Why Do Our Brains Hurt So Much???

BECAUSE OUR BRAINS ARE TIRED!

So, this is a continuation of my previous posts titled, Normalized Burnout, Permission to Rest and Conscious Connection. The conscious connection in this context is our NERVOUS SYSTEM. We have already talked about the Nervous System and the Brain being a continuous Tag Team. It's important to understand more about the brain and how to take care of this overused organ. There may be some overlap between these posts, but I have always found repetition to be helpful and useful. I hope you do too!

without any further delay, let's learn a little more about our Brain.

HERE WE GO...

Let’s look at the brain from both a western perspective and an eastern perspective.

Both East and West fully see the brain as an energy intensive organ. Both East and West and probably every single human on the planet would agree that our lifestyles are causing a disproportionate usage amount of the brain's resources relative to its size.

The brain is NOT an infinite processing machine. 

It has limits just like all the other organs and body parts.

We have already identified that we live in a world that has taught us to mistrust silence and stillness.  We know that we have been taught that resting is often seen as being lazy, unproductive and maybe even useless.

We have talked about all of this but guess what happens…

Without ever consciously signing up for it, our nervous system gets wired to this

FAST pace as our default.  

Every thought, action, and reaction comes from this high-speed wiring,

which we learned, has been "NORMALIZED."

HERE’S THE DISCONNECT….

THE HUMAN BRAIN IS NOT WIRED FOR THIS LEVEL OF MULTI-TASKING. 

It was not designed for continuous DATA INPUT.

In fact, it was not built for multitasking AT ALL.

Every time you redirect focus from one task to another, the brain incurs a cognitive penalty.  It slows down the brain efficiency and drains cognitive energy.

WE ARE SO BRAINWASHED INTO BELIEVING THAT MORE IS BETTER. 

This applies to everything in our lives.

MORE Input leads to better output.

MORE reading leads to greater knowledge.

MORE clothing will uplevel our sophistication.

MORE….MORE….MORE!

From a neurological perspective, doing less, at the right moments, with the right intention, may be one of the most powerful ways to improve our resilience,

how we think, how we act and how we make decisions.

When the brain is under continuous data processing without a time out,

it begins to operate from a different place. 

Cognitive fatigue sets in.  Attention becomes fragmented.

The speed of thought becomes faster, but not necessarily better.

Chronic brain stress alters the brain’s physical structure and chemical makeup. 

It pumps the brain with cortisol, which shrinks the areas responsible for learning, memory and impulse control.  Simultaneously it expands the fear processing centers. 

So long term, this wiring impairs cognitive function while increasing anxiety. 

The long-term result is an increase in neurological decline.

We are talking about living an entire life in "FLIGHT OR FLIGHT."

This has absolutely nothing to do with lack of intelligence. 

It has everything to do with lack of cognitive recovery.  

This why simple decisions like tea or coffee become difficult. 

An exhausted brain literally can’t handle these day-to-day decisions that most of us make without much effort.  Just like our bodies need self-care, so does our brain.

What we don’t know about the brain…some of the brains most significant work happens when we are not actively focused on a task. 

Ready for this…let’s talk about DMN – Default Mode Network. 

What the heck is this? 

Both, Western Science and Eastern Wisdom discovered that the DMN becomes active during moments of rest, reflection, and internal attention.

Yoga would call this DYHANA, which means uninterrupted contemplation.

When DMN is engaged the brain begins to:

Integrate information

Make unexpected connections

Clearly process past experiences

Simulate future scenarios

In other words, tapping into inspiration, tapping into dreaming, tapping into a deeper understanding of ourselves.  This is the kind of thinking that can’t happen when the brain is under constant pressure.

HERE’S THE CATCH…

The DMN only activates when the brain is given space.

Without distractions

Without passive scrolling

Without a movie on in the background

Without continuous stimulation

We are talking about PURE MENTAL STILLNESS.

So here’s where it gets all sorts of sticky.

Modern life has taught us that a packed social schedule is not only normal, but COOL! 👍🏼

Doing, “Nothing” completely means you are “NOT COOL.”  👎🏼

FOMO RULES THE ROOST!

A jam-packed life equals fullness. 

We have filled just about every waking moment of potential, possible

stillness with stimulation.

Every little second is full. 

Waiting on line becomes an opportunity to scroll.

Short breaks during the day get filled with checking email and Facebook. 

Even when we are utterly exhausted, we continue with more stimulation.

WE DON'T REALIZE WHAT A SERIOUS TOLL THIS TAKES ON THE BRAIN.

WHY?

This significantly reduces the brain’s opportunity to integrate, process, and reset.

BUT…SILENCE AND STILLNESS FEEL SO SCARY!

WHY?

The answer is a bit complex.  It’s both neurological and psychological.

So, let’s break it down.

When external stimulation slows down or stops, the space for internal awareness increases.  This is Healthy, Normal and Necessary.

Thoughts that we have suppressed, maybe for decades, begin to surface.  

Unprocessed emotions can creep in. 

Decisions we have avoided start knocking on our door. 

Suddenly it can all feel like mental noise.

For so many, not only can this feel uncomfortable. 

IT CAN FEEL FRIGHTENING.

Things that we thought we resolved, show up again and this can make us doubt, that silence is helpful or that any self-work that we’ve done was worth it.  

We may even feel like we tried and failed.

The NATURAL instinct is to return to stimulation. 

Even if we no longer like it, we recognize it.  We have developed a relationship with it. 

So, we go back to our old habits of distraction, because it feels better than the mind rattling with discomfort. The nervous system is wired to this fast default, so it sees silence as dangerous. It's unrecognizable so it doesn't know what to do, this is why it goes back to the default of stimulation. IT understand that as "NORMAL."

