Clearing Brain Fog: A Nervous System Reset

That moment when you've read the same paragraph three times and still can't remember what it said? Your brain isn't broken - it's likely in low power mode, signaling your nervous system needs attention. 

Brain fog manifests as that sluggish, forgetful mental state that makes even simple tasks feel overwhelming. While not a medical condition itself, this cognitive cloudiness signals underlying imbalances worth addressing. The fascinating connection between your vagus nerve, gut health, and brain function reveals why mental clarity fluctuates throughout your day.

The good news? Simple vagus nerve resets offer powerful solutions. 🥳

Ready to clear the mental fog? Try one small action from today's episode and experience how supporting your vagus nerve leads to clearer thinking and better cognitive performance. Grab my free Vagus Nerve Reset video from the show notes and start feeling better today - because wellness truly does start at vagus.

Chapters

• 0:14 Understanding Brain Fog
• 2:52 Science Behind Mental Cloudiness
• 5:41 Vagus Nerve Reset Solutions
• 7:43 Nutritional Approaches to Clarity
• 8:59 Sleep's Role in Mental Clarity
• 10:24 Episode Challenge and Closing

Transcript

Emily : 0:00

As I sat down in my favorite reading spot, I grabbed my book. I'm ready to dive in. I read a paragraph, then I read it again and then again. By this time I'm like why can't I remember what I just read? It was frustrating, but instead of forcing it, I recognized it as a signal that my brain was in low power mode and that I just needed a vagus nerve reset to clear the fog. If that sounds familiar to you, keep on listening, because today we're going to fix that.

Emily : 0:36

Welcome to It Starts at Vagus, the podcast where holistic health meets modern living. I'm Emily, your guide to unlocking the power of the vagus nerve, which is your body's ultimate key to calm, connection and overall well-being. Together, we'll explore simple ways to nourish your mind and body with natural remedies, actionable tips and empowering stories. Whether you're here to reduce stress, restore balance or take charge of your health, you're in the right place, because wellness doesn't just happen. It starts at Vagus Vegas. Let's dive in.

Emily : 1:11

Hey there. Today we are going to be diving into something that I know so many of us struggle with brain fog, that sluggish, forgetful. What did I come into this room for feeling? So if you've been feeling kind of like mentally offline lately. Don't worry, you're not alone and it's not just in your head. Well, I mean, it kind of is in your head, but we're going to fix that. By the end of this episode We'll be able to understand what's really happening in your brain when that brain fog sets in some hidden causes and some you might not expect and some practical nervous system friendly ways to clear that mental fogginess. So let's start with what is brain fog? So brain fog is kind of a cognitive sluggishness. It's not really a disease but more of a symptom of an underlying issue. Some common experiences would be forgetting simple things like where are my keys or my phone? Why did I open up this app? You could also feel struggling to concentrate, like me, where I read the same sentence or paragraph three times and I still can't recall what I just read. That's me often. And then feeling like your brain is just in that low power mode that you can't do all the things that you typically could do and you're just like why can't I do this? I've done this a thousand times.

Emily : 2:34

The brain fog isn't just about thinking slower. It's about how your nervous system, gut, neurotransmitters, transmitters, how they all communicate. So from a science perspective, it can be caused by a few things. One biggie is inflammation and our immune response. Things that influence all this would be our stress level. What a shocker. That affects so many things, and brain fog is definitely one of them.

Emily : 3:10

The foods we eat like, are they super processed food or are they more from nature? And then how is our sleep quality? Because poor sleep quality increases inflammation and it disrupts our neuron function. So then our brain just can't work as well because it doesn't have the proper sleep to function. Other influences that can affect our brain would be the blood sugar and energy crashes. So if we have a lot of sugar, those highs and lows, those spikes, those sugar spikes where it goes up really high and then crashes down if that's a consistent reaction, that really does affect our brain fog, because the brain needs stable glucose levels, our sugar levels, to think clearly, consistently. So if we're always going up and down, so does our brain function? Because it doesn't like it. It does increase that inflammatory response, and our brain is no exception.

