How to help your brain take away the trash

Today I will take a break from the Emotional Equations I've wrote about lately because I feel a little tired on this subject. And because I found out why I am tired and what to do with this I believe is something worth sharing :)

Inside Out

I don't know how many of you watched the movie Inside Out. If you didn't please do, it's the best cartoon I ever saw. Has a lot of research behind it and explain in the most easiest way not so simple concepts about how our brain works.
One of the parts I like the most is referring to memories. A memory is the sum of connections between multiple neurons. In the movie, all memories are represented by shiny balls. All this balls are stacked in a kind of library, thousands and thousands of memories. If we keep accessing those memories they will keep shining. Once we forget about them they will fade away. And when they loose all the shine, workers will come and throw them away.

source: http://arrowthroughthesun.blogspot.ro/2015/06/understanding-brain-science-with-inside.html

The biological explanation

For the ones needing a more theoretical source and explanation of the same idea, I found a great article: https://www.fastcompany.com/3059634/your-brain-has-a-delete-button-heres-how-to-use-it.

There are 2 processes happening between neurons:

1. Building connection
2. Removing connection

When the building process is too intense and we don't have enough removal activity, we will feel tired and incapable to learn anything new. And it is normal, you're close of it's maximum capacity. If you insist, no new connection will be created and you will start to lose, randomly, the most recent ones.
Those workers from the Inside Out are the "Glial cells" and they are both the ones enhancing the connection between neurons and removing the connections when they are not used anymore. So, every-time you remember something without knowing where did it came from, thank you glial cells for playing with your neurons.

source: pixabay

How to help my brain clean-up?

There are 2 simple ways you can enhance your brain activity by helping the glial cells remove the unused connections.

1. Get enough sleep

Sleep is that moment when the cells have the time to remove the old connections. During the awake period they are too busy building new ones. So get yourself enough sleep. Short naps also count.

2. Choose those things you are thinking of more often and avoid thinking about things you don't want to keep in your brain

There’s a well known saying in neuroscience: neurons that fire together wire together. So if you want some thought to be removed and to take away some trash you have to start by stop wiring those neurons. The glial cells will do the rest but it's in your job to start focusing on what matters and can help you instead of sabotage yourself and wire self destructive connections.

Now, I don't know about you but I feel I have some waste to throw so I'll go take a nap.
Have a good evening, steemians! And happy clean-up!