Humans are MASTERFUL at avoidance. 

GENIUSES' when it comes to filling empty space. 

BRILLIANT with coming up with a thousand reasons why anything is better than silence.

BUT AVOIDANCE COMES WITH A HEFTY PRICE TAG.

WHY?

Here’s another magic message…..

The very space we are avoiding is the very space where clarity begins to form.

Where we RESIST, We must PERSIST.

But...most of us are TOO skeptical, TOO complacent, TOO tired, and TOO unwilling to be temporarily uncomfortable.

THE DISCOMFORT IS TEMPORARY. The brain will tell you, it's not worth the discomfort.

We all know the Brain can be a Brat!

REMEMBER THIS WORD, INTEGRATION? 

We talk about the concept of INTEGRATION all the time at LLWS. 

Well, let’s talk about integrating stillness with High Quality Thinking and Clarity of Mind.

Let’s take cognitive functions like complex problem solving, creative expression, and strategic thinking…These things require more than just a mental output of information.  They require integration.  Integration can’t happen without space.  It takes time for any kind of integration to happen.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  

The nervous system needs time to integrate all the impulses it receives.

We make a marinade and put it on our food.  Then we let it sit for a few hours, or even overnight.  Why? So, the flavors can integrate into our food.  Would we stop this process, by removing the food from the marinade, washing it off, and putting in back in again?  No, cause that would be silly.  We want to integrate the flavors as much as possible because it will result in delicious tasting food.

Our brains need the same type of marinating time.  We all need uninterrupted mental space to integrate.  This is why insights often appear at unexpected moments like during a walk, in the shower, while traveling, while sitting on the beach.

This isn’t a random coincidence.  This is the result of the brain finally having enough space to connect information that has been sitting in the bucket of unprocessed stuff.

We also need to wrap our heads around this concept of “Doing Nothing.”

There’s Doing Nothing with intention, which is active rest. 

Then, there’s the numbed-out version of Doing Nothing.

This is the passive, checked out nothing, which is simply nothing.

We are talking about the qualitative feeling of nothing, which comes from active rest.

ACTIVE REST, is actually something, as opposed to nothing. 

Stillness doesn’t mean we stop thinking. 

It allows deeper thinking and awareness to emerge.

WHAT IF WE PUT A SPIN ON THIS STILLNESS CONCEPT?

What if we seek stillness as a strategy to move forward, to help us evolve, and make significant changes in our lives. 

YES, this is super counterintuitive to our modern-day culture.

WHAT IF WE BUILT INTENTIONAL PAUSES INTO OUR DAY?

The key word here is INTENTIONAL, not distraction time, not escapism time…true INTENTIONAL pauses, not as a way to run from our life, but as a way to improve the quality of our life.

WHAT IF WE:

• Took walks, even short ones, without our devices. 

• Carved out 5 minutes periodically throughout the day,

  to just INTENTIONALLY PAUSE.

• Ate one meal or snack without engaging in conversation or stimulation.

• Allow space for reflection, as opposed to instant reaction.

These are not small things. 

These are big investments in restoring cognitive wellbeing.

When the brain has time to reset, clarity and attention sharpen. 

When clarity and attention sharpen, our output improves. 

When our output improves, our confidence increases, and we begin to develop a deep understanding of how much we UNDERVALUE cognitive rest.

Both East and West are on the same page here. We've looked at this from the Western Science angle, now let's look at this through the Eastern lens. Yoga, Ayurveda and Tantra all teach us about the pathway to clarity and integration with the self.

So much of what Western Science is talking about correlates to the Yamas and Niyamas from Patanjali's 8 Limbs of Yoga.

All the Yamas and Niyamas apply, but here's a few that stand out:

Brahmacharya - Consciously direct your energy.

Ahimsa - Practice non-violence of self and others.

Santosha - Practice contentment.

Saucha - Maintaining cleanliness of heart and mind.

Svadhyaya - Study yourself.

These ancient systems of knowledge have emphasized stillness and focus for centuries. The methods are always consistent:

• Integrate mindfulness in every single thing that we do.

• Practice breathwork and Pranayama

• Live Simply

• Moving the body in rhythmic ways to merge the body with mind and the heart,

• Create space for self-reflection

  
  

We have all felt moments when our mind is less stimulated. 

In those moments, we have all felt how the mind becomes more perceptive. 

Modern science is now simply describing what these ancient traditions already understood.

The brain and the body need the same thing, cycles of activity and rest. 

Humans were not designed to be machines. Since the industrial revolution, humans have been conditioned to function like machines.  The conditioning is to standardize, create predictability and efficiency.  This is exactly how we have identified our existence with energy output and performance. 

Machines run continually until they break. 

Humans are now doing the same thing.

We have biological rhythms that machines don’t have. 

We need sleep, food, meaningful engagement and time for stillness. 

Maybe the question is not what we are doing, but whether we are allowing enough space for what we are doing to actually settle and integrate.

Because without space:

Information does not integrate.

Decisions lose depth.

Creativity becomes constrained.

But with it:

The mind organizes itself.

Patterns become visible.

Clarity emerges naturally.

The Real Shift is not about doing less for the sake of doing less. 

It’s about understanding when less becomes more. 

Recognizing when we need to PAUSE so that we can PIVOT.

One of the most profound qualities of being a human is using our intelligence to create a conscious connection within ourselves.

Less stimulation. More clarity.

Less panic. More precision.

Less noise. More space.

Understanding the need for Cognitive Recovery may be one of the most advanced forms of intelligence HUMANS can cultivate.

Because the ability to pause, to observe, and to allow the mind to reset…

is not weakness it's WELLNESS.

~ Leelah Lakshmi ~