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Overthinking, ruminating, or letting your thoughts repeat, is a very common function in your brain. But what if it affects other aspects of your life?

Say you made a mistake at your job and that caused a delay in your project. It is a good practice to think about what went wrong so you can learn from your mistake. But when you run that single thought repeatedly, it can form unwanted connections in your brain, and the result can be very distressing.

This type of rumination is commonly called overthinking. While we are all guilty of it to some extent, extensive overthinking is bad for your brain health. Here are five ways to interrupt repetitive thoughts when they.

Why is Overthinking Harmful?

• Overthinking has serious consequences for mental health and your overall well-being.
• Dwelling too much on past mistakes and shortcomings can lead to chronic anxiety and depression. This causes you to over-focus on the same thought, feeding a vicious cycle.
• Studies have shown that in order to cope with overthinking-related anxiety, people may rely on addictive substances like alcohol and binge-eating. This leads to long-term and serious health problems.
• Overthinking seriously affects your sleep cycle. When you overthink, your brain cannot shut down as the thoughts keep running through its circuits. Extensive periods of sleep deprivation can lead to several health problems, as well as affect your memory, learning, and cognitive abilities.

How to Stop Overthinking?

1. Catch Yourself

• This is the hardest part because, most of the time, you may not even realize that you are overthinking.
• Practice questioning your negative thoughts.
• A characteristic of overthinking is vague or generalized thoughts. Thinks like “I know I’m going to fail the test” or “What if I cannot wake up on time”.
• Recognize this tone in your thoughts and stop yourself.
• Meditation and mindfulness techniques are a great way to improve this ability.

2. Let It Out

• The more you keep these thoughts inside you, the more they will affect you.
• Find a way to let them out.
• Write them down or verbalize them by talking to someone close and trusted.
• When you write or speak your thoughts, you’re giving them a clear articulation, and become better positioned to face them.
• Most often, when you write or talk, you’ll realize the counterpoints to the negative thoughts on your own.

3. Set Time Aside

• Put an alarm on your rumination time.
• Set aside 10-15 minutes (not too long) each day to reflect on everything.
• Once that time is past and the alarm rings, forcefully take your mind elsewhere.
• This will stop the negative thought circuits from taking root in your brain, and over time, these will fade and stop affecting your wellbeing.

4. Get Busy

• One of the surest ways to stop overthinking is to divert your mind with another task.
• When you catch yourself overthinking, immediately and purposefully take up some work that is unrelated to your thoughts.
• You can work on a different project, practice art, or indulge in any hobby you like.
• Exercise is also a great way to clear up an overwrought brain, as it has several other benefits too.

5. Seek Help

• Overthinking is associated with loneliness, and a feeling of being misunderstood.
• When you catch yourself overthinking often, speak about it to someone you can trust, or seek the help of a professional counselor.

Conclusion

Your brain is a complicated mechanism, and overthinking is a natural product of this. There is nothing wrong with overthinking a little, but continual fixation on any one thought is unhealthy. Take a deep breath and follow the steps above to help disrupt repetitive thoughts and stop overthinking.

‍To learn more about intrusive thoughts and how to stop them, watch this episode:

When people ask if Kwik Learning works, what they’re really asking is if brain training works. The short answer is yes. Your brain is a muscle, and the more you exercise you give it, the stronger it will be. But how do you exercise your brain? That’s where brain training comes in.

Your brain has the ability to change itself through a process known as neuroplasticity. Our training program is based in the scientific principles that work with this natural capability to improve the quality of your brain functions, which then expand to improve your whole life. Specifically, we focus on improving the mental skills needed for a healthy overall life—things like memory, attention, skills, and thinking.

Here are some of the scientific facts that our programs are based on.

1. Training Nourishes Your Brain

We mentioned that your brain is a muscle, and like muscles, it needs food, exercise, oxygen, and rest to be healthy and strong. Our programs focus not just on mental abilities, but on how to improve your overall lifestyle. Having a good memory is an impressive and vital skill, but if you’re constantly stressed or tired, you won’t be able to maximize the use of that skill.