Emily : 4:13

And then what does our brain communicate with? It connects with our gut. And then what does our brain communicate with? It? Connects with our gut. So your gut bacteria influences your mood, memory, focus and, like we've talked about in many other episodes beforehand, we know that the vagus nerve connects all of these things. It connects our brain function, our emotions. It connects with our digestion, our heart rate, our breathing patterns. It connects all of this so we can see how one thing affects another because there's that direct link. And when our gut bacteria gets a lot of different nutrients from different food sources and higher nutrient levels versus, you know, kind of like empty calories, that variety of nutrients supports our body to fill in any nutritional needs for production or bodily functions and then this supports our overall neurotransmitter imbalances.

Emily : 5:18

So because if we have low dopamine, we have less motivation and if our cortisol levels are high from that stress, then brain fog sets in because it can only do so much and it puts priorities on everything. So it will impact how well you can concentrate on the things around you. Okay, well, great, now we've got brain fog. We've realized we've let the bells go off, saying hey, we're not thinking as clear or maybe we're getting frustrated because of it. What do we do now? Well, my go-to is the vagus nerve resets. Anything that we can do to support the vagus nerve will help our overall well-being Because, again, it's the vagus nerve that connects so many of them together and the vagus nerve affects most body symptoms cardiovascular, the breathing, even some sites say even reproductive health, just because when we have a higher stress, again it puts priorities on what our body wants to support. So, again, the vagus nerve is a key to overall well-being.

Emily : 6:31

So that's what I like to focus on, because it's so easy, it's pain-free, it's fast, it ticks, like all the boxes that we always hope for. So that is why it's my go-to. Obviously, because it does impact our breathing. We can do box breathing. So inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds and then hold that again for four seconds, exhale for four seconds and then hold that again for four seconds. That is one that really works well because it gives us the patterns, the 4-4-4. It's easy to remember, it's visual. We can imagine a box. We can imagine holding, drawing the line with our eyes for four seconds. So it does include a lot of our senses and predictability. So I do like that box breathing. You can do some movement. Our body loves to move. So just shaking, singing while we dance, all of that can help oxygenate our body and where oxygen is, we are able to think clearer, and when an area is oxygenated, then diseases don't manifest as easy. So oxygen all around, great, great for you.

Emily : 7:45

Nutritionally, again, avoid more processed foods. Stick closer to nature. The less ingredients, the better. It's really basic and simple. But that doesn't mean it's easy, and so that's why we just take little things that we can do. So if you're going to swap out, let's say you're going to get rid of potato chips because you just don't like the ingredients in them, you can get one that comes to my mind is plantain chips, and they have just three ingredients. Or even if you want to make your own, I really like kale chips. Those are super duper easy. Grab some kale, throw it in a Ziploc bag, throw some oil and salt, shake it up and then bake it till it's crispy. That's delicious and I can eat a lot of that. And it doesn't matter because, again, it's just your greens, just baked. So that's a tasty snack that gives me nourishment.

Emily : 8:45

Last but not least, definitely important our sleep. Sleep is crucial, it's vital. It's necessary for everything to function Brain, gut. It cleans out our body while we sleep. It's kind of our janitorial work is. When we sleep we rejuvenate, we clean out the gunk from the day. That's when, like our dreams, start kind of processing what we had thought of earlier. Sleep really is important, and the less sleep we have, the less our body rejuvenates and the less it's ready for the next day. So sleep really is crucial. How do we sleep better at night?

Emily : 9:23

Well, with the vagus nerve we can gargle right after we're brushing our teeth. You're getting ready for the night, you're brushing and I like to gargle salt water, so just go ahead, take a swig, gargle it and spit it out. That gargling will help give the vagus nerve just a nice gentle massage and you'll be able to get calmer, faster and sleep better. So remember, brain fog isn't something you just have to live with. You can start supporting it and your nervous system and the vagus nerve and clarity will follow. So today's challenge will be will you be able to take one of these small actions from today's episode and apply it to your life so that you have clearer thinking? Because, remember, what we do now affects what's going to happen to us later. So remember to breathe, do one thing that makes you happy and enjoy your day.

Emily : 10:24

Thanks for listening to It Starts at Vagus. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you're ready to take the next step toward calm, grab my free Vagus Nerve Reset video in the show notes. It's quick and easy way to start feeling better today. And until next time, remember, wellness starts at Vagus.