gain mental clarity to reduce stress

9 Ways to de-clutter your Mind for Mental Clarity and Focus

Too much information to manage combined with too many distractions makes us irritable and unproductive. If you identify your mental clutter then you can start to sort through it and get rid of what’s holding you back. It is possible to de-clutter your mind and gain mental clarity, though, with these 9 easy ways.

If you currently have an endless number of things to do that you can’t seem to get a handle on, this checklist is for you.

Get More Sleep

You can never over-emphasis how getting enough sleep every night can be a quick and easy solution to managing stress. When you become stressed, your body releases the hormone cortisol into your bloodstream. When you have elevated levels of cortisol for extended periods, it can significantly affect your health.

When you can get the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep a night, you can lower the cortisol levels in your blood. However, as an entrepreneur, it can be challenging to get the rest necessary to keep stress at bay, which only makes your stress levels rise.

Having a few relaxation techniques in your mental toolkit can help you get more sleep. You must read How to sleep better at night naturally to enhance your mental clarity.

If you find that you are having trouble getting the recommended amount of sleep, try spending time every night practicing mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation involves taking time to be aware of your thoughts and physical body and accepting rather than judging those feelings and thoughts.

A study conducted in 2015, found that people who practice mindfulness meditation regularly found an improvement in their sleep, as well as decreased depressive symptoms, and fatigue after just six weeks, compared to those who don’t practice.

The best part about mindfulness meditation is that it can be practiced at any time during the day to help you to clear your mind and gain mental clarity.

Get More Exercise

If you want your body to function correctly, including being able to manage stress effectively, exercise is the key. Participating in regular physical activity is a great way to bust stress because it forces your brain to focus on something else temporarily.

At the same time, when you exercise your body releases endorphins, the hormones associated with feeling good, into your blood which instantly elevates your mood and displaces your stress.

Recommended read – Regular exercise pumps your heart longer

As an entrepreneur with a full plate, you probably think that you don’t have the time to spend hours at the gym every day. The good news is that even just getting out of the office and taking a quick 20-minute walk can help to alleviate stress.

Virtually any form of exercise from yoga to aerobics can help to reduce stress from your life. Even if you’re not an athlete or if you are out of shape, you can still make a little bit of physical activity go a long way in helping you manage stress (1).

If you haven’t exercised in a while, make sure that you consult with your doctor before you begin a new exercise routine to ensure that you don’t do more damage than good.

Don’t think of exercise as just one more item on your to-do list, find an activity that you enjoy, whether it’s playing an active tennis match or a quiet and reflective yoga session, just make sure that you make it a part of your routine.

Any form of regular exercise can help you wind down and become an essential part of your de-clutter process and gaining mental clarity.

Talk to a Friend

When stress creeps into your life because you have too much on your plate, you tend to forget other aspects of your life or brush them off because you don’t believe that you have the time. What you may not know is that your social life plays an incredibly important part of your overall well-being.

When you find that you are overly stressed, it can do wonders to reach out to one of your closest friends and share with them what has you so stressed. While this undoubtedly depends entirely on the issue itself, opening up to a friend can do wonders.

Suggested read – Try this stress reducing diet

While it might be easy to share with them that you are currently overworked, if your stress comes from personal issues, you may need to find a different avenue for letting it go, because bottling up the stress will only be to your detriment.

If you don’t feel as though your friends can help with the issue, consider contacting a therapist for help. Therapists typically work on confidential terms, which means that whatever you talk to them about will not be disclosed to anyone.

Whether you talk to a friend, a family member, or a therapist, the important thing is to open up. Stress clogs the mind, and it will stop you from seeing things clearly and keeping you from being able to reason them out.

When you talk to someone, you release this pressure, and your mind paces towards mental clarity.

Slow Things Down

Much of the stress that you are experiencing is a result of having a hectic and overloaded life. While this has become the norm in today’s 24/7 society, you need to take care of yourself by trying to avoid doing too much.

When you have a long to-do list of tasks that you need to accomplish every day, you can soon find yourself feeling overwhelmed, which leads to an increase in your levels of stress. Planning for your work is a fundamental part of slowing things down.

