Is your head feeling cloudy? You can uncloud your thinking with these 7 simple steps.

Do you feel as though you are at a loss of creativity? Do you have a hard time to get away from negativity? Do worries crowd your mind to the point where you can’t seem to think straight?

If you answered yes to just one of those questions, it’s time to recharge your brain. Here are 7 ways to have clearer thoughts:

Breathe

When you find yourself thinking of things you can’t control, stop, and take a deep breath. Taking deep breaths provides the cells of your body with oxygen and can naturally relax you. Your mind is focused on your breathing at that moment. Afterward, you will find it easier to think of ways to use your imagination because you will feel calmer.

Focus

If you are trying to work and you find yourself constantly distracted by random thoughts, close your eyes and focus on the darkness you see behind your eyelids for a few seconds. By changing your focus onto something that only you can see, your mind will pull you away from the meandering thoughts. Looking at the inner part of your eyelids with your eyes closed requires deep concentration because it’s not something we tend to do on a daily basis. Sometimes we need to do something different in order to think in a clearer fashion.

Walk

Take a short walk if you have trouble organizing your thoughts. Walking helps to energize all the muscles of the body. It is a natural movement and when we walk, we are forced to do things in a coherent manner; we have no choice but to follow a path on a sidewalk, or on a trail. While walking, order is your main focus because you are doing something that is repetitive yet natural to you. Your feet move at the same rhythm, your hands swing at your sides. It is like a choreographed dance, but one you have been doing for so long, you don’t realize how well you can do it.

Read

Maybe you can’t think straight because you need to put your phone away and read a good book. Reading opens the imagination. In the case of fiction, it engages your mind by challenging you to create scenarios from a few words of description and sometimes puts you at war with characters you have never met. Non-fiction is a different beast. It asks you to learn and gives you ample opportunities to enrich your mind with knowledge. After reading a good book, your thoughts can become more coherent because it has been working in an orderly way to make sense of the plot in the story you are following.

Hydrate

Dehydration can cause the best of us to lose our focus. We usually assume that headaches are a sign, but sometimes confusion can be the body’s way of telling you that you need to drink water. Water increases blood pressure and gives the body a boost, which in turn can help you to think more clearly. If you’re working and you start experiencing jumbled thoughts, give yourself a water break. It will help you to have a better handle on what you’re doing.

A spoonful of sugar

It is no secret that sugar is one of the best ways to give yourself a boost when you feel like nothing makes sense. This is because our brains use sugar to get different processes working. A sugar rush doesn’t just make you hyper, it makes your mental gears click into action so that you can finally think in a way that makes sense. But, a word of caution: overdoing it can have the opposite effect. Instead of having clearer thoughts, too much sugar can actually make you feel like you are unable to think properly.

Rest

Fatigue can zap your mental energy. Sometimes the smallest task can seem overwhelming just because you’re tired. A few minutes’ worth of rest can do wonders for the body. Sleep is one of the best ways to renew your thoughts and find better ideas. The next time you find that something is too much for you, wait till morning. If you were able to have a good rest, your mind should be more at ease to handle your task.