After two years of living through a pandemic, many people have experienced more stress than in recent years – not to mention everyday work-related stress, school, and family.
It is important to have some coping mechanisms to deal with the stress in life, so here are five ways to declutter your mind.
1. Mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness meditation is a way of remembering to return to the present when you are distracted by many things. This practice will help you reduce the stress of daily life.
When you are starting to think about something that brings stress to your life, you need to refocus on the now. You can start by noticing the sensations in the body – gently return your awareness to your breathing and come back to the present.
2. Bullet Journal: Writing down thoughts in a journal can help improve well-being. After jotting downs your thoughts, it is important to go back and re-evaluate how you are investing your time and energy to decide on whether or not those things represent something meaningful to you.
3. Reduce information overload: Nowadays we receive information from a lot of different media – from social media posts, emails, texts, etc. A lot of times that information can be very overwhelming, giving way to anxiety, anger, or other negative emotions.
We are not advising you to completely disconnect from the world, but selecting a couple of reliable sources to get your news from and checking them at a specific time each day will help. Plus, you can do something more with all that time you spend scrolling through your phone – like walking in nature, writing, or spending time with your loved ones. (Modafinil)
4. Declutter your physical space: According to Catherine Roster, a professor at the University of New Mexico, messy spaces tend to prevent clear cognitive thinking. So decluttering your space is beneficial to your mind. You can do it with somebody else, especially if both of you are decluttering your spaces.
5. Reconnect: The pandemic and lockdown led to social isolation, where emotional needs were not necessarily met. As humans, we need the support and levity of people who make us feel good, so don´t be shy and reconnect with people you used to hang out with before.
You may not be able to tackle it all in one day, but little by little, you will find your mind at ease by putting these tips into practice in your daily life.
Source: The New York Times (2022) This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain.