Our training is comprehensive to strengthen your brain properly. Studies say that training which focuses only on certain aspects like memory or intelligence have limited benefits, while working on all of the aspects together shows better results.

2. Enhancement of Your Mental Performance Starts with Enhancement of Your Senses

Our sensory organs send information to the brain from the moment they start working until they are no longer functioning, constructing our experiences and memories. How our brain records everything determines the quality of our memories and experiences. Also, the more effective your brain is with the small details, the better it works.

Our programs focus on sharpening your senses in order to sharpen your mind. With time, you will notice that your brain processes, records, and recalls information faster and easier, which will boost your overall brain function.

3. Brain Problems

Your brain can always do better; that is a fact. But over time, our brains degrade and tend to do less. If your senses work perfectly, then the problem is from your brain itself.

These problems include:

• Slow Processing

As we’ve stated, as long as your senses are functioning properly, the speed of information sent from them to the brain does not change. Over time, the brain slows down its speed. When the processes become slower, the brain begins to miss details and react slowly.

• Lack of Accuracy

When your brain misses some details, its accuracy becomes blurred. It is like a puzzle, and missing some pieces affects the whole picture. That is why your brain’s overall accuracy decreases when it starts missing details.

• Brain Clarity

When we are younger, our brains are able to collect all the pieces of the puzzle easily. But when we get older, our senses degrade and our brains slow down, which decreases our mental clarity, replacing it with mental fog. That is why we face problems like lack of concentration as we age.

The question now is, what does our training do for your brain?

Our training is designed to eliminate these brain problems. It uplifts your spirits, increases your brain processing speed, sharpens your senses, improves your brain connections, and enhances your learning capabilities.

The training works on your whole brain at once. This is the key for improving the overall quality of your life, not just a single aspect.

For more on how to train your brain and the benefits it brings, check out this video:

Digital technology guides modern life to a great extent. Screens are everywhere, notifications pop up nonstop, and social media announces the important events—both personal and on a global scale.

There’s no denying that technology is convenient – indeed that is the whole point of it. It is far easier to keep in touch, to plan things, and multitask. But this reliance on technology is also changing the way your brain and body functions.

This negative aspect of technology is the reason digital detox has become such a buzzword in recent times. But what is it? And how can you use it to your advantage?

What is Digital Detox?

Digital detox typically means some form of abstinence from technology and technological devices. In the same way you might follow a certain diet to minimize the harm done to your body by bad food habits, digital detox does the same for your brain. The truth is, technology is likely an inevitable part of your life. Even if you can’t completely discard it, you can work to minimize the harmful effects it has on you. Digital detox is incorporating a planned tech-abstinence into your routine.

How to do a Digital Detox

Digital detox isn’t easy. Technology has an addictive effect on most people who use it. It’s also common to rely on it for a lot of very important things. The combination of those two elements can create anxiety. So the temptation to fall back into old habits during a detox period can be strong. Here are a few ways you can plan your detox while managing these temptations.

1. Take a tech-free vacation

One of the best ways to do a digital detox is complete abstinence for a period or time. But that might create problems for your usual routine. That’s why vacations are a great way to incorporate tech-abstinence.  Choose a location that has little or no connectivity. This forces you to go without—even when you are tempted.

Be sure to get everyone’s buy-in before you head to your destination. It can be difficult to watch your spouse scroll away while you’re not. Plan activities that can help everyone on vacation stay in the present moment without relying on technology and have options to fill in everyone’s downtime. When it comes to things like taking photos, buy disposable cameras so you can still capture the special moments.

With a little foresight and planning, it’s possible to enjoy a technology-free vacation that leaves you feeling more connected, rejuvenated, and refreshed when you get back.

2. Set time aside during the weekend

If going on a vacation isn’t in your immediate future, you can plan a specific window of time every weekend to be technology-free. You’ll want to unplug or turn off any and all technological devices during that window. You can do this at any point in time, not just on the weekends, but it might be difficult to disconnect during the work week.

Depending on your reliance to devices, you’ll want to start small. Maybe just an hour to start, with the goal to build your time away every weekend. You’ll want to communicate your plans to close friends and loved ones, and have a plan for emergencies—both your own and someone else’s. While time away from devices is ideal, you don’t want to sacrifice your personal or business relationships.

