your survival driver is responsible for 3 key tasks: Fight  Flight  Freeze Survival driver is activated in life threatening situations (ex: car about to hit you) and in modern times, stress can activate it; then what we have is: Fight: Aggressiveness Flight: Anxiety Freeze: Helplessness What does this mean? When you see someone who gets angry easily or anxious or feeling down

We must let go of the life we have planned so as to accept the life that is waiting for us. But, letting go is the one thing we find so hard to do because we're so afraid of what we're losing while not being able to think about what might be coming our way… if only we'd let go…  We don't learn like that. Our mistakes from the past are just that—mistakes; not lessons learned. And because we're essentially creatures of habit, we tend to make the same mistakes over, and over again.  Do we ever learn? I guess not. But, as hard as it is to accept certain things as they are, the sooner we do it, the better able are we to deal with whatever curve ball life may throw at us, from time to time… which in itself, is a lot.  These are facts and they are sad, albeit true. We just have to take it with a pinch of salt, a sip of lemonade, or piece of chocolate, if you may. Swallow it like a pill and hope that it does its thing.  1. Some Promises Remain Unfulfilled  No ma