Hey! Did you know that your brain gets full from time-to-time? Sure it does! With all the information overload that takes place, it’s a wonder your brain has any space for new information at all! It fills up! Well more precisely, it FEELS full! You Believe that you have not one more neuron or synapse to spare!
Your brain fills up naturally as you simply go through our day. Television, texts, emails, radio, movies, concerts, classes, homework, work projects and the list goes on and on! Add to all of this any special training conferences associated with work and you have the formula for Full Brain Syndrome – well I don’t think that is a syndrome but maybe it should be!
I just returned from one of the best conferences in which I have ever participated! I’ve never been part of a conference as jam-packed from start to finish as this one! The Learning and the Brain Conference ranks as one of the top two I’ve ever attended. My brain is FULL! I do not believe I have enough room in there for one more bit of information! If I were at pinball machine, my eyes would flash “TILT!”
Information overload; over stimulation; sensory numbing! What’s a person to do when your brain fills up? Here are a few suggestions:
- Chill – Just stop, take a deep breath or two and allow you mind to shift into neutral. Let it just idle a bit. You will likely begin to feel a tad more calm. That can open the door for the next strategy.
- Allow the information flooding your brain to settle and separate. What I mean is that as you calm your brain, the weighty information – the information worth holding on to – will settle into your brain and the fluffy stuff will dissipate and float away.
- Drain your brain. Finding ways to process and perhaps categorize the potentially overwhelming amount of information surging through your brain is, I believe, a key to making sense of what is there. Talking, writing, making lists are all ways to drain the brain. Find a person who can help you “debrief” and the brain numbness can begin to abate.
- Exercise can be a great way to address brain overload. Whether you jog, walk, lift weights, do yoga or shoot hoops, exercise can serve as a vehicle to help make sense of what is flowing through your brain.
- Meditation, breathing exercises and capturing information through the practice of mindfulness can help you stay in the moment and thereby make sense of what is there.
- Expressive arts of various types can also help you drain your brain. You don’t have to be a great artist to employ this strategy. Simply “doodling” with pen/pencil and paper can do the trick. Coloring, painting, working with clay can all serve as pathways to effective brain draining.
These are just a few ideas that I use to help me drain my brain when it is full. What do you do when YOUR brain is full? I would love to hear from you!
Peace!
Mark E. Hundley