3. Don’t take the screens to bed

One of the worst things you can do is bring your phone, laptop, or tablet to bed. To start, electronic devices emit a bright light that mimics the blue spectrum in sunlight. This light is strongest in the morning and stimulates the cortisol in your brain to help dissipate the melatonin that helps you sleep. By bringing these devices into your nighttime routine, you’re triggering the continued elevation of cortisol, which delays melatonin releases, and hampers your sleep.

On the other side of sleep, checking your devices first thing in the morning actually triggers your brain for constant distraction and can even elevate your levels of stress. Seeing an email or message while you’re still sleepy can spike your emotional response, which keeps you in a reactive state throughout the rest of the day.

Ideally, you want to keep these devices away from the bed and, if possible, out of the bedroom entirely. If you use your phone as an alarm, invest in an old-fashioned alarm clock. This eliminates the temptation to check your notifications as soon as you wake up.

4. Don’t look at devices while eating

Apart from being bad manners, looking at a phone while eating or keeping it on the table while you eat is bad for your body and brain. But this rule doesn’t only apply to dinner. How many times do you eat breakfast on the go, scrolling while you eat? Or work through your lunch?

Studies show that not concentrating on your food while eating affects your digestion. You’re likely to eat faster and choose foods that are easier to eat while working. Use meal times as an opportunity to connect with family and friends and give your brain a chance to reset from the demands of working.

5. Go outside

Sunlight is one of the things devices typically deprive you of. Technology makes your life comfortable, but often that means you don’t go outside often enough or get enough exercise. While enjoying some time away from technology, you want make sure to soak in those healthy rays.

You can make these excursion fun and limit your temptation to grab your device by going to areas without reception. Go on a hike, take a walk, spend time at the beach, or plan a picnic in the park. You can add the brain-boosting power by learning a new hobby or engaging in a creative activity while enjoying the outdoors.

6. Don’t use devices on your breaks

Everyone does this to some extent. You take out your phone during your ten-minute break to check your message and end up scrolling through social media until it’s suddenly time to get back to work. The problem is those feeds are still showing you information through images, videos, texts, and captions. Your overworked brain is continuing to work and process that information instead of being able to recover so you can get back to work.

It takes time to shift your brain back to work mode when you’re done. You end up needing a break from your break, and since that isn’t possible, you overwork your brain leaving you fatigued and exhausted at the end of the day. If you don’t have specific break times and end up reaching for your phone or social media multiple times throughout your day as a break, you’re training your distraction muscles instead of your ability to focus.

Instead, make sure you relax during your work breaks, no matter how long they are. Drink some water. Take a brief but brisk walk around the office or building. Look outside a window to alleviate eye strain. Or even take a power nap.

Conclusion

Digital Detox is not an easy habit to initiate depending on your dependence on technology. But it is extremely rewarding in the long term and also manageable if you do it in a planned manner. Whether you plan to start big or go slow, the above tips should help!

For more on how to prepare for a digital detox, watch this video:

Your body changes with age, and that includes your brain. With today’s modern medicine, human life expectancy has significantly increased. But that makes quality of life in later years more important than ever. One of the biggest factors in longevity is minimizing brain-related problems, like memory loss, as you age.

Degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia are increasingly common features of aging. They can make your life difficult as cognitive functionality and memory slowly slips out of your control.

How great would it be if there were some way to protect your brain so you can add not just years to your life, but life to your years? 

Total prevention of memory degeneration is still not possible. But you can protect your brain longer and to a much greater extent through simple but effective lifestyle changes.

1. Exercise regularly

Daily exercise has time and again been linked to a healthier brain. Studies continue to provide evidence that exercise prevents memory loss in old age. Cardio-vascular exercises like walking, jogging, cycling, etc. are considered the most beneficial for your brain.

The link between maintaining a healthy memory and exercise is not crystal-clear, but researchers believe its may be due to an increased level of blood circulation. Exercise increases blood flow throughout your body, including your brain, which then increases the amount of nutrients and oxygen feeding your neural pathways. This leads to healthy neurogenesis, a process necessary in both preserving old brain cells and generating new ones.