A typical mistake that many people make is saying ‘yes’ to everything that is put before them.

This can quickly cause your days to get out of control. One way you can prevent this from happening is by learning how to say ‘no’ to requests. If you find you have trouble turning requests down, you’ll need to think of other ways to help you lighten your load.

Must read – Break these 8 unhealthy habits to be happy

If your to-do list seems never-ending, you need to take some time to prioritize those tasks that are the most important for your business. Everything else that might be necessary for keeping your business running, but that doesn’t contribute to the overall growth of your company can be delegated or outsourced to a professional.

Delegating and outsourcing tasks can help to free up more of your time, so you can not only focus on the critical aspects of your business so you have free time to do those things you enjoy, which can significantly reduce your stress.

Minimalist Mental Health – Slowing down is everything to creating mental peace. “Brain breaks” are supported by deep breathing, meditation, and mindfulness. With a calmer mind and body, negative thoughts are stripped of their power one sentence at a time: Be more with less.

Take Supplements

Over the years, the nutrient and mineral count in the foods you eat has reduced drastically, which means you should be taking a supplement to ensure you are getting the essential vitamins and minerals in your body to keep you healthy and to help you enhance mental clarity and also manage your stress (2).

Many supplements are available today that can help you combat the stress in your life. Here are the three major ones that you should take every day as a part of a well-balanced diet.

Vitamin B Complex – this supplement fights stress by helping to balance your mood, improving your immune system, producing more energy, and keeping your brain healthy.

L-Theanine – is an amino acid that helps with relaxation. It can help you calm your body and mind without making your sleepy. It is excellent to take if you have a stressful morning or afternoon when you still need to finish some work.

Magnesium – an essential mineral for many processes in your body, magnesium helps in the transmission of nerve impulses. Tense muscles are a reflexive response to stress when you have the right amount of magnesium levels in your body; your muscles will be relaxed and can help to prevent stress.

Be smart in multitasking

Multitask the smart way by pairing an active task with a passive task. An active task can be sending an email or talking on the phone. A passive task can be loading the dishwasher or running a load of laundry.

Use a timer or ask for accountability from someone you trust if you are having trouble with procrastination and getting things done.

Planner or To-do list

A daily planner is a must for accurate time management. Schedules help us stay on track and get things done. Write down everything in your planner including personal time such as workouts, massages, date nights, etc.

Write down all of your to-dos. It is very difficult to rely on your memory to keep track of a To-Do list. Therefore, dump those thoughts onto paper and prioritize to help you keep moving forward.

I personally use the A, B, C method: A tasks need to be done this week, B tasks need to be done this month and C tasks can get done whenever I have extra time.

De-clutter your home

Straightening up and putting things away is simply cleaning. Creating a permanent place for things and following a system that helps you put something back where it belongs every time you use it is organizing.

Take a moment to take a look at a room, and think about how I want it to look. you should take the time to enjoy that look.

Must read – Burn the calories while doing your housework

Not only elders, but if you teach your kids where things go, and start teaching them the habit of putting them there, you’ll go a long way to keeping your house uncluttered.

Put things back as soon as you are done using them. Use the 60-second rule…if you can return an item to its home in 60 seconds or less it is worth doing now!

Limit the screen-time

Limit the amount of time you spend watching TV or engaging in social media. Set a limit and stick with it! Consider using some of time you cut out for getting things done.

Taking an active role in managing how and when you interact with your devices starts with understanding what minimalism is all about.

Digital minimalism is a philosophy that helps you question what digital communication tools (and behaviors surrounding these tools) add the most value to your life.

Must read – Reason why Smartphones could harm your ability

Cut out time spent on unproductive or anxiety-inducing digital mediums, and make time for interactions with technology that bring meaning and value to your life.

FINAL WORDS

These NINE steps above have really helped clear some of my mental clutter and helped me to gain more mental clarity, and as a result, my mind is racing a little less.

Though, I’m not using this system perfectly yet. In general, I feel calmer, less distracted, and less irritable since I’ve started clearing the mental clutter.