By Denise Everheart | Updated on : August 08, 2020
Do you ever find yourself in a mental fog just when you need your mind to be crystal clear? Seemingly from nowhere, a cloud appears and you are unable to reach for your next thought. What causes one to have a ‘brain freeze’ moment that has nothing to do with ice cream?! And the bigger question- is my mind really all that clear, to begin with? Let’s navigate mental clarity through the lens of meditation, in particular how SKY Breath Meditation can be an effective tool for mental clarity.
What causes the mind to lose mental clarity?
A lack of mental clarity, more commonly referred to as brain fog, can be caused by many factors- here are just a few:
Sleep debt- Anyone who isn’t getting enough sleep on a regular basis knows their mental clarity can suffer greatly, as well as be a contributing factor in most health problems.
Depression- Again this is very obvious to anyone with depression or to those who witness the struggle, that mental clarity is nearly impossible when suffering from depression.
Inactivity- You don’t have to be a ‘couch potato’ to suffer from the effects of inactivity. With more and more jobs being tied to computers, many of us are sitting too much and not having access to fresh air that naturally feeds greater clarity.
Chronic stress- Whether the body is feeling stressed or it’s the mind that is suffering, stress is possibly the biggest risk factor to both physical and mental health. If stress pushes us over the edge we can experience intense anger and literally be blinded by our emotions unable to think clearly.
Poor diet- The adage, ‘You are what you eat’, conjures up two images- either that of fresh, colorful, and healthy foods or heavy, greasy, brown, and white foods. Which one is likely to bring more mental clarity, I will leave it for you to decide.
SKY Breath Meditation, an evidence-based technique, with over 100+ independent studies, has helped thousands of people experience better rest and enhanced deep sleep, significantly decreased depression and anxiety, increase in well-being both physically and mentally, reduced stress hormones, and an added awareness of how food affects the body-mind complex. Here are 5 ways meditation can bring more clarity of mind.
#1 Meditation gives a sense of calm
How do you breathe when you are upset? The breath is faster, and more shallow, yes? And when you are calm, how is the breath? Slower, and more relaxed, right? There is a direct connection between how we breathe and how we feel. If we are calm, we are more clear in our thinking. Did you know that when in meditation, our body's oxygen requirement goes down by 10 to 20 percent? A lower oxygen requirement is an indication of a deeper sense of calm, which in turn gives our body some much-needed rest. A calm mind can, therefore, think more clearly than a restless mind because it is not scattered all over the place.
#2 Meditation increases your energy
When you experience deep rest in meditation, there is an increase in your energy. Although not a replacement for sleep, the rest from meditation can be twice as deep as sleep, truly rejuvenating. Think back to the last time you woke up and sprung out of bed with full enthusiasm. Imagine feeling that way on a regular basis with a daily meditation practice. When we are fully rested, our energy will naturally increase and along with it more clarity.
#3 Meditation makes you more focused
Have you observed yourself at the times you felt you were very focused on your work or whatever you were doing? At those times, you were also experiencing a wealth of energy. In part that is because your energy is not caught up in mental chatter. Our mind is like a computer's RAM (the part of a computer that does all the thinking, analyzing, and interpreting). So, when there are too many programs (thoughts) running in the background on a computer, the more important programs can slow down. This is a near-perfect analogy for a scattered mind, and meditation helps you shut down these unwanted programs. In fact, mindfulness and greater focus are the natural outcomes of meditation. Meditation clears your mind of wasteful, noisy thoughts. That undoubtedly makes us more clear in our minds, and we can work and take decisions with that clarity.
#4 Meditation improves observation, perception, and expression
You undoubtedly know that your eyes are your window to the world outside. Can you see clearly when you have a speck of dust in your eye? Similarly, is it possible to perceive things clearly when you have stress in your nervous system? This dust or stress, when it stays in your system, prevents us from seeing clearly. Meditation has proven to bring relief to stress in many ways. Removing stress through meditation allows for more clear observation, perception, and expression. This will also greatly improve your communication skills.
#5 Meditation regularity retains clarity
While we understood how meditation clears the garbage from our minds and helps us grasp, think, and express clearly, it is also necessary to understand how to retain this clarity over the long term. When we meditate regularly, we ensure longer-lasting results. You know you brush your teeth, you wash your body, you clean your clothes, and tidy the house...but, what do you do to remove the impurities in your own mind on a regular basis. You can think of regular meditation as ‘mental flossing’, a means to remove mind plaque.
But how to have a realistic approach as we are all ‘too busy’ for our own good. I personally find morning a good time to meditate because there is less chaos and it is an ideal time for deeper meditations, and it overall improves the productivity of my day. Secondly, I realized that the meditation technique we practice should be easy to do, not take too much time and give results from day one. SKY Breath Meditation does all three of these.
SKY Breath Meditation uses specific, rhythmic patterns of breath to bring the mind and body into a relaxed, yet energized state. If you can breathe, you can do SKY Breath Meditation and experience more clarity of mind. For a limited time, SKY is being offered online for your convenience. If you would like to know more about what you will learn in SKY Breath Meditation, you can join, a free online session with a live instructor.
To learn more, read The Scientific Benefits of Meditation: Head to Heart, Body to Mind
Denise Everheart is a freelance writer, life-long meditator, SKY Breath Meditation instructor, party planner, veg chef, and recipe designer. Follow her @everheartstudio4meditation and @celeplateyourlife on Instagram.