Studies show walking daily for at least thirty minutes multiple times a week can help prevent overall brain decline with age.

2. Follow a brain-focused diet

Eating a healthy diet is always good for your overall health, but it can have a particularly profound effect on brain health. Trans-fatty food, sugar, processed food, etc. contribute to faster degeneration of brain cells. On the other hand, a diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, lean meat and fish, whole grains, etc. can boost your brain health.

Some experts recommend the Mediterranean diet as particularly beneficial for preventing brain degradation. Include more leafy greens, lentils, and fruits in your diet and switch to olive oil for daily fat consumption. For your protein needs, eat more fish and cut back on red meat.

3. Keep your brain busy

In the same way physical activity keeps your body fit, mental activity exercises your brain. Regularly engaging in mental agility exercises and active learning have been correlated with better memory in old age. Keep challenging your brain to do new things and push yourself by raising the difficultly in completing increasingly harder tasks.

Crosswords puzzles, Sudoku, brain teasers, etc. are all good ways of keeping your brain flexible in a playful way. Learning new skills and reading on diverse topics are also great ways of keeping your brain busy and agile.

4. Form social bonds

Loneliness and stress are at the root of many modern day problems, including memory deterioration. Isolation and chronic stress can lead to increased risk of depression, one of the biggest causes of onset dementia. Forming and maintaining social bonds can help prevent that.

Social interactions, bonding with loved ones, even just chatting with friends can help your mood significantly by releasing important mood hormones like serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. It also creates a social safety net so you feel less isolated, and provides more opportunities for engaging your mind in new ways. All of this is great for your brain health.

5. Take care of chronic problems

High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol are all chronic problems that many suffer from. If left unchecked, over time they can lead to memory-degenerative diseases.

Pay attention to your health by knowing the symptoms of these health problems. Visit your doctor for regular check-ups, and follow their guidance and advice, including maintaining daily medications or health practices. Small changes in diet and exercise can help improve your sleep, which is beneficial towards overall better health.

When you actively manage or prevent chronic health problems, you can significantly delay or reduce the chances of age-related diseases, including memory loss.

6. Get enough sleep

Sleep is extremely important for your memory. A large part of memory consolidation takes place during the deep sleep stage. Losing even one hour of sleep, including restless sleep, can lead to lower attention during the day and cause memory loss in old age. Over time, the negative effects of sleep deprivation can accrue to make your brain slower, heavier, and more prone to degeneration.

When it comes to sleep, the key is quality, not quantity. You can improve your sleep by changing some simple steps in your nighttime routine. Stick to a regular sleep schedule. Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before bed. Stop drinking caffeine early enough in the day to avoid the stimulating effects as you go to bed. A few small changes can go a long way towards improving how you sleep.

Conclusion

There’s no way to stop the aging process. But you can help prevent the onset of memory problems and age-related diseases through healthy lifestyle changes. It’s never too late to start taking care of your body and your brain. Remember, little by little, a little becomes a lot, so why not start today?

‍For more information on ways you can protect your brain, watch this video:

There’s no denying laughter is the best medicine, and it’s not just a popular saying. There is ample scientific evidence to back this claim up. Engaging in genuine laughter regularly is good for your body and your brain. In fact, the more you laugh, the better your overall health is going to be. Laughter improves immunity and the cardiovascular system, but its effects on the brain are truly amazing. Let’s look at all the amazing ways laughter improves your life and your brain.

Anatomy of laughter

Laughing is one of the most natural expressions humans are capable of. But what goes on behind the smile while you’re laughing is far more complex. Laughter uses a sizable chunk of the brain by connecting and working out several areas at once. Let’s break down the journey of a laugh in your brain as revealed by humor researcher Peter Derk:

• Analysis of words or situations happens in the left side of the cerebral cortex.
• The frontal lobe and the limbic system beneath the cortex—the area that processes nuanced emotions—gets activated.
• The right side of the cortex works out the distinct trigger of laughter, or in lay terms, ‘gets’ the joke.
• Brainwaves travel to sensory processing areas in the occipital lobe.
• Motor functions activate to produce the physical ‘act’ of laughing.

