Sense of Mind

Many of us have experienced brain fog at some point in our lives. It feels like your head is stuffed with cotton and you can't think clearly. But what is really going on in your brain? And how can you gain greater mental clarity? This video explores those questions.

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Chapters:

• 00:00 Brain fog sucks, but what is it?
• 00:26 One potential cause of brain fog (inflammation and neuroinflammation)
• 01:34 Mental clarity, working memory, and the brain.
• 05:55 Strategy 1 - Prioritize Sleep
• 11:33 Strategy 2 - Diet and Exercise
• 12:50 Strategy 3 - Offload and Focus
• 13:59 Bonus Strategy
• 14:58 A problem with this video

Sources:

• Altınsoy et al. (2026). Nutritional approaches to managing brain fog: Insights into neuroinflammation, the gut-brain axis, and sleep. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-026-00747-3
• Azevedo et al. (2009). Equal numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells make the human brain an isometrically scaled-up primate brain. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.21974
• Balban et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895
• De Miguel et al. (2021). Exercise plasma boosts memory and dampens brain inflammation via clusterin. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04183-x
• Denno et al. (2025). Defining brain fog across medical conditions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2025.01.003
• Ebrahim et al. (2013). Alcohol and sleep I: Effects on normal sleep. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.12006
• García-Domínguez (2025). Neuroinflammation: Mechanisms, dual roles, and therapeutic strategies in neurological disorders. https://doi.org/10.3390/cimb47060417
• Gardiner et al. (2023). The effect of caffeine on subsequent sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2023.101764
• Gleeson et al. (2011). The anti-inflammatory effects of exercise: Mechanisms and implications for the prevention and treatment of disease. https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3041
• Joyce et al. (2025). Stress and inflammation target dorsolateral prefrontal cortex function: Neural mechanisms underlying weakened cognitive control. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.06.016
• Morrison & Richmond (2020). Offloading items from memory: Individual differences in cognitive offloading in a short-term memory task. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-019-0201-4
• Rasch & Born (2013). About sleep's role in memory. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012
• Rusch et al. (2019). The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13996
• van der Zweerde et al. (2019). Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: A meta-analysis of long-term effects in controlled studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2019.08.002
• Velzeboer et al. (2025). Cannabis and sleep architecture: A systematic review and meta-analysis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2025.102164
• Wang (2021). 50 years of persistent activity: Quo vadis? https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2021.09.001
• Wender et al. (2022). The effect of chronic exercise on energy and fatigue states: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.907637
• Xie et al. (2013). Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1241224
• Zhang et al. (2023). Effects of exercise interventions on cognitive functions in healthy populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2023.102116
• Zhong et al. (2025). Electronic screen use and sleep duration and timing in adults. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.2493

Why do you still feel tired even after resting? This video explores the neuroscience of subjective energy, including how orexin neurons help coordinate wakefulness, motivation, movement, and goal-directed behavior. We also look at practical ways to feel more energized, and why a sense of purpose may matter more than most people realize.

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Chapters

00:00 Why Rest Does Not Always Restore Your Energy

00:50 Orexin and the Neuroscience of Feeling Energized

01:35 Mechanism #1: Staying Awake and Alert

02:16 Mechanism #2: Orexin, Dopamine, and Motivation

03:05 Mechanism #3: Preparing the Brain and Body for Action

04:33 Habit #1: Get Morning Light

05:45 Habit #2: Move Your Body

07:14 Habit #3: Set Achievable Goals

08:20 Purpose: The Master Energy Principle

11:31 The Energy Habit You Cannot Ignore

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If you feel stuck and overwhelmed, it may be because you're not seeing reality clearly. Your brain may be caught in a cognitive distortion.

If you're feeling stuck and want a thought partner to help you find the way forward, I want to help. That's why I'm now offering one-on-one coaching starting today. Book a free 25-minute discovery call at https://senseofmindshow.com/coaching/

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Chapters:

00:00 Your brain creates (and distorts) your reality

00:55 The Ponzo Illusion

01:57 Cognitive distortions, stress, and the brain

07:11 Cognitive Restructuring (5 step process)

11:36 When to seek additional help

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Learn how to regulate your emotions by understanding how your brain creates them in the first place.

