Mel Robbins

It's called cognitive load.

There's a lot of research around this, but I'm going to tell you what researchers in China found not too long ago.

And this research was published in the Journal of Humanities, Arts, and Social Science.

When you're trying to keep too many things in your head, your thinking gets slower, your emotions get louder, everything starts to feel heavier than it really is.

Your brain has a limited amount of mental bandwidth.

It can only hold so much at one time.

So when you've got a million open tabs in your head, your brain isn't just stressed, it's over capacity.

That's why even the tiniest things start to feel huge because it's not the fridge, it's not even the work email.

It's the fact that you and I carry all the planning and decision-making for these things around in your head all day long.

You're getting up every day.

You're taking care of yourself.

You're taking care of your family.

You're caring for people.

You're doing the best to take care of your health.

You're trying to be all these things.

You're doing so much.

But it's time to stop doing it all alone.

You have to get this out of your head.

That could mean doing what I call a brain dump.

Just jot all these mental drains on a sheet of paper so you don't have to hold on to them.