Benefits of Laughter

Laughter benefits your brain on both social and individual levels. Whether you’re laughing with others or laughing alone, the benefits of laughter are consistent. Here are some things that laughter does to your brain:

• Lowers stress and pain: Laughter can work wonders for stress relief. Studies have shown that muscles stay relaxed for up to 45 minutes after a good, hearty laugh. Laughing stabilizes the flow of stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine. Studies have linked laughter to the production of endorphins, which are considered the natural pain killer of the body.
• Helps with learning and motivation: Laughter has an important role to play in the reward circuitry of your brain. Laughter produces dopamine, known as the ‘reward hormone’, and regulates mood, motivation, learning, and attention. The influx of dopamine activates the reward circuit in the brain, making you feel good, as well as motivated to move forward. When in a stressful or dead-end situation, try taking a few minutes off to share a laugh with co-workers, or maybe watch a stand-up routine. You’ll find renewed motivation and focus when you go back to work.
• Prevents short-term memory loss: Stress is bad for your short-term memory, especially as you get older. The tendency to forget things that should be available in your working memory—like where you put your keys or the name of a particular object—increases when you are under a lot of stress. Laughter can be an immense help for that. A study at Loma Linda University in Southern California tested forty older adults for memory and stress levels in controlled conditions. Before giving the participants tests, they divided them into two groups. One half watched a funny video for twenty minutes and the other half simply sat calmly in another room. The people who watched the funny video and laughed performed better in short-term memory tests. Their stress levels were also significantly lower.

Conclusion

Laughter is good for you in every way. It’s uncomplicated, it’s instinctive, and it has the power to bring people together almost instantly. Make time to laugh and spread laughter a little more. Your brain needs it—and so do you.

For more on the neuroscience of happiness, watch this video with Dr. Daniel Amen:

Music is the medicine of both mind and soul—and neuroscience agrees. Studies show music can reduce anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure, and even help ease pain.

Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

Music also improves sleep, mood, and memory, and enhances many brain functions, such as learning and concentration. Music stimulates not only certain brain areas; it stimulates your entire brain. It’s a total brain workout.

Let’s look at some of the latest findings on how music affects your brain.

Music, Stress & Depression

All studies done on music say that it lowers the stress hormone, cortisol.

One study on patients who were about to undergo surgery found that those who listened to music were less anxious and had lower cortisol levels than the ones who didn’t.

Music releases dopamine, which makes us feel happy. Consistent and higher levels of dopamine improve concentration, lift your mood, and enhance memory and learning capabilities.

Studies also show that listening to music constantly decreases depression and fills people with hope. One study even shows that music can aid in healing brain traumas.

Listening to music with other people releases oxytocin, a hormone that’s responsible for increasing trust and strengthening the social bonds between people.

Music therapy is often a treatment recommended for people with severe depressive symptoms.

Music, Cognition, and Learning Capabilities

Music can make you smarter. 

Studies show that listening to music enhances reading and literacy skills, makes you more reasonable, and increases mathematical abilities. That’s why experts recommended learning to play a musical instrument, especially at a young age.

It’s important to note that the type of music should match the type of task. For example, pop songs are not compatible when building reading comprehension. Choose the best type of music for each mission. Of course, the best music is the one you’ll listen to. Experiment with different genres of music as you work on various tasks and find which style fits you best.

Music & Memory

Studies show that music is great for enhancing long-term memory. One study on the effect of hearing familiar music found that certain brain areas, especially autobiographical and episodic memory and emotion areas, become activated when hearing familiar music or an old song.

Another study focused on mainly older people with weaker memories as test subjects. They concluded that listening to the specific tunes that they used to hear when they were younger improved their memory. It also made them remember certain events linked to the music.

A different study conducted on Alzheimer’s patients showed that music calmed their brain activity. This enabled patients to regain connection with their families and friends.

Conclusion

Listening to music is like exercising your brain. It can help keep your brain engaged throughout your aging process. There are few things that stimulate the whole brain like music does. It is a great way to provide your brain with a total brain workout. As the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “Without music, life would be a mistake.” So, blast some music and make your life and memory even better.

 For more on how music can help you learn, watch this video: