If you feel like you are sort of in a daze due to chronic stress, lack of vision about how to proceed, and feeling a bit tossed about by life, this 2 week brain reset protocol could really help you recenter, refocus, and get you back on your feet and balanced to be able to take life on with renewed vision and purpose. I encourage you to follow the protocol as exactly as possible unless you have a need to change or adjust certain parts to more perfectly fit your needs. If your symptoms are extreme, I strongly encourage you to enlist the support of a mental health professional and their recommendations along with following this resetting protocol. Click here for advice on finding therapist.
Daily Schedule
- Wake up at the same time every day, ideally decently early.
- Get at least 5 minutes of sunlight or 15 minutes of bright artificial light within first 60 minutes after waking to help set your internal clocks, cortisol, dopamine, and hormone levels.
- During these five minutes stand or move in a way that feels powerful and breathe fully and deeply to boost testosterone and reduce cortisol.
- Drink several glasses of water. May add some lemon juice if desired.
- Delay caffeine 90-120 minutes after waking.
- Eat breakfast or not.
- Take Fish oil or krill oil with at least 1-2 grams of EPA Omegas each day.
- Take a good multivitamin ideally food based, but if that is too expensive use a reputable, high quality brand such as Pure, Thorne, etc. Make sure between the fish oil and multivitamin you are getting at least 2000-5,000 i.u. a day of Vitamin D. Otherwise supplement it.
- If stressed, consider Ashwagandha supplementation to lower cortisol/stress levels. (600mg divided between a morning and evening dose of 300mg each is reported by examine.com as a research recommended dose for adults for reducing stress levels. Various individuals may need more, less, or none.)
- Between 10am and bedtime make sure you get at least one 5 minute walk to reset your brain. A five minute walk may be a good transition routine between work, home, etc. More than one walk is great, but make sure to get at least one.
- Eat at least 2 vegetable and 2 protein options daily and try to generally substitute sugar and simple carbs with fruit, vegetable and protein options overall.
- Drink water throughout the day.
- Turn off screens at least 60-120 minutes before bed.
- Go to bed as soon as you feel sleepy.
- If falling or staying asleep is trouble consider the following supplements recommended by Dr Andrew Huberman according to his review of the research: 145mg Magnesium Threonate or 200mg Magnesium Bisglycinate, 50mg Apigenin, 100-400mg Theanine, (3-4 nights per week he also takes 2g of Glycine and 100mg GABA.) Here is a link to the Huberman Lab Sleep Toolkit for more details. Note that various individuals may need less or none of these supplements.