Brain exhaustion: Addressing the problem
Is your brain’s “low-fuel” light blinking?
And if so, how do you know?
As an urban professional, being focused and in sync with your senses are major tenets of feeling happy. An over-worked brain runs low on energy, and is constantly either irritated or distracted. Puffy eyes, disturbed sleep cycles, and being under too much pressure will undoubtedly exhaust your brain.
Brain exhaustion results in a butterfly effect on your health — both physical and mental. With increased stress levels, mood swings, high blood pressure, and fatigue, brain exhaustion seems to suck out every inch of cheer from your everyday life.
What causes brain exhaustion?
As a professional who is busy to go into the specifics, I hope to give you a brief introduction on what brain exhaustion is and how you can avoid it.
To understand this process, you need to know the different biological and chemical processes that affect your brain’s energy levels. Then, tune in to your brain’s energy levels throughout the day, and adjust your work-levels accordingly. An exhausted mind is a leading cause of an unhealthy mind and body.
The stress hormone, cortisol, leads to various physical problems like fatigue, high blood pressure, and irritability. Only a physically sound body will be able to tackle the over-exhaustion of the mind. It is most necessary to create awareness for mental health at a time of a global pandemic, when most of the spaces of releasing our stress hormones — gyms, shopping malls, the movies, and so on are closed. Hence, levels of happiness, too, have been extremely worrisome.
Trying to manage too many compartments of life, expecting to succeed excellently in all of them, leads to over-work and lack of motivation! Mental exhaustion and fatigue occur due to a decrease in serotonin levels. Decreased levels of happiness chemicals, like dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphin, too, create room for poor mental health.
Overwork and stress turn life into a mindless race for achievements. Honestly, there can be no end to this ladder. On your quest to a happy and meaningful life, you have to find balance, rest, and mindfulness. Learn to read your body’s signs of mental stress, low energy levels, and how to manage them. Addressing your mental state is the best place to start.
How to hack the Happiness Chemicals?
Let’s look into the not-so-twisted science behind the “happiness chemicals” and how they could make you really feel the simple joys of life.
Dopamine (The Reward Chemical) is released with those mini-waves of celebrations inside your brain. Self-care activities, achievements, or completion of tasks boosts the flow of dopamine. People diagnosed with clinical depression often have an increased level of monoamine-oxidase, which breaks down dopamine, causing a very low sense of motivation, and thus, an aura of negativity.
Oxytocin is a happy hormone that is boosted by positive social bonds and acts of affection. Simple joys like playing with a dog, holding a loved one’s hands, compliments, or hugging family boosts your oxytocin.
Endorphins, in a way, diminish the perception of physical pain. Exercise, regular physical activity, laughter therapies, and even dark chocolates have a positive effect on your brain!
Serotonin, the “happy neurotransmitter”, stabilizes your mood. With a long walk, exposure to sunlight, a joyful swim, or meditation, the release of serotonin brings you to light! A decrease in serotonin levels causes mental-health issues related to mood swings, and is a major cause of attempted suicides.
Keeping in mind the science behind feeling happiness, I have illustrated how you can find this happiness in my book, Happiness Habits: The Urban Professional’s Guide To Good Living.
How do you combat brain exhaustion?
What leads you to happiness, really? Quite often, the notion of happiness overwhelms you, and the actual feeling of happiness disappears. Of course, you must look for happiness. But what you’re looking for must always enhance your wellbeing, rather than disrupt it.
If you end up exhausted — fatigued and anxious, what you were looking for just keeps moving further and further away! Let me begin with a secret: NOBODY EVER WINS THE RAT-RACE!
1. The Right Effort Never Exhausts You
While you try and organize career, health, family, and personal spaces, remember that there is a thing called ‘working TOO hard!’ Gautama Buddha talked of the ‘right effort’ in the path of Enlightenment; bringing this to context, you must learn to accept mistakes, look on the brighter side, and find balance.
2. Life is not a bed of roses: master the skills to manage stress
People with happier and balanced lifestyles are skilled in:
• Disciplined minds
• The capability of not worrying about everything around them
• Retaining a sense of joy even in unpleasant situations
• Devising and following a set of Happiness Habits
Be very careful of your mind and body, in every way possible, and learning the skills to manage stress, sadness, and overwork is absolutely necessary. If you haven’t already, seek out the signs of being on the wrong path to joy, and strive towards a positive approach to your quest for happiness.
3. Find balance, not Perfection!
The truth is that in life, you must negotiate, chose, and perhaps regret “the road not taken” and so on. Take this process as a healthy exercise.
Mindlessly running towards an impractical goal won’t help. Always be in touch with yourself! Remember that ‘multi-tasking’ is often a wrongly projected talent, which is over-emphasized, and thus becomes a reason for mental fatigue for most of us.
Finally, Seek Happiness Within You!
The fountain of happiness is within your soul! No material gain-driven quest for happiness could actually lead you to it.
Happiness is a state of balance — and the key to finding it is to reach inside your own mind. The world around you is bound to engulf you. Remember to not let the water inside you. The quest for happiness is not one that is material, external or physical in nature.
You cannot control life. Suffering and grief is a part of it. The only true and constant happiness you’re going to find is not at the end of any external race, but within yourself. Within yourself, build strength, balance, benevolence, and calmness.
As an urban professional, following vague theories to find happiness, and aiming in the wind might not only frustrate you but only have the opposite effect. What you need are easy, actionable steps that help you realize the happiness within yourself.
I cover such simple and effective tips you can follow in my new book, Happiness Habits: The Urban Professional’s Guide To Good Living.