In this episode, I explore the neuroscience of emotion regulation, including the insular cortex, amygdala, default mode network, and prefrontal cortex, and examine how emotions emerge from a continuous loop between the brain and the body.

You’ll learn a practical, evidence-informed three-step framework for interrupting negative emotional cycles:

1. Change your physiology
2. Reframe your interpretation through cognitive reappraisal
3. Take meaningful action

We also discuss interoception, exercise, breathing, sleep, motivation, learned helplessness, dopamine, and why even small actions can help restore a sense of agency.

If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, disappointment, stress, rumination, or overwhelming negative emotions, this episode will help you understand what is happening inside your brain—and what you can do about it.

Support Sense of Mind

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/senseofmind
• Free Newsletter: https://senseofmindshow.com/email-newsletter/

Chapters00:00 How to Exit a Negative Emotion00:39 How the Brain Creates Emotion02:50 Step 1: Change Your Physiology05:49 Step 2: Change Your Interpretation08:23 Support Sense of Mind08:52 Step 3: Take Action10:16 Why This Strategy Works for Your Brain11:02 From Neutral to Motivated

Sources

• Zhang, J. X., Bo, K., Wager, T. D., & Gross, J. J. (2025). The brain bases of emotion generation and emotion regulation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
• Scherer, K. R., & Moors, A. (2019). The emotion process: Event appraisal and component differentiation. Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), 719–745.
• Greenwood, B. M., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2025). Interoceptive mechanisms and emotional processing. Annual Review of Psychology, 76(1), 59–86.
• Feldman, M. J., Bliss-Moreau, E., & Lindquist, K. A. (2024). The neurobiology of interoception and affect. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(7), 643–661.

Overthinking can feel productive. But in most cases, it traps us in repetitive loops that make us feel more anxious, uncertain, and mentally exhausted.

In this video, we'll explore why the brain gets stuck in these patterns, what neuroscience and psychology have discovered about repetitive negative thinking, and what we can do to break free.

Support future videos:
Patreon

If you enjoyed this video, consider subscribing, leaving a comment, and sharing it with someone who might find it helpful.

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00:00 Why Your Brain Gets Stuck in an Overthinking Loop

00:35 Why Rumination Becomes a Habit

01:36 The HEXAGON Model of Rumination Explained

02:37 How Goal Discrepancy Fuels Overthinking

03:44 Why Abstract Thinking Triggers Rumination

04:12 The Negativity Bias Behind Overthinking

04:53 Executive Function and Breaking the Rumination Cycle

05:25 Why Overthinking Feels Productive

06:50 Step 1: Set More Workable Goals

08:21 Step 2: Train Your Awareness

09:40 Step 3: Practice a Different Response

11:33 Bonus: The Inner Voice That Helped Me Stop Overthinking

Support Sense of Mind and get exclusive content:
http://www.Patreon.com/SenseOfMind

Patrons receive:

• Exclusive videos
• Written versions of new videos and essays

Subscribe to the channel:
Youtube.com/@senseofmindshow?sub_confirmation=1

Listen to the Sense of Mind Podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/show/1vRvHblyAlyjcrzeNPWKJJ

Follow Sense of Mind on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sense.ofmind/

Image, graphic, and scientific figure credits:

Scientific figures and images obtained from academic publications are credited in the video and/or references and are used in accordance with their respective licenses, including CC BY 3.0 and CC BY 4.0 where applicable.

Wikipedia images are credited in the video and used in accordance with their respective Creative Commons licenses.

B-roll footage is licensed through Storyblocks and/or sourced from Pexels.

Unless otherwise noted, all original graphics, images, and content are the property of Andrew Cooper-Sansone and Sense of Mind.

You know what you want, but somehow, you still can’t make yourself begin. Why does motivation disappear even when the goal still matters?

In this video, we explore the neuroscience and psychology of motivation: how the brain weighs effort against reward, dopamine’s role in motivated behavior, how chronic stress can produce learned helplessness, and why exhaustion may signal a genuine need for recovery.

• Join the Sense of Mind newsletter:https://senseofmindshow.com/email-newsletter/
• Support Sense of Mind on Patreon:https://Patreon.com/senseofmind
• Subscribe to the channel:Youtube.com/@senseofmindshow?sub_confirmation=1
• Follow Sense of Mind on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/sense.ofmind/

Chapters:

00:00 Why You Can’t Find Motivation

01:00 What Is Motivation?

