Mental fatigue is a state of tiredness that sets in when your brain’s functioning drive gets depleted. We experience mental fatigue usually as the result of prolonged stress; it gets prolonged by a variety of factors, such as multitasking, pending work, challenging events in life, a demanding job, demanding spouse, kids, and also mainly because of procrastination.

If mental fatigue is ignored, your brain just won’t function right. It is also described as brain fog. If it is not tackled in time, it becomes difficult to concentrate on even simple daily tasks; while reading newspaper you might just glare it blankly, you finish a task but keep lingering on even after it’s finished, you may find yourself repeating a task again and again. Things which you would have finished off keep piling and you become more irksome, you get impatient with co-workers, you pick arguments with family members, friends etc. If not treated in time, mental fatigue can become acute or chronic. Acute fatigue is short-lived and is relieved after a brief period of rest. Most of us experience acute fatigue during an afternoon slump or at the end of a particularly hectic day. Acute fatigue is normal because after a good sleep in night, you feel fresh and recharged the next morning.

However, if left unaddressed, acute fatigue can snowball into chronic fatigue and ultimately lead to burnout. Identify the root causes of your mental fatigue and take proactive steps to manage it early on.

What causes mental fatigue? It is complex to explain. It is usually caused by multiple causes such as too much of physical work, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, hormonal imbalances, bad relations, too much of cognitive load and physical illness. The cognitive overload can take the form of intense focus on a single task over an extended period of time, for example, the case for those chess grandmasters that burn 6,000 calories in a day which often results in mental fatigue of the players. We all spend lot of efforts in spreading our attention across too many things; we take so many decisions throughout the day. We wake up every morning with decisions to make right from what to wear, what to eat, and of course the perennially difficult decision of heading to the gym, health regime. And once you clock into work, the decision flood gates open. By the time you are winding down for the night, you have made an average of 35,000 decisions….isn’t this unbelievable?

We grasp so much of information and process it, the emails we answer, the tasks we need to keep track of, the daily chores; our mobile phone keeps us so busy that taking care of all of this makes us mentally tired. Worrying about a task can be as mentally taxing as actually doing it. That means even while we are procrastinating, we are taxing our brain.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to manage both the physical and cognitive sides of mental fatigue.

Weather it is physical tiredness or mental fatigue, it can be tackled by taking good rest. But if it is mental tiredness that impacts both body and mind. So when you are stressed, pause. Because stress requires a longer pause to resolve the inner wound. And, even when things are fine learn to take a pause. We take our strength for granted, our inner strength is so important, it should never be overlooked. Factually, the stress response is supposed to be short-lived because it wears down our body, your health, and our energy. It also impacts our emotional intelligence and decision making. When we get tightly wound up, we tend to react to situations than to respond with reason.

I have constantly been a fast mover for as long as I can remember. My mind moves faster and my body automatically maintains speed with my mind. I don’t like to waste time, I get things done quickly, and finding proficiencies and shortcuts in work and life brings me great contentment. The thing which I am not good at is taking a break or even just a short pause between moments. That is really what this post is about; it is a reminder to self and any other fast movers out there about the significance of taking space between moments.

Resting increases productivity, it works miraculously. We feel fresh, we feel vital, our confidence increases, and therefore a good pause is most essential.  Listen to your mind, when it asks for a pause, take a pause. Sometimes you need to stop in order to get ahead. Pause to ask yourself what, how, when, whom, and why you are doing things; these questions can be tell exactly what you need in order to continue your progress. Other times, you may simply need a break to recharge and prevent exhaustion. If that occurs, you are going to spend a lot more time recovering than if you had taken a break in the first place.

So whenever you lag behind, press the pause button. If you are all times working on yesterday’s work, you will never be able to give time to today’s work, it’s time to take a pause and catch up. If you are experiencing monotony and feel your quality of work is reducing, pause. The importance of pausing applies to all areas of life. I used to associate stopping and quietness to laziness. I generally thought it was a big waste of time. But in fact, it’s a way to recharge and reset your energy, which can actually help you become more productive.

Clean eating is an idea that eating whole foods in their most natural state is good for our body because it offers certain benefits and to avoid processed foods such as refined sugar, refined oil etc.  There are variations in the clean eating diet which excludes gluten, grains, milk and dairy products. It advocates the consumption of raw food. The principals of clean eating are: eat for nourishment, eat regular balanced meals and healthy snacks that are nourishing and not too rushed. Eat at home more often and prepare food in healthy ways. Pack food to eat away from home when on the road, at work or at activities. When you do eat out, choose wisely. Eat more plant-based foods. Ramp up on plants by eating more plant-based proteins, such as beans, lentils and peas, and high-protein whole grains, like quinoa, barley and buckwheat.

But, regardless of being discussed nearly everywhere, and by many, clean eating has no specific definition. Normally, it means avoiding packaged and processed foods and eating food as close to its natural state as possible. This doesn’t mean that all food must be eaten raw. Characteristics of clean food generally include: home cooked, basic, whole ingredients, no preservatives, no food coloring, or other additives and minimal processing.

I have seen many of my young students, and many of my upmarket friends falling prey to the clean eating concept. In my opinion, it is an overriding concern for parents and the dieters themselves. The idea of weight loss and obsession of eating healthy is killing. Most of the clean eating people look weak and pale. They literally need to drag themselves; they are left with no energy. They can’t walk up the flight of stairs. The muscle mass reduces in legs, shoulder, head and hand. They are left with no energy. After few days of clean eating they are left with no enthusiasm.

Many are depressed: They complain of being tired all the time, they struggle to concentrate because the brain does not support on grasping. The brain requires a steady supply of glucose to function properly and the diet deprives it for some time. Their body is so desperate for nutrition — especially carbohydrates which binges for a high-calorie, sugary foods as a last-ditch attempt to keep the brain going. But, after having a good sugar rich food, they feel guilty because they have broken their ‘clean eating’ habit.

The problem is that clean eating is not plainly defined: it’s vague in nature. Primarily, it became famous for eating more whole, nutritious foods. But, as days passed, it’s just not about eating better; it is a privilege of consuming nicely packaged foods with influencer-approved ingredients many of which do not reap the claimed benefits. We can’t ignore that clean eating is for those who have access and can afford to shop at upscale grocery stores or fresh farmers markets.

It implies a weird lifestyle: Some proponents of clean eating have an air of superiority; I don’t know when eating style started defining your worth? Plus, the pressure to eat clean can cause anxiety or excessive fixation, too many restrictions around eating. Eating clean unfortunately becomes a competition of who can have the best-looking food or the cleanest list of ingredients. The fact is that most food has been processed in some way, because washing and cutting are technically a way of processing, and there are several processed foods that are used in preparations; nutritious like peanut butter, whole wheat pasta and canned beans.

Make meaningful associations with healthy food: A former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that training yourself to stop craving salty, sugary, and fatty foods can’t be a cognitive process alone. If your emotions do not accept depriving your body of salty, sugary food do not torture it, instead listen to your body. Emotions play a huge role in our eating habits. That’s where your imagination comes in. Many of us connect positive, nostalgic feelings with unhealthy foods.

Each one has unique food needs: Each person’s daily intake of food is different. Each diet is quite diverse, and therefore ‘’one size fits all’’ is wrong notion. It is simply not possible. Each person’s dietary intake is macronutrient balanced by his body. This being the fact, all of the main meals through the day have a balance of complex carbohydrates, protein and fats. It need not be overly controlled.

To conclude, all extremes and restrictive practices of clean eating only lead to disordered eating patterns. I call it just a damaging obsession.