Are You A Victim of Brain Fog? Try This.

I told my daughter and son-in-law the other day that I felt really lucky I wasn’t a street person. The fact that my life is fairly well organized and successful is truly a miracle — and seemingly, at least at times, no thanks to me.

I had had one of those days where you can’t remember your left from right, appointment times, telephone numbers, where you’re supposed to be when. I don’t remember exactly what went wrong and got lost in the white-out of my brain fog, but I felt totally non compus mentus, non-functional . . . kind of absent from my body. All I felt like doing was sleeping.

Granted, I have been doing a lot of healing work lately due to what seems to have become a fairly chronic back problem, and I do know that can require a lot of energy — and a lot of sleep at times. But still. It’s very disconcerting and disorienting when one finds oneself feeling incompetent and disengaged.

So. I share this rather embarrasing report because one of my back therapists has given me a wonderful exercise for clearing the brain when one finds oneself in this muddled state. And I think I am probably not the only person to slip into this mindless la-la land from time to time.

This is not an original exercise. It was introduced by pranic healing master Koa Chok Sui in his book, SuperBrain Yoga. The goal is to do this for 3 to 5 minutes, every day, but even starting out with 1 minute will be effective.

• Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, toes pointing straight forward.
• Cross your right hand over to your left side and hold your left earlobe between your right thumb and finger (not sure which finger so I think your index would be fine).
• Ditto with your left hand holding your right earlobe.
• Squat down as far as is comfortable while inhaling.
• Stand back up while exhaling.
• Repeat for however long you can — 5 minutes is apparently optimal.

If you have bad knees and can’t squat, or are otherwise physically impaired, try the old Inner Tennis trick and visualize the squats while breathing as instructed.

Crossing your arms and hands to opposite sides of your body and then holding on to their opposite earlobes helps synchronize the left and right hemispheres of your brain, supposedly making you more alert and, possibly, even smarter. Also, your earlobes are huge acupressure zones, so something good is bound to happen when you squeeze them, plus all that squatting and breathing certainly can’t hurt in terms of oxygenating your body and brain.

I was just given this exercise today, so I admit I can’t vouch for it. But it sounds good, and there’s apparently plenty of back-up proving it.

And what did my kids say to me when I told them I was lucky not to be homeless? Being still in the throes of relocating to the States from the UK, finding work, getting settled, their response was simply: “Now you know how we feel every day!