01:51 How the Brain Calculates Effort and Reward

02:53 Why Starting Feels Harder Than It Is

03:30 Dopamine and Motivated Behavior

05:29 Chronic Stress and Learned Helplessness

08:55 Exhaustion, Burnout, and the Need for Rest

10:56 How to Rebuild Motivation

Who are you? Most of us carry around a story about who we are: What we're capable of, what we deserve, and where our limits lie. But what if that story isn't entirely true?

In this video, we explore the brain's Default Mode Network (DMN) and its role in shaping our sense of self, identity, and inner narrative. If the story your brain tells about you is flawed, you may be far more capable of growth and change than you realize.

Sign up for Sense of Mind's email newsletter: https://senseofmindshow.com/email-newsletter/

Support Sense of Mind and get exclusive content: https://www.Patreon.com/SenseOfMind

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Sources for this video include:

Menon, V. (2023). Twenty years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis. Neuron, 111 (16), 2469–2487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2023.06.003

Hardy, B. (2021). The Gap and the Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success. Hay House.

Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60 (5), 410–421. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410

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Chapters:

00:00 Why self-narratives define your life

00:15 Mapping the narrator: The DMN and the constructed self

01:50 Leveraging history: Rewriting memory through the PCC

04:18 Beyond the tribe: Values and social cognition in the mPFC

06:02 Internal dialogue: The angular gyrus and your inner critic

08:29 Rational resilience: Growth without the trap of toxic positivity

11:01 Conclusion: The fluid architecture of the brain

11:58 A final word of gratitude for your support

Free will is one of the most important topics we can discuss. If every thought, decision, and action is ultimately the product of biology and physics, then are we really making choices? Or are we simply witnessing events unfold inside our own minds? Is free will important for human flourishing, motivation, and resilience? In this livestream, we'll explore the neuroscience and philosophy of free will, including the arguments of Benjamin Libet, Robert Sapolsky, Sam Harris, Kevin Mitchell, and others.

Topics include:

• What I mean by "free will"

• Whether consciousness actually influences behavior

• The famous Libet experiments

• Sam Harris' argument that free will is an illusion

• Robert Sapolsky's case against agency

• Why belief in control affects motivation and wellbeing

• Learned helplessness, resilience, and human flourishing

• Whether free will is necessary for resilience and personal growth

My goal is not to convince you of a particular conclusion, but to think carefully about one of the deepest questions in science and philosophy.

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Distraction isn’t just bad for productivity. It also degrades our happiness, attention, mental health, and the ability to engage deeply with life.

In this video, we’ll look at what psychology and neuroscience suggest about social media, short-form video, dopamine, flow states, and why sustained attention may be essential to the good life. This is not an anti-technology video. It’s about agency: how to reclaim your attention in a world designed to capture it.

Thank you for being here. After a year and a half away from YouTube, I’m glad to be back.

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Chapters:

00:00 A scattered mind is the enemy of happiness

01:23 Flow states and deep focus

02:21 How attention works in the brain

02:52 Why we’re more distracted than ever

04:40 The strange lesson from bacteria

06:56 How we trained our brains to crave distraction

10:27 How to reclaim your attention

12:21 Why deep engagement feels better

14:23 Where have I been? My journey back to YouTube

Don't forget to subscribe to this channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC610T-s8gpOVDtAVXTZ35FQ--References:Nguyen, L., Walters, J., Paul, S., Monreal Ijurco, S., Rainey, G. E., Parekh, N., ... & Darrah, M. (2025). Feeds, feelings, and focus: A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use. Psychological Bulletin, 151(9), 1125.Walla, P., & Zheng, Y. (2024). Intense short-video-based social media use reduces the P300 event-related potential component in a visual oddball experiment: A sign for reduced attention. Life, 14(3), 290.--Please support this channel by signing up for Sense of Mind's Patreon and get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/senseofmind --Follow Sense of Mind on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sense.ofmind/

When you lose focus, you lose the ability to achieve your goals. And, unfortunately, we live in a world of endless distractions. Yet, by understanding the neuroscience of attention, you can train your brain to focus on what matters.

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Wikipedia images: All wikipedia images have been credited in the video and all are licensed under either CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US) or CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